[Mr.CheddarNut]

I must take a moment to curse this forsaken habit of hand loading. It is addicting, challenging, aggravating and yet rewarding and fun at the same time. I began not long ago completely green to the concept as a means of improving accuracy and lets be honest. To save some coin on ammo. Well I don't believe I have saved a dime as of yet. Although I don't even care, this is awesome stuff.
I have learned this; My experiences have been to few and too far in between that by the time I get around to loading I almost have to start my knowledge base all over again. I hope this winter will curb that as I plan to have more consistent time to give to it and hopefully make a solid knowledge base out of it. This week I plan to load a bit and take advantage of the extended hours at Lee Kay this Thursday.
The material at hand will be:
.270 Winchester
140 gr. Accubond
IMR4831

.308 Winchester
168/178 gr. Amax
My new can of Varget

My friends 7mm-08
140 gr. Accubond
H414

Lots of work but hey, what isn't?

Cheddar

 

[DallanC]

My biggest advice is to take lots of detailed notes... its invaluable down the road.


-DallanC

 

[Mr.CheddarNut]

My biggest advice is to take lots of detailed notes... its invaluable down the road.

-DallanC

Boy I agree with that! I have always struggled with organization, and I think this will help with that. Also, I aim to use your software that you put together Dallan.

Cheddar

 

[LostLouisianian]

Would love to hear about the .308 loads as I am working occasionally on them as well. There is software for reloading? I thought you needed a notebook with a pencil and highlighter marker.. ;-)

 

[DallanC]

There is software for reloading? I thought you needed a notebook with a pencil and highlighter marker.. ;-)

Notepad works... but this is handy as well:

http://huntingnut.com/index.php?name=PointBlank

I am mostly done with a mobile version... I just gotta wrap up a few loose ends. Stupid hunting seasons keep getting in the way.

-DallanC

 

[Bo0YaA]

Be careful with H414 as well as Win 760. Every load I have come up with using those two powders creates hang fires, especially in cold weather. I'm using a standard CCI-200 and I have heard that if you use the magnum primer you wont have the hang issues. Just be sure to come off your load .5 to1 gr to account for the pressure difference between the two. Try IMR 4064 on that 7mm-08 load. Its a very versatile powder for med grain weight bullets. One word of advise, heavier slower bullets typically like slower burning powders. Medium weight bullets like a med to fast powders and light bullets like fast powders. This isn't true 100% of the time, but I use it to find my accuracy node and it has almost always worked for me. You can download and print out a burn rate chart here

 

[Smoot]

My biggest advice is to take lots of detailed notes... its invaluable down the road.

-DallanC

Hahaha... Took me months to finally learn that lesson. I've repeat tested identical loads without realizing it a few too many times. I'm better at writing things down now. Only problem is reading my own handwriting... I'll have to look into that PointBlank software, Dallan. Wish I had heard of it before I shelled out for QuickLoad a while back.

And CheddarNut, I can also say I haven't saved a dime reloading. My buddies will ask how much I save on ammo and I tell em reloading won't save you money. It doesn't let you shoot the same amount for less money, it lets you shoot more for the same amount of money. And that's only after the equipment has paid for itself.

BooYa, that's interesting, I've never had hangfires with 760. Were your loads using a relatively small amount of case capacity? That would make more sense to me. What I have had is pisspoor performance with it in almost every caliber I've tried. Except .280 Rem, where it was actually one of the top powders tried.

 

[Bo0YaA]

No, the last one was a max load on my 6.5x284 and a 140gr Partition. It was the most accurate load but with 1 of the 5 hanging i just don't feel confident enough in it to hunt with it. Ive had the same issue with my .260, 375 Ruger and .270 as well. Seems to be easy to find an accurate load with it, just always seems to have at least one hang per 5 shots. Those are the only powders I have had issues with and a little time on google proved I wasn't the only guy out there with these issues. My thinking is a Federal 210 primer should be the min. when using one of those two. The CCI-200 is not quite hot enough for a consistent burn every time is what I'm thinking, based on what Ive read on other forums.

 

[Smoot]

Good to know, BooYa. My buddy has had similar results with 760 to mine. Wondering if we didn't have the same issue as you; inconsistent ignition causing wildly different POI's, but our's were just not extreme enough to cause a perceivable hangfire. You said cold made it worse, I tested it around 80F. Maybe I'd of had a hangfire in cool weather. Maybe I'll give it another go with 210's.

 

[mikevanwilder]

I have never had a problem with H414 or Win760, which is I believe the same powder just in different containers. I have had issues with the CCI primers though. I will not use them anymore.

 

[Smoot]

I have never had a problem with H414 or Win760, which is I believe the same powder just in different containers. I have had issues with the CCI primers though. I will not use them anymore.

That's funny, CCI's have gotten me the lowest ES on velocity and haven't let me down so far. Interesting how different peoples experiences can be. Maybe I've gotten lucky and only bought good batches of em. For that matter my loading might've been buggered up and maybe the 760 could've done better.

 

[mikevanwilder]

Yeah the bad thing is I have like 3000 CCI primers left, I use them for practice loads only. I have found federal and Remington to be the best for my rifles.

 

[Bo0YaA]

Ive got 1000 Remington primers I have yet to break into. Maybe once I finish this case of CCI I will break into the Remington rather than buying more. Ive never used anything other than the CCI as I have always been able to get great groups. When I found a powder that didn't work, I just switched powders rather than primers. Ive heard lots of good things about the Federal 210m primers and may give them a try when I find some.

 

[Smoot]

I've only used a handful of federal primers and haven't really gone through a whole pile of Remington's either. Can't say I used enough to have an opinion on Federal, Remington's seemed to give me more variance on velocity. Winchesters have given me the worst performance of any so far. The quality seemed reminiscent of their bulk .22 boxes... I always get duds with Winchester