just wanted to share my experiences here and see what everyone else's thoughts are. i have been reloading for several years now and have always worked on the assumption that i should use a powder which produces the lowest pressures while still providing max velocities for my handloads. i'll load a few at 10% less and work up just to be safe, then do all of my shooting for accuracy with max loads or within 1 g. or so of max.
a couple of things have happened recently which made me think that maybe a different approach could give better results from an accuracy standpoint. first, i have a 7x57 ruger m77 which i was convinced couldn't shoot at all ... until i tried some "weak" factory rounds in it. second, i did some shooting with a new .243 steyr prohunter and by far the best group of the day was with the starting load.
maybe everyone here already has figured this out, but it is news to me :grin:. it seems that less than max loads are consistently producing noticeably better accuracy in my rifles. i picked up some H4895 to try in a .270 and a .243 i own. H4895 doesn't produce max velocities in either cartridge, averaging 100 to 200 fps less at max pressure than say H414 or H4831. but it easily gave the best accuracy in the rifles i shot last monday. here are the details:
all targets shot at 100 yds.
rifle #1: old school remington sendero, .270 winchester. 4-12 leupold vx-1 scope. reloads all have mixed winchester/remington brass, cci and remington primers, and hornady 130 g. spirepoint bullets.
started out with near max load of 59.5 h4831sc. groups consistently looked like this:
not bad, but i want a little better from a heavy barrel rifle. switched to h4895 loads at 43.0 and 42.0 g. (can't remember which is which, they performed about the same):
as you can see, noticeably better groups. it seems like there was one flyer in each of these groups, opening most of them to a whopping 3/4" to 1" or so :grin:. i assumed that the one flyer must be my fault in each case (but note that this is a brand new barrel, not broken in yet), so i shot another group and came up with this:
just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, i shot this:
both of those loads were with 42.0 g. of h4895 and the 130 g. hornady spirepoints. velocity, according to the hodgdon manual, and with the 26" barrel on the sendero, should be right around 2800 fps. about 200 fps less than i could be getting, but hey, look at those groups!!!
next, i tried the same thing w/ rifle #2. rifle #2 is a steyr prohunter in .243 winchester. norma brass, CCI primers, and remington 100 g. softpoint bullets exclusively. the first time i took this rifle to the range, i was going for max loads (around 3000 fps) with h414. groups ranged from 1 3/4" to 2 1/4" for 3 shots. this time i used H4895 for all loads. the max load of h4895 gives only around 2800 fps w/ the 100 g. bullet in this rifle, and the adjustment range is only THREE (3) grains (from min. to max) but lets look at the results!
minimum load h4895 (31.0 g.):
middle load h4895 (32.0 g.):
max load h4895 (33.0 g.)
:
then i tried a minimum load of h414 (37.0 g.)
so there you go ... my initial observations: less than max loads can give better accuracy. i dont consider either of these rifles to produce much in the way of recoil, but even with these low-recoiling rifles the slightly reduced loads were more pleasant to shoot. more importantly to me, using less than max loads (and the resulting group sizes) made the difference between this being a GREAT day at the range, and the last trip being a CRAPPY day at the range :grin:
a couple of things have happened recently which made me think that maybe a different approach could give better results from an accuracy standpoint. first, i have a 7x57 ruger m77 which i was convinced couldn't shoot at all ... until i tried some "weak" factory rounds in it. second, i did some shooting with a new .243 steyr prohunter and by far the best group of the day was with the starting load.
maybe everyone here already has figured this out, but it is news to me :grin:. it seems that less than max loads are consistently producing noticeably better accuracy in my rifles. i picked up some H4895 to try in a .270 and a .243 i own. H4895 doesn't produce max velocities in either cartridge, averaging 100 to 200 fps less at max pressure than say H414 or H4831. but it easily gave the best accuracy in the rifles i shot last monday. here are the details:
all targets shot at 100 yds.
rifle #1: old school remington sendero, .270 winchester. 4-12 leupold vx-1 scope. reloads all have mixed winchester/remington brass, cci and remington primers, and hornady 130 g. spirepoint bullets.
started out with near max load of 59.5 h4831sc. groups consistently looked like this:
not bad, but i want a little better from a heavy barrel rifle. switched to h4895 loads at 43.0 and 42.0 g. (can't remember which is which, they performed about the same):
as you can see, noticeably better groups. it seems like there was one flyer in each of these groups, opening most of them to a whopping 3/4" to 1" or so :grin:. i assumed that the one flyer must be my fault in each case (but note that this is a brand new barrel, not broken in yet), so i shot another group and came up with this:
just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, i shot this:
both of those loads were with 42.0 g. of h4895 and the 130 g. hornady spirepoints. velocity, according to the hodgdon manual, and with the 26" barrel on the sendero, should be right around 2800 fps. about 200 fps less than i could be getting, but hey, look at those groups!!!
next, i tried the same thing w/ rifle #2. rifle #2 is a steyr prohunter in .243 winchester. norma brass, CCI primers, and remington 100 g. softpoint bullets exclusively. the first time i took this rifle to the range, i was going for max loads (around 3000 fps) with h414. groups ranged from 1 3/4" to 2 1/4" for 3 shots. this time i used H4895 for all loads. the max load of h4895 gives only around 2800 fps w/ the 100 g. bullet in this rifle, and the adjustment range is only THREE (3) grains (from min. to max) but lets look at the results!
minimum load h4895 (31.0 g.):
middle load h4895 (32.0 g.):
max load h4895 (33.0 g.)
:
then i tried a minimum load of h414 (37.0 g.)
so there you go ... my initial observations: less than max loads can give better accuracy. i dont consider either of these rifles to produce much in the way of recoil, but even with these low-recoiling rifles the slightly reduced loads were more pleasant to shoot. more importantly to me, using less than max loads (and the resulting group sizes) made the difference between this being a GREAT day at the range, and the last trip being a CRAPPY day at the range :grin:
