Win 748, 110 gr. Bullet Loads for 30-06

I've been working on developing 110 gr. bullet loads for my 30-06 with a 22" barrel for hunting large varmints. I've been focusing on using Win 748 since I have 8 lbs. of the stuff, it is usable in 3 different cartridges I shoot, and meters perfectly through my powder measure. I was relying on Hodgdon's data which only lists a max load. I started lower and worked up to their max without very good results. After doing some more research, I found some confusing information for Win 748. The Hodgdon load is essentially identical to the load in a 50 year-old Winchester ball power pamphlet. The fact that Hodgdon only listed a max load leads me to believe that they did not do any tests after taking over the Winchester ball powder line, but merely regurgitated old Winchester data. I just bought a Lyman 50th edition manual, and it lists vastly different loadings for this powder/bullet combination. Lyman suggests starting at 51.0 grains and goes up to 60.0 grains. Further research lead me to Speer's online data, and they show loading starting at 58.0 grains going up to 62.0 grains.


I find it rather disconcerting that 3 loading data source list such vastly different loads for Win 748, so I'm confused as to what's valid. If Lyman and Speer data is good, it would suggest I may not have been driving the bullets fast enough to find the 'sweet spot' for my rifle. Does anyone out there have info on what would be the max load of Win 748 for a 30-06 driving a 110 gr. bullet?

Since starting this post, I've now tested Berger 115 grain bullets with loads of up to 58.0 grains of Win 748. There were NO excess pressure signs or difficulty with case extraction. Thus, I have confirmed that the higher load levels for Win 748 listed by both Lyman and Speer seem to be valid. The next tests will be with some 125 grain bullets with loads of Win 748 up to 56.0 grains.

forrest r said:

Not really much help, back in the 80's my "pet load" for groundhog was the speer 110gr hp & 60gr of H414.

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I tried some test loads using H414 from 59.0-63.0 grains with both 115 gr. and 125 gr. bullets. I did not get good results. I determined the powder was way too slow for the lighter bullets in my 22" barrel rifle and produced excessive recoil. It was like shooting an artillery piece and would lift the forearm up off the sand bag by 8-10".