Reloading for .30-06

I cannot provide specific advice on Accurate 4350 as I only use H4350. You have however chosen an excellent bullet weight with numerous excellent choices available. You will likely need to do considerable load development however.

In my experience 4350 is at its best with near maximum load densities and heavier weight for caliber bullets. Start with the minimum A4350 published load and work up towards max in 1 gr increments. You should get vertical stringing somewhere shy of max. Back off 1 gr and work up in 0.2 grain increments until you are happy with consistency and accuracy, or until you get stringing again, then back off .0.4 grs.

You will have to do something like that in any event. Good luck.

Like wise, my experience is limited to H4350 and IMR-4350, as far 4350 powders are concerned anyway.

And just to add a note of caution, don't be misguided to think, and not that you are, that any powders that share a product number, such as 4350, are going to be the same or share the same charge table, they aren't. Always use the charge table specific to the powder you are using.

Other than that, IMR-4350 has long been a favorite of mine for 30-06 and a number of other high powered bottle neck cartridges. It's a good slow burner in the 06, which in my opinion makes load development super easy, and with far less pressure management issues, especially when trying to squeeze all you can from this cartridge.

GS

I have used IMR4350 and H4350 but not AA4350. It's not that I don't like Accurate powders it's just they are not usually available where I live. From what I'm told AA4350 is a close match for the other two 4350 powders and if that's true you will have good success. According to the Western Powders burn rate chart AA4350 and H4350 have the same burn rate and IMR4350 is slightly faster.

I mostly load 165gr and 168gr bullets in the 30-06 with 4350 and I can achieve sub 1/2MOA accuracy in several rifles including a Howa 1500 and a WWI Model of 1917 someone sported. It seems with both H4350 and AA4350 the Max charge hovers ~59.0gr with a 165gr bullet. I have gotten extremely good accuracy with 165/168gr bullets with a charge of between 57.0gr and 58.0gr H4350. I have a feeling the same will hold true for AA4350. Start somewhere in the middle of the recommended charge range from Accurate and see if you can duplicate my results. I have a feeling you will.

Oh BTW, I get an average of 2880 fps from my M1917 with a 26" barrel with a charge of 57.0gr H4350 and no increase in velocity with a charge of 58.0gr so I now shoot the 57.0gr load in that rifle. The bullet tested was a 168gr Sierra MatchKing. I was able to shoot a group that measured .314" with the Howa 1500 and after 4 more groups the group size never went over .338" with an average for the 5 groups being only .325" @100 yards.

Good luck and don't forget the range report... Welcome to the forum.

I saw some AA4350 in one of the LGS the other day, but it was about $6 or $7 more than IMR or H, so I didn't buy it. But I have it's certainly a good performer, I'll have to give it a try some time.

And ya, for sure give us a range report when you test those loads out. Were always interested in hearing how a new reloader is doing, and also ready to assist with questions.

And welcome to THR!

GS

Ahh the good ole 30 06 that's the round I first started loading with myself

My pet 30-06 load is a 165 gr Sierra Game King over 55.0 gr AA4350 with a CCI LR primer. In my rifle it is magic. Boringly accurate. Excellent terminal performance on Missouri whitetail. I have stayed with this load for about 15 years.

I have also had good results with the 165 gr Hornady SP.

I began using Accurate 4350 because it was less expensive than the competitors. With time that has changed but I stick with it because of the high level of confidence I have in this combination.

I remembered a thread and went back and read it again that said the maximum charge for Accurate 4350 listed by the Accurate Powder Company is 59.3 grains of powder with a 165 grain Nosler partition bullet. In my experience Nosler bullets tend to max out with a grain or two less powder than some of their competitors like Speer who maxes their 165 grain bullet out at 58 grains of IMR 4350 and 58 grains of H 4350. The Accurate powder description of their 4350 says it duplicates the performance of IMR 4350 and H 4350. Mule is giving you good advice with his load of 55 grains with a Sierra bullet. With those parameters in mind it seems that you could work up to 56 or even 57 grains of Accurate 4350 with a 165 grain bullet. The first sign of high pressure could be a bolt that is harder to open than normal. Of course, this sign of high pressure could also show flattened primers and a bright ring in front of the case web.

Mule said:

My pet 30-06 load is a 165 gr Sierra Game King over 55.0 gr AA4350 with a CCI LR primer. In my rifle it is magic. Boringly accurate. Excellent terminal performance on Missouri whitetail. I have stayed with this load for about 15 years.

I have also had good results with the 165 gr Hornady SP.

I began using Accurate 4350 because it was less expensive than the competitors. With time that has changed but I stick with it because of the high level of confidence I have in this combination.

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perzactly! I've also had good luck with 4064 as well

Double post

My go to load is 165 gr Hornady with 57 grains of AA4350 if my memory serves me correctly. It's ridiculously accurate from my Savage.

I have use all three of the different 4350's with the 30-06 but most of the loads were using the 150gr bullets. With the 165's I only loaded those for two different rifles one was a Rem 700, and the other an 03A3.

The Accurate powder will fall in the same area as the other two powders but like mentioned it isn't the same as either of them. Close but no cigar. I would start out with the bullet seated as long as you can get it, but still have it fit and feed good from the magazine. Then start at the start load and work up in half grain increments. In most cases you will see the groups start off wide, then come together and start to spread out again. Sometimes on the higher end it will come back in tighter than it was the first time around but sometimes you reach the top end load before this happens.

Once you see it tighten up, you should be in the 2700'ish FPS range, and if you don't have a chrony don't worry about it. When the group closes up mark that load, then if it gets no smaller before you run out of charge weights or if you hit pressures, you can then adjust your seating depth to see if it also helps to shrink your group any.

Sometimes when you have a solid 1 1/4" group, seating the bullet in, (pulling a number out of the air here, ) say .015 up to .025" can shrink it down by half. I always try and go in .005" increments as I have had a couple that I skipped right over the best node with moving more. I have also on rare occasion used the book listed OAL and found it shot wonderfully. With the '06 in particular I used the listed 3.250" length for the Nosler 150 and 165 and both shot ragged one hole groups with the IMR powder.

Like mentioned AA will also do this, but you might have to play with the depth a bit to tweak it once you hit your most accurate powder charge.

Hope this helps.

Aa4350

I use AA4350 regularly for my .30-06 loads. I also use it with Remington 165 grain PSP bullets. This has proven to be an accurate combination in all of my .30-06 rifles. They will all shoot MOA groups with that bullet and 55 grains of AA4350.
Pete

I use 59gr of H4350 with 165 SGKs for 2920 fps and great accuracy. My rifle also has another accuracy node at 57gr, I don't think you can go wrong doing a little bit of experimenting with the 4350's.

Gtscotty said:

I use 59gr of H4350 with 165 SGKs for 2920 fps and great accuracy. My rifle also has another accuracy node at 57gr, I don't think you can go wrong doing a little bit of experimenting with the 4350's.

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I am one who loads 57.0gr 4350 and my AV is 2880 fps so for the extra 40 fps I don't think it's worth the additional 2 full grains of powder and extra recoil. I was loading 58.0gr H4350 for a very long time and that load actually delivered 10 fps less than the 57.0gr load. Of course I'm now loading 57.0gr with any 165gr bullet.

Which 4350 are you using in that load? 57gr of IMR4350 is a lot hotter than the same weight of H4350. When I chrono'd my 57gr load, I was in the 2770 fps range, and 2gr for an extra 150 fps with no pressure signs is fine with me. Regardless, each rifle is going to have it's favorite loads, luckily my workup for this rifle lead me to a load that shoots great and flies fast.

p.s.~ My load for IMR4350 was 56.6gr for 2840 fps out of my now sold Tikka. Either powder works well for the '06, but I switched all my rifles to H4350 for its temperature insensitivity and had to work up all new loads.

"...IMR4350 is a lot hotter..." Nope.
AA4350 will be fine. 165's will be great(they'll kill any game you care to hunt and the '06 loves 'em. So does the .308.).
The 3 4350's(IMR4350 feeds my .243) are so close they can be called the same but different. AA4350 is Number 117, H is 115 and IMR 114, Reloder 17 is 116 on the burn rate charts.
Work up a load starting at 53.3 up to 59.3(Accurate's site) with a max OAL of 3.340"(my old Lyman book) and you'll be fine.

Weird, I would have sworn that back when i was using IMR4350 the max book load was 57.5,: but the Hodgdon site says I'm wrong. The site still has different loads for the different 4350s, so i wouldn't use the data from one to load the other. Regardless, just pick the 4350 that is most accessible and work up, you're sure to be happy with 165s in the '06.

Gtscotty said:

Weird, I would have sworn that back when i was using IMR4350 the max book load was 57.5,: but the Hodgdon site says I'm wrong. The site still has different loads for the different 4350s, so i wouldn't use the data from one to load the other. Regardless, just pick the 4350 that is most accessible and work up, you're sure to be happy with 165s in the '06.

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Yep. Same thing here with IMR 4064 and an old Sierra manual and a #8 Hornady manual. The Sierra is short and the Hornady is over compared to the Hodgdon Data.

Ah, I knew I wasn't crazy. When I got home I checked my copy of Lyman's 49th, and it lists the max charge of IMR4350 as 57grs for 165gr bullets. At the same time I was messing with IMR, the max charge of H4350 on Hodgdon's website was 59gr. Now Hodgdon's website lists 60grs as max for IMR4350.... go figure, although I will say that my measured velocities matched what I saw in Lymans 49th almost exactly. Either way, it's clear that the 4350's aren't exactly interchangeable, always work up with a new powder.

Loads

Pete- thanks for the info. What was your seating depth using 55 grains of AA4350 and a 165 grain bullet? Also, do you know what primer?

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Seating depth.....that bullet has a cannelure. I seat to that and crimp there.
Primers.....whatever. Mostly WLR.

Pete
PS - I also use AA4350 in my .416 Rigby.

For those just wandering by, 4350 is a poor powder choice for reloading an unaltered Garand in .30-06. (gas port pressure issues and propellant burn rates).