Ever tried to duplicate a particular/specific factory load?

[EMC45]

Years ago loading rifle ammo with my buddy (PD sniper) and shooting them over his chrono we duplicated Hornady TAP in .223 and .308. We were using Varget and mixed cases with Hornady bullets. We pulled 5 bullets from TAP ammo (.308) and weighed the powder and then averaged it (the charges, surprisingly, weren't as consistent as we thought they would be). Did the same for .223 as well. It was accurate and consistent ammo and the speeds were right.

We called Hornady and asked what the recipe was for each round and of course they wouldn't give us specifics, but told us we were close to within a few tenths on powder when we shared our load data. The guy told us that it was a canister grade powder that was "similar" to Varget, but had flash suppressant in the powder for low light shooting. Otherwise he said we were right there.

 

[hdwhit]

Yes. I gave up on it in the 1980's when it dawned on me that factories were not limited to the canister powders available to reloaders.

After that, I pursued developing my own loads, not trying to copy someone else's.