A guy I work with gave me 5 lbs. of IMR-4350, several 100 casings and 170 gr. bullets, and over 800 CCI 200 primers. They were his Father-in-laws', who had passed away in '79. With this came a '73 Hornady Vol. II and a '62 Speer No. 5 handbooks.
The Hornady listed the 170 gr. RN. at 49.3-56.0 gr.with a seating depth of .292". At 52.6 gr. the casing is topped off, even with lightly tapping the side to try and settle it down only gives me up to 53.0 gr.
The powder is dry, as when I poured it into the hopper, I could see dust rising from it.
My question is could the powder have dried out to where is lost some weight to it? Or do you have to compress with a dowel to get it up to 56 gr.?
BTW, I loaded up some rounds from 50.5-52.3 gr. and all fired well with no signs of over pressure. I'm quite new to rifle reloading and Varget is all that I have used before this.
The Hornady listed the 170 gr. RN. at 49.3-56.0 gr.with a seating depth of .292". At 52.6 gr. the casing is topped off, even with lightly tapping the side to try and settle it down only gives me up to 53.0 gr.
The powder is dry, as when I poured it into the hopper, I could see dust rising from it.
My question is could the powder have dried out to where is lost some weight to it? Or do you have to compress with a dowel to get it up to 56 gr.?
BTW, I loaded up some rounds from 50.5-52.3 gr. and all fired well with no signs of over pressure. I'm quite new to rifle reloading and Varget is all that I have used before this.