Julian537
Member
I bought a nice gun in 204 ruger. It came with the dies and 200 rounds of 204 ruger only about 50 of them are still loaded. Neither one of the bullet cases has any information on it. I would like to duplicate this round. So far, I have pulled the bullet and weighed it. 40 Gr. It is black and moly coated. After scraping away the moly, it has a red ballistic tip. Appears to be 40 gr Hornady V-max. I weighed the powder charge, and it came in at 30.2 gr. I also found one of the fired cases had 30.2 written on it with a marks-a-lot.
The powder is a ball powder with different size shiny spheres. WHAT could it be? H-322, H-335 ? any other suggestions? I have ruled out H-322, because they do not list it in my 3 reloading manuals for the 40 gr bullets. H-335 is listed, but max load is 28.5.
Could he have loaded these with more powder, due to the moly?
Later this week, I will be shooting this load over the crony. This should tell me more about the round. Even if I dont know what the powder is, I can at least duplicate the speed of this round. I have some hBN coming and will lube some 40gr V-max with it and some moly. I will shoot them at my current powder load of 28.3 (H-335) and see if the moly or hBN drops my speed signifigantly. If so, I will work my way up and see if I can duplicate this round.
I will be using the bullet comparator to seat the new reloaded rounds to the same OAL as the unknown round.
Please share your thoughts? Am I going down the right path? Should I do something different?
The powder is a ball powder with different size shiny spheres. WHAT could it be? H-322, H-335 ? any other suggestions? I have ruled out H-322, because they do not list it in my 3 reloading manuals for the 40 gr bullets. H-335 is listed, but max load is 28.5.
Could he have loaded these with more powder, due to the moly?
Later this week, I will be shooting this load over the crony. This should tell me more about the round. Even if I dont know what the powder is, I can at least duplicate the speed of this round. I have some hBN coming and will lube some 40gr V-max with it and some moly. I will shoot them at my current powder load of 28.3 (H-335) and see if the moly or hBN drops my speed signifigantly. If so, I will work my way up and see if I can duplicate this round.
I will be using the bullet comparator to seat the new reloaded rounds to the same OAL as the unknown round.
Please share your thoughts? Am I going down the right path? Should I do something different?