Revers load lookup

[Steve H]

Reverse load lookup

I know the normal way to work up a load is to go to a manual, look up the caliber and then look at which powders you might use. What I'm looking for is the opposite. I'm looking for a list of powders and what calibers they are good for. Does one exist?

 

[helotaxi]

Not really. Feel free to sit down with a loading manual and make one if you really want one.

 

[Steve H]

That's what I'm sorta doing.................. When I retired and had time to really start to play with different loads I came up with the following powders on my shelf:
W748
W760
IMR 4350
IMR 4064
IMR 4895
IMR 3031
IMR4831
H 335
H 4831

and I play with the following rifle calibers:

223/556
7mm Mauser
25-06
280
270 (that one is gone, never should have sold it)
7mm Mag
30-30

I'm starting to find that some of those powders cover a few of the calibers

 

[helotaxi]

Just glancing at the list, you have all your calibers covered with the powders that you have.

 

[kingmt]

Bullet length, speed of powder, & barrel twist all play a factor.

 

[LiveLife]

On Alliant's website, when you click on a powder, you'll see "View All (RL15) Recipes" link that will list all applicable calibers and bullet weight loads.

With Hodgdon/Winchester/IMR powders on Hodgdon's website, you must search by cartridge/caliber.

 

[taraquian]

You can set the search parameters on hodgdons site to get this also,.sorta

 

[helotaxi]

Bullet length, speed of powder, & barrel twist all play a factor.

Rate of twist plays a minimal role. Nearly negligible.

Case capacity to bore ratio, bullet weight, bearing surface (not so much overall bullet length), jacket thickness and composition, bullet base style, leade geometry, bore consistency, rifling type, bore diameter, groove diameter and every other variable imaginable factor into pressure and thus determine what is a max load for a given powder in a cartridge/bullet/rifle combination. Suitable powders however are determined almost entirely by bore to case volume ratio and bullet weight.

 

[Ex]

One thing I don't like about the Alliant website is that they only show you the max charge for loads. Others show max and min. I know that you can always safely take off 10% from max... but really, how much effort would it take them to publish max and min like the others do?

 

[helotaxi]

What constitutes a "min"?

Alliant load data is crap anyway since they only list Speer bullets. Speer bullets don't behave the same as other bullets in the bore.

 

[Ex]

What constitutes a "min"?

Alliant load data is crap anyway since they only list Speer bullets. Speer bullets don't behave the same as other bullets in the bore.

Min being in this case "minimum". In context the minimum "recommended" by the factory. Same as most other powder makers.

If this was not the direction of your question, please restate.

And agreed on the Alliant website.

 

[helotaxi]

I know what "min" means, my question is how would you define it? There's no consensus among load developers on what actually should constitute a min load. Is it the minimum safe load? I've never seen a manual where this was the case that didn't include a specific note in bold along the lines of "DO NOT REDUCE FURTHER" Is it merely a starting point from which to work up? This is the norm from what I've seen and provides no real benefit unless it goes into more detail like the Hornady and Sierra and to a lesser extent Nosler manuals do with tables broken out by velocity giving you incremental powder steps and the corresponding velocity.

 

[LiveLife]

What constitutes a "min"? how would you define it?

I thought the "starting" or minimum charge was determined during chamber pressure testing for published load data of incremental powder charges that started to produce consistent enough chamber pressures to produce consistent shot groups ... but that's my guess.

 

[popper]

produce consistent enough chamber pressures to produce consistent shot groups

and safe burning - no hang fires or SEE.

 

[56hawk]

I'm looking for a list of powders and what calibers they are good for.

I think part of the problem is that in a bolt action rifle, just about any rifle powder will work with just about any cartridge. For example I have used IMR 4895 to load everything from 223 to 460 Weatherby.

 

[helotaxi]

I thought the "starting" or minimum charge was determined during chamber pressure testing for published load data of incremental powder charges that started to produce consistent enough chamber pressures to produce consistent shot groups ... but that's my guess.

Not that I've ever seen.

And of course the mythic "SEE" had to be mentioned.