Working up loads??

[boogieman]

Just curious how most of you go about it. I dont have a chrony so lets leave that out. Do you start with a particular bullet you want to shoot and then try different powders and charges until you feel you have satisfactory accuracy? Are you cleaning the gun in between the testing? Run through them all in one trip?
Also if your weighing charges what is acceptable +-0.1? I let my 9mm loads range from 4.0-4.2
In particular I am planning on working up a 460xvr. I want to shoot the 300gr XTPM and the only powder I have been able to lay my hands on is Win 296 and Power pistol with large rifle primers. I have some data from Lee book and I imagine I have recipes for same combo in other books as well. So I start at min and work toward max. Any reason to stop before max if the case is holding together and accuracy is acceptable?

 

[Reloadron]

While my focus is normally on rifle much of this should hold true for handgun as well.

Hand loading or rolling one's own involves many variables so here is how I go about it. I choose for example a bullet and powder I want to try along with the powder and primer. Using a single bullet, powder, primer I work up my powder weights. I only change a single variable and note the accuracy hand weighing each charge. Depending on caliber I may load 5 to 10 rounds each. I increment the charge up in maybe .5 grain increments depending on what the allowable charges are.

I look for accuracy and while I do chronograph it matters not. Generally optimum accuracy is achieved before the maximum load. Making bullets go faster does not always make them go more accurate in my observation.

You can do this however you choose just follow good hand loading safe practices. The trick is there is one would be to only change one variable at a time.

Just My Take
Ron

 

[jwrowland77]

Just curious how most of you go about it. I dont have a chrony so lets leave that out. Do you start with a particular bullet you want to shoot and then try different powders and charges until you feel you have satisfactory accuracy? Are you cleaning the gun in between the testing? Run through them all in one trip?
Also if your weighing charges what is acceptable +-0.1? I let my 9mm loads range from 4.0-4.2
In particular I am planning on working up a 460xvr. I want to shoot the 300gr XTPM and the only powder I have been able to lay my hands on is Win 296 and Power pistol with large rifle primers. I have some data from Lee book and I imagine I have recipes for same combo in other books as well. So I start at min and work toward max. Any reason to stop before max if the case is holding together and accuracy is acceptable?

I load a lot of rifle. When trying to pick a bullet to start with, first I figure out what my primary goal is. With my .308, I decided I wanted to use it for competition, so I started with a 155gr Sierra Match King Palma. Then I looked and asked here about powder and settled on IMR4895. With my hunting round, i have Nosler Partitions to workup. One because its like a go-to powder for that caliber, plus I can use it in my daughters .223 as well. With rifle load workups, I start at minimum or very near min (if its 42.8 I round up to 43 as start). With rifle I workup to max in increments of .5. I don't ever clean in between loads when shooting workup but I do however let my barrel cool.

With pistol I follow the same process, but I workup in increments of .2.

I hand weigh every single charge, but that just a personal preference.

Hope this helps some.

 

[osteodoc08]

It all depends on my end goal.

For handgun plinking, I find what is on sale and just load em up. I don't really target shoot with my autos. My wheel guns I'm a little more selective.

With my rifles, I'm very OCD. I will start with factory fresh good brass (for a new caliber or gun, otherwise I try to keep the same brass with the same gun) Ill measure them and place them in batches. Ill then make sure the primer pockets and holes are uniform, trim, etc. Priming is done by hand and each charge weighted individually. Starting with a new gun I will select a bullet based on my intended purpose. Hunting bullets I usually use Nosler ballistic tips or Partitions. I've also used Sierra Game kings, Barnes, etc. but for the most part it is Nosler. Ill then use a powder that gets me to a desired velocity and start at the starting load and load 5, then increase in 0.3-0.5gr increments for 50 total loaded giving me a 3-5 grain spread. Ill then shoot. Which ever one is most accurate I will then go on either side of that loading in 0.1gr increments and recheck, eventually settling on a given load for gun. The animals Ive harvested would never know if I was pushing a max load or not, accuracy and shot placement is much more important.

 

[918v]

Any reason to stop before max if the case is holding together and accuracy is acceptable?

Yes. Stopping before having reached max pressure makes your gun and your joints last longer.

 

[readyeddy]

Work backwards. Figure out what you need. If it's hunting or self defense, then you should know what kind of bullet and velocity you need. Then go to the manuals and find the data that gives you the desired velocities given the bullet.

Most likely you will find multiple powders that will get you the desired performance. I read up on message boards to see which powders provide the most accuracy, burn cleanest, etc. I focus on accuracy. I select my powder, load and shoot for groups and use a chrony to verify speed and consistency. If I get what I need on my first try, then I call it done and stock up on bullets and powder.

I don't start at minimum and work my way up. I just go straight to the desired velocity so long as it is below max. Not saying that's the way to do it, just the way I do it.

 

[docsleepy]

I'd recommend that you google "optimal charge weight testing" and shoot groups of 3 or 4 shots "round-robin" style and find out what charge gets you near a point where the barrel whip is relatively insensitive to small charge weight variations.

This will change with temperature, so ideally, you should do it near the temperature you plan to use. (e.g. winter hunting)

If you have access to a Hornady COAL measurement device, I would start maybe .020 off the lands (shorter than the point where you hit the lands by .020) with the above tests. That should be sufficient for most work.

If you are talking itty bitty bench rest groups, then you have to iterate at maybe .010, .005, on the lands, and maybe .010 jammed. Beware that near the lands, the point of impact may be STRONGLY impacted by minute variations in the bullet seating depth-- time to learn how to use a comparator rather than just measureing cartridge overall length (COAL).

But for general hunting etc, working .020 or so off the lands should be reasonable and will eliminate some difficulties.

my .02 worth!!

if you search on this site, I've put up some photos of groups in OCW and you can see how it went.

docsleepy

 

[gamestalker]

I don't load target loads, so my opinion is going to be biased in this respect. I load with jacketed bullets only, and slow burning powders for both handgun and rifle.
For magnum wheel guns and using 296 / H110 I start in the middle of the data table. This particular powder has never performed well for me at starting charges, and it needs a magnum primer to light it. I won't comment on how high to take a charge, sticking to published data is your best guide in this regard.
Rifle loads, again I start above minimum or around mid table and work up in 10%-15% increments until I find the load that delivers what I'm seeking in terms of accuracy, and velocity.
And every load I assemble is weghed on a beam scale. This is not absolutely necessary, but it is how I have done it for decades, and it produces extremely consistent results in every aspect. However, it is in my opinion, always necessary to verify that your powder measure is throwing charges that are consistent with what your intending to load.

GS

 

[boogieman]

Gamestalker brought up something I saw on another thread regarding the h110 and magnum primers. I haven't checked my Lyman or other manuals yet. But my Lee manual doesn't call for mag primers on any 460 load. I will be hunting on the border between pa and NY early December. I'm guessing temps 30ish bit I have heard of single digit years. Would I have to move into a mag large rifle primer for the 460s&w. How do you compensate for changing from a lrp to a mlrp?: