I was just wondering how many of you follow the reloading books powder charges to the exact amount when it comes to maximum loads or do you go over until you get signs from your rifle that it"™s getting excessive pressure. I know this was brought up a while ago but I was compairing old reloading books to the new reloading books and they have changed the loads to be about 100 fps slower in the new books. I was compairing the old Hornady handbook printed July 1977 to the new Hornady sixth edition 2003 that I purchased last year. So when reloading do you follow the old books or the new books??
I haven't reloaded a lot, only three years. I have noticed that different editions of a reloading manual has different maxes. I had worked up a load from the older manual and couldn't reach the max published weight. But the load was at the newwer manuals max. I think I read somewhere that new ways of more accuratly measuring pressure are a reason for the difference. Don't hold me to that though.
There is no reason to max load any caliber. If you have to max load a certain caliber to achieve the results you need for a particular game, you are using the wrong caliber. The most accurate and efficient load for any specific caliber are well below max. And yes, I follow the formula to the tee.
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Being a paper puncher I have no reason to reach max load data unless thats where I have to go to achieve the desired accuracy.
I usually find an accuracy load well below the max listed in any manual.
The only cartridge/rifle I load to the max is my 270 Win. It just likes a full load of H4831 and a Hornady 130gr bullet. After 30+ years of trying diffrent loads in this gun/caliber I quit arguing with it and just feed it what it wants.
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Some manuals drop and add certain amount of loads between one manual and the next one they print. If a load is dropped from the following manual the only way you could get any load info is from the older manual.
Even with all the gadgets they have to measure pressures you still have the differences between one manual and the others. Start below the max and work your way up, look for signs of pressure.
There probably ain't a whole lot of difference between the max loads in the Hornady 5th and 6th editions. You'd need to find out when the manual compiler went from judgieng MAX loads to pressure testing MAX loads, that's where the difference would be. I don't load to the maximum specified in the manual, I do load until my chrony says stop and then back off from the last safe one.
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What I do is write down all loads max, for every manual I can get my hands on. I then look over the data, and make a decision in the middle. I mean it depends on the bullet of course, like barnes, TBBC, and failsafes or any copper shanked bullets go into a different category. I rarely get great results from Max loads. Some loads I have found like to be on the high end. Especially with RL22, and powders that like high pressure. Sniper, don't agree with your assessment about efficiency. Some powders but not all work the way you describe.
For example H110, likes to operate at high pressures. You can get real nice velocity spreads with H110 and 44 mag near max load.
You can look at the chrono, but that doesn't tell you squat about PSI. It tells you the speed, which I have found varys quite a bit between barrels. Especially when you get to the custom barrels. The chrono and manuals are just another piece of data to help you make up your mind.
I mean if I am getting 3500fps from a 180gr Nosler Partition in a 300RUM with a middle of the road load, then yea, I stop and ask why. But because the manual gets 3200fps with x load and I get 3050, sure as heck doesnt mean you are safe to go further. You got to take in accounts all aspects with accuracy being top of my list.
You can look at the chrono, but that doesn't tell you squat about PSI. It tells you the speed, which I have found varys quite a bit between barrels. Especially when you get to the custom barrels. The chrono and manuals are just another piece of data to help you make up your mind.
Well I guess I could have explained it better. I don't compare the chrony data to that in the manual. I start at the recommended starting loaa, note the velocity. Then increase the charge by, lets say a grain, and note the difference in velocities. Increase again, and expect a similar velocity increase. When a charge increase generates a smaller velocity increase, I begin to think I'm close to what the gun can handle and another with the same result confirms it. Then I fall back to the last charge that gave a full velocity increase. Now that's a maximum load in my rifle, and it don't much matter what any manual said they got. Then I usually drop back one more charge level for peace of mind. [8D]
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Reloading Handbooks Old vs New
