rybohunter

If ya have to try and make one caliber do something it wasn't meant to do, you are either going to blow things up or hurt yourself. Buy something bigger rather than take unneccessary risks.

DM

Many years ago when i bought my first chronograph i figured out that MANY times even the max load in a load book (especially the older books) actually gave NO improvement in gained fps.. over a load that was 1/2 grain less powder!! And, in many cases the extra powder actually caused the velocity to go down, with VERY erratic velocity from shot to shot!!!

Loading over MAX, "even if" you gained 50 fps, (wich i doupt you will) what would you ACTUALLY gain at 100 or 200 yards?????????????? All you will "really gain" is more stress on the gun and brass, for for pretty much ZERO gain!!!! To be blunt, it's a STUPID idea!!

Drilling Man

eldeguello

This is all very true, but I must point out that there are MAX loads and then there are MAX loads! Just because some book says "X" amount of "Y" powder with "Z" bullets is a MAX load, does NOT mean it is MAX in your particular rifle! It could be very much OVER MAX in your rifle, or considerably UNDER what your gun thinks is MAX! The only way one ever finds out which situation pertains to his/her gun is by starting low, and working up a load a small amount at a time. In a cartridge like .308-size cases, 57mm Mauser cases, or those in the .30/'06 class, increments of half a grain can be safely used. Smaller cases require smaller increments! You might get away with full 1-grain increments in the larger Magnum-sized cases.

In my mis-spent youth, I did stretch a primer pocket or two doing this. These days, I stop increasing charges when I get the accuracy I want, which in a hunting rifle is anything at or below 1 MOA. My goal for pressures is that my cases need to last at least ten reloadings AFTER the first shot to fireform the brass to individual chambers. ANY load that permits your brass to last for ten reloads in a given rifle is plenty safe enough for continued use IN THAT RIFLE!

colablanca160

I have a Savage 10G in .243 Win. I just finished load development for the 105 gr. Hot-cor spitzer. Now the Speer Manual No. 13 says that starting loads for IMR 4350 is at
34.0 grs. @2418 fps, and max is 38.0 grs. @2651 fps. The #8 manual says that starting loads is @ 38.0 and max is @ 42.0. So based on that I went with Speers #8 and finally settled on 42.8 grs. of IMR 4350 with a velocity of 3025 fps out of a 22" pipe.Groups measure 3/4" to one inch. Case inspection shows no abnormalities( split mouthes, seperated heads) and primer pockets are tight after 5 loadings.

Detroit Jay

Start off with a min load and work them up. Trust me Even If you load up 1 or 2 rounds to make sure your gun can handle it. I agree with the other guy if you want more power in a 243/6mm buy a 240 weatherbee mag(good luck finding a gun), or a 243 wssm, or 6mm remington.

I have been reloading for 15 years and my father has been reloading since 1956. We both just got schooled on this one. I just bought a used Ruger M77 in 300 Win Mag from a coworker. His father in law bought the gun new in 1975. He fired it 3 times, could not handle the recoil took it home and bought a 270. It sat for 20 years in his gun cabinet. Then my coworker bought from him fired 14 rounds and said too much recoil. This gun has only been fired 17 times(yes its mint, perfect no scratches, have the half boxes of ammo 17 missing, no BS).

Using once fired win brass tumbled, cleaned, and trimed. I loaded 2 diffrent loads each to the min load with 180 grain speer bullets. I loaded 10 rounds with Hogdens 4895 and 10 rounds with Imr 4350. With rifle loads I weigh out every load and I use an old Rcbs Jr press(very slow). I went to the range and fired the 4895 rounds first.(At the range I fire 1 round a minuit to let the barrel cool down). Damn this gun kicked as hard as my dads 338 win mag. My dad laughed at me and said get used to it kid(I am 29). Then I fired the Imr 4350 and Damn it kicked so hard it almost fell off the sand bags. Then I could not open the bolt. I had to wait 5 minuits for the barrel to cool down before we could get the bolt open. It was a bitch but with 2 people we got it open(I am luckey that I only had 1 round in the gun) I split the neck and started to push the primer out of the case. The back of the case was deformed from the pressure. This minimum load was listed in the speer #14 book.

We had the gun checked and the bore is .0015 smaller than it should be(tight bore). This explains why the previous owners hated this gun. Tight bore= increased pressure and recoil. Commercial manufactures load rounds to a happy medium so if one gun has a tight bore and one gun has a larger bore they both will be safe.

So start off lower and work your loads up. Use your head and dont trust anyones loads. Use them for refrence only.
Jay

bronko22000

deerslayer just a word of caution. Max is there for a reason. I've only ever had 2 rifles that shot well at max or near max loads. My 270 and 300 WM.
Some rifles just don't like max loads either. Don't be overly posessed with velocity. Accuracy is more important.
My 243 just loves 40.5 gr. of IMR4350 behind a Hornady 100 gr SP.