30 br powder workup

[Link]

This is a preliminary powder workup for my 30 br. H4198 - 118 Bib - just touching. There is a RAS tuner on it. The tuner is all the way out, so there is only one way to go. What powder charge would you try to tune? This was at 100 w flags on a clam day. - thoughts?
thanks Don.

 

[6bra1k]

add more powder and keep looking
why 118..most are 112-115
yes i know it is a good bullet, i have some
but i shoot 112 in comp

 

[Bill Norris]

Agree. Looks like it needs more powder. I start tuner adjustments with the tuner all the way in on zero.

 

[SET]

Work up slowly but don't be afraid to get to 35 grains and see what happens.
I found mine likes 35.2 grains of H4198 with a 116 grain bullet and has no ill affects on the brass.
You'll have to trickle the powder slowly to get it in the case.

 

[Link]

add more powder and keep looking
why 118..most are 112-115
yes i know it is a good bullet, i have some
but i shoot 112 in comp

I shot 118s for years at 100 and was very satisfied, never tried anything else.

Agree. Looks like it needs more powder. I start tuner adjustments with the tuner all the way in on zero.

OK I will try more horsepower .:}

thanks all.

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

You're still very mild with those. 33.8-34.5 of h4198is almost gar-own-t'd to shoot in a 30br. I would seat them to a pretty hard jam, at least to a point where you get square marks on the bullet by the lands and use heavy neck tension..at least .003 thou. It's a rare bbl/powder lot that even the 34.5 bbl will have any pressure signs but work up to that just in case. A few are over 35.0 in them. It's an easy cartridge to tune, maybe the easiest ever, but we're all new to something until we're not. If it were mine, I'd do as I said with the seating depth and neck tension and go straight to 34.5 and move the tuner a little bit.
edit..
You can always go back and fine tune the load a bit if needed but I'd bet a dollar to a donut that load will be hard to beat after dialing the tuner to it.

 

[AlNyhus]

"Just touching" is never where I would start with load workup in a 30BR.

Start at .020 longer than "..just touching". Use a bushing .004 under what the neck measures across the pressure ring and .0025 minimum neck clearance.
Then go up with the powder until it shoots the smallest group. Repeat that setting to verify.
Using the powder that shot the smallest, back the seating depth up .005 at a time until it gets better or worse.
33.5 will be the bottom end and 34.5-35.0 will see good stuff happening.
All this assumes using flags and no other issues.-Al

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

"Just touching" is never where I would start with load workup in a 30BR.

Start at .020 longer than "..just touching". Use a bushing .004 under what the neck measures across the pressure ring and0025 minimum neck clearance.
Then go up with the powder until it shoots the smallest group. Repeat that setting to verify.
Using the powder that shot the smallest, back the seating depth up .005 at a time until it gets better or worse.
33.5 will be the bottom end and 34.5-35.0 will see good stuff happening.
All this assumes using flags and no other issues.-Al

^^^This^^^

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Long drop tube will be your friend

 

[Ron IA]

34.4 to 34.8 15 to 20 into the lands works day in and out with the 17 and 18 twist bbl's

 

[Bill Norris]

"Just touching" is never where I would start with load workup in a 30BR.

Start at .020 longer than "..just touching". Use a bushing .004 under what the neck measures across the pressure ring and0025 minimum neck clearance.
Then go up with the powder until it shoots the smallest group. Repeat that setting to verify.
Using the powder that shot the smallest, back the seating depth up .005 at a time until it gets better or worse.
33.5 will be the bottom end and 34.5-35.0 will see good stuff happening.
All this assumes using flags and no other issues.-Al

Absolutely. To give a word of gratitude to AlNyhus and SmokinJoe. When they talk 30BR get out your pen and pad cause these boys been around the block with it. Both have given me real sound advice that proved to be "on the money"

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

Long drop tube will be your friend

Shouldn't need one for under 35.0, ime.

 

[ckaberna]

Absolutely. To give a word of gratitude to AlNyhus and SmokinJoe. When they talk 30BR get out your pen and pad cause these boys been around the block with it. Both have given me real sound advice that proved to be "on the money"

I actually screenshotted Al’s post above to save it. Lol

 

[AlNyhus]

I'd add that with a tuner, my advice is to do the load work without it.

What I've posted here for tuning advice for the .30's originated in the HBR/Hunter class .30's long before the advent of the 30BR as a competitive BR cartridge. Randy Robinett schooled/advised me on the wisdom of using this approach for tuning our Hunter/HBR guns. It seemed natural to just carry it over to the 30BR...where it works just as well, if not a bit better, due to the 4198 burning rate and the cartridges expansion ratio with barrel in the 21-24 inch range.

Randy has written and advised of this approach literally hundreds of times. As well, it's on the 30BR info tab on this site along with great advice from 'Smokin' Joe Entrekin. Compared to those two and others such as 'Humble' Henry Rivers, I was relatively late to the party.

Good shootin' -Al

 

[AlNyhus]

Shouldn't need one for under 35.0, ime.

Mike, with 34.5 of H4198, my 1.00" long 7 ogive bullets give a fair bit of powder compression.....which I don't mind. My drop tube is a 4" Sinclair that has different caliber 'o' ring inserts. With the .17 insert, it gives the same case fill level as an 8" drop tube with a .30 insert.

Compression is enough that with a neck bushing .004 under the neck diameter, the bullets will creep up .003-.004 within about 10-15 minutes of seating. The .925's would be a nice way to end run this.

In general though, it's a .925 world with the BR/Major cases. I just prefer the 1.00 stuff for my junk for a couple reasons.

Good shootin' -Al

 

[Shooter13]

Y'all have me all worked up again on the 30BR, I may have to screw my tube back on! My 30 Major ain't no slob though!

 

[Bill Norris]

Y'all have me all worked up again on the 30BR, I may have to screw my tube back on! My 30 Major ain't no slob though!

Yes Sir when discussions come up about the 30BR with these guys that know it well it will put a hitch in the gid a long for sure.

 

[AlNyhus]

A bit of a sidebar re: bullet weights in the 30BR.

With bullets on the 1.00" jacket from the same point up die and differing only in weight, a well tuned up 30BR will put bullets from 117-125 gr. into the same hole using the same powder charge.

By this, I mean that in a well tuned up 30BR optimized for a broad tune window, you can literally shoot 5 shot groups with 5 different bullet weights (from the same point die and seating depth) across an 8 gr. range and expect the group size to be no bigger than if you shot 5 identical weight bullets.

Some will laugh at this as a ridiculous statement and throw the B.S. flag. But it's true.

Duckin' the bricks headed my way...

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

A bit of a sidebar re: bullet weights in the 30BR.

With bullets on the 1.00" jacket from the same point up die and differing only in weight, a well tuned up 30BR will put bullets from 117-125 gr. into the same hole using the same powder charge.

By this, I mean that in a well tuned up 30BR optimized for a broad tune window, you can literally shoot 5 shot groups with 5 different bullet weights (from the same point die and seating depth) across an 8 gr. range and expect the group size to be no bigger than if you shot 5 identical weight bullets.

Some will laugh at this as a ridiculous statement and throw the B.S. flag. But it's true.

Duckin' the bricks headed my way...

Never tried 8 grains but I made a few 30 cal 115gr bullets a few years back. I shot my culls and some were a full grain apart. Couldn't see it on the target though.

 

[WayneShaw]

Back when Glen Chism was making bullets, he made 115, 120 and 125. I shot all 3 (not at the same time) and they shot great.