That is a good question. I was thinking building a 30br but the powder is so limited in my area I’m afraid to start the build buy bib bullets and have no powder available. Timeline is about 6-8 months ordering the barrel, reamer, bullets maybe take 1 year and last but not least the powder.
My smith has the original 30br reamer, I’m leaning towards the 30br robinette 2 for more clearance. I would have to ship the powder across the US, big dollars for shipping, need at least 100 pounds to make it worth while for the shipping. h4198, lt30 and vv130 al most impossible to get locally.
Don't fall into the trap of being paralyzed by indecision.
Buy 4 lbs of each and let your barrel tell you what it wants. Get it from a single supplier that combines HazMat. Done. Shipping charges are shipping charges wherever in the U.S. of A. we live.Hodgdon isn't importing H4198 right now because it's a powder that doesn't sell well. They don't sell a lot of it because it's more of a specialty powder according to a few people at Hodgdon who I have spoken to in the past. They are concentrating on powders that sell well for them like H4350, Varget, H1000 ect., So don't be surprised to see it sometime next year, when I couldn't say.
Yes, I got the same story in 2020. By the time they bring it, shooters will find a good as or better powder.
There has always been an equal powder to H4198 and that's N130. A friend of mine Dean Breeden from Maryland has used N130 almost exclusively since he started shooting SR IBS score matches around 2002. He is the best score shooter that I ever competed against and anyone who has shot against him from that time to about two years ago when he sort of stopped competing in the IBS for reasons I won't get into will agree with that statement. He won 5 SSOY title back when there were a lot more shooters and a lot more good shooters unlike in this day and age. You just don't have the number or the caliber of shooters that there were when I first started competing in 2013. Dean has used the same load of N130 that he used when I first met him in 2012, 36 grains of N130.
You might want to venture a bit further West before making that statement.
I'm talking about IBS SR score shooters which I thought I made clear that was what I was talking about.
N200 shoots very well but unless I'm wrong, it's not being imported any longer. It's very comparable to h4198 in how I loaded using it.
Al, have you ever tried N120 in a 30BR? It's another good option that is definitely worth a look. It was available at many places recently but it's been several weeks now. It's a couple of grains faster than h4198 in the 30BR and 30 Major cases and you CAN put enough in either to get too hot. So in a 30BR and 108-118 class bullets, I'd start at 31.0 and work up. If your bbl likes it, I think you'll like everything about it. The older stuff was a bit cleaner than the new. I'm just guessing but I think that's due to the added bismuth in the newer stuff.Don't fall into the trap of being paralyzed by indecision.
My new PacNor 18 twist barrel was at my door in 5 weeks. The new JGS 30BR Robinett V2 reamer took 11 weeks. The barrel was chambered and ready to go a week later. And the original 30BR Robinett reamer is still winning tournaments...that's what my 30BR barrels are chambered for.
100 pounds of powder to start with? Huh??? Forget about H4198 unless you've got a stash or you're a sugar daddy to the girl that runs the shipping department at ADI in Australia. That leaves LT30 and N130. It got simpler already.
While you're worrying about ordering bullets, they're going out the door at the custom bullet makes since everyone has received their recent J4 jacket shipments.
Shooters build these 30BRs all the time with no angst or wringing of hands. Components that don't get ordered are already in someone else's hands.
Nothing to it but to do it.
I know you ask Bill but it works GREAT!
Not anymore it's not.
What do you have.?
