I'm planning to retire in a couple of years. In the meantime I want to learn what I can about reloading to reduce the learning curve for when I have time to start doing it.
I'm putting experimental loads on paper to see what I come up with, but so far I have found remarkably little describing the characteristics of the numerous powders available. I shouldn't have to find every manufacturer, and their website, and download the data for every powder very one of them has. I would expect to see a listing of a powder's speed relative to others, its burn temperature relative to others, and its energy density. Certainly SOMEBODY must have come up with a listing like this showing all ,or most, of the powders available. Where is it?
I've been reloading for over 50 years for field shooting. The core considerations are case capacity, expansion ratio, (chamber volume + bore volume ÷ chamber volume) read this as (case capacity and length of barrel per caliber) ergo the longer barrel the larger the expansion ratio for the same caliber as a general guide and then the projectile weight.
Desired projectile weight, barrel length to achieve goal, (ease of carry, end velocity, general use of rifle), then consult a powder burn rate chart.
The general rule is per caliber the heavier the projectile weight the slower the powder, also the longer the barrel to required to burn the slower burning powder.
Compare load data for cartridges of similar (or best) the same case capacity.
A simple example is a 300 Savage and a 308 Winchester, same caliber, very similar case capacity, very similar viable projectile weights per barrel length. Consult 308 load data and a burn rate chart, powders for the 308 will be a good starting point for the 300 Savage using equal bullet weights, be conservative use low start loads.
A more difficult example; I had to develop 500 grain loads for a custom 450 Magnum Marlin bolt gun as at the time no such load existed.
The book Cartridges of the World showed the wildcat 458 x 2, the 45 70 Government and the 450 Marlin to be nearly identical case capacity with the 458 x 2 and Marlin the same. First try produced my desired velocity with a 5 shot ragged hole group at 50 yards with 45 magnum caliber, iron sighted dangerous game rifle.
READ, there's plenty of books, BEWARE of the internet, in all these years I've almost never seen blown up guns or melted brass until the last decade.
Also this can be as simple as reloading for the field, requiring responsible loading, producing 1" groups at 300 yards or state of the art precision loading, producing record groups at a mile as well as producing the responsibility and costs that go along with that.
Enjoy!
