Poll: Whats your practice for powder increments ?
- Thread starter garandman
- Start date
garandman
Bolt Gun Bodacious
Ive also learned (I think 
) to do seating depth before powder increases. Seating depth creates large group size changes, powder charge smaller changes.
Todays work:
Intesresting part was that 26.0 gr powder got the same velocity for 80.5 and 85.5 gr Bergers.
) to do seating depth before powder increases. Seating depth creates large group size changes, powder charge smaller changes.Todays work:
Intesresting part was that 26.0 gr powder got the same velocity for 80.5 and 85.5 gr Bergers.
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JMayo
Silver $$ Contributor
Bench rest my only experience 6bra.
That's what I do with Touching lands.
Get the powder right then see what happens when I go more into lands.
I've tried jumping them and it got worse every time. But that's just me.
I've been satisfied this way.
I do attempt powder changes + & -. But I've always gone back to where I was.
newbieshooter
:-)
I load in the 29-32gr range so .2 works for me.
For shooters shooting larger cases taking 60-80+ gr of powder - .2 may be a bit small...
All depends on context?
If I am very familiar with the cartridge and know it's accuracy nodes, I will go in 2 tenths increments. If it is a relatively unknown, like a wildcat or at least unknown to me, I will generally go off of a "similar" cartridge and start what might be considered low and work up in 1/2 gr increments. If I start feeling pressure, I go no further. And then usually back down about 1.5grs and work up in 0.2gr increments.
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garandman
Bolt Gun Bodacious
That makes sense. I was actually loading 26+ gr, but for large volume cases, ya prolly do want larger increments.
garandman
Bolt Gun Bodacious
After that ?
Harmonics tell us that speed nodes are 3% apart, so depending on cartridge that I am loading for, .1, .2, .3, or .4 may be appropriate. For example, if I were to build a load test for a .284 which might have a target load of around 50 grains of a favorite powder, nodes would be 1.5 grains apart. I would load 10 increments to find at least 1 solid node. Therefore my increments would be .2 grains apart, totaling 2.0 grains. Maybe 48.8 to 50.6. Then I would test for seating depth, then fine tune the powder in .1 grains at 1,000 yards.
1% roughly. For charges 20-29 grains 0.2 grains. 40-49 grains p0.4 grains...
BoydAllen
Gold $$ Contributor
Depends on what the width of the chosen node looks like. For a narrow one, I might choose .1. For a wide one, .2.
I start with increments of 0.5 gn and a seating depth of 0.010" OTL.
Once I find the node, then I play with seating depth.
Finally I go back to powder and load in increments of 0.2 gn 0.6 above and below the node.
Once I find the node, then I play with seating depth.
Finally I go back to powder and load in increments of 0.2 gn 0.6 above and below the node.
............ then the competition season would be finished and the barrel shot out so you could start all over again.
The poll's question potentially confuses two issues - working loads up from scratch without experience of that cartridge and/or powder and fine tuning for precision. It also makes no distinction between an experienced precision handloader and Joe or Jo Tyro starting out with a bullet maker's reloading manual and puzzled by the sometimes vast discrepancy between highest and lowest listed charges (>15% in the Hornady manual last time I bothered looking) and how many increments should be used between them. The answers so far tend towards the latter interpretation, as one would expect on the Accurate Shooter forum, albeit taking as a given that there are many inexperienced members or visitors looking for basic advice here too. As @ShootDots says, you can short-circuit a lot of work up on a cartridge you know well.
On the working loads up from scratch interpretation of the question, I bear very old advice from two excellent sources in mind. Sierra Bullets which used to say, use ~1% of max charge weight size increments, so 0.2-03gn in a 222/223 Rem size cartridge; 0.5/0.6gn in the SAUMs/WSMs etc. Also, for years and years, Hodgdon never listed starting loads, only maximum weights with the advice to reduce those by 6% to get a starting load with the exception of H110 where it was 2%. So, taking Hornady's 7th ed manual and the popular 165gn / H4350 30-06 hunting load, max 58.9gn, minus 6% = 55.3gn start, not the manual's 48.0gn (19% reduction!) Cross checking with current Hodgdon practice, its starting loads generally run 8-10% below max these days.
On fine tuning, having done the basic coarse work-up and satisfied with velocity / absence of pressure signs, I tend to fall in the 0.2gn camp for mid size cartridges, but often go down to 0.1gn for smaller numbers such as 223 Rem with heavy bullets, 6mmBR with 105-108s. Of course, you've got to be weighing to this level of accuracy which I've found I fail to do with beam scales .... so it's the tedious business of not only weighing each charge but doing so on lab quality electronic scales and adjusting charges down to a single powder kernel or two at most of most powder grades. On some cartridges, I've found that 0.1gn makes a significant distance - when I shot 223 in international level F/TR with 90s, I wonder just how many hours of my life were spent trying to achieve the single kernel of Re15 level of precision (1 kernel = 0.02gn). A far cry from loading 223 in the hundreds on a progressive press!
........... and let's not get into clever use of QuickLOAD and all these these three-alpha abbreviated techniques (OCW, OBT, OCD ??) whose names / abbreviations alone confuse me.
On the working loads up from scratch interpretation of the question, I bear very old advice from two excellent sources in mind. Sierra Bullets which used to say, use ~1% of max charge weight size increments, so 0.2-03gn in a 222/223 Rem size cartridge; 0.5/0.6gn in the SAUMs/WSMs etc. Also, for years and years, Hodgdon never listed starting loads, only maximum weights with the advice to reduce those by 6% to get a starting load with the exception of H110 where it was 2%. So, taking Hornady's 7th ed manual and the popular 165gn / H4350 30-06 hunting load, max 58.9gn, minus 6% = 55.3gn start, not the manual's 48.0gn (19% reduction!) Cross checking with current Hodgdon practice, its starting loads generally run 8-10% below max these days.
On fine tuning, having done the basic coarse work-up and satisfied with velocity / absence of pressure signs, I tend to fall in the 0.2gn camp for mid size cartridges, but often go down to 0.1gn for smaller numbers such as 223 Rem with heavy bullets, 6mmBR with 105-108s. Of course, you've got to be weighing to this level of accuracy which I've found I fail to do with beam scales .... so it's the tedious business of not only weighing each charge but doing so on lab quality electronic scales and adjusting charges down to a single powder kernel or two at most of most powder grades. On some cartridges, I've found that 0.1gn makes a significant distance - when I shot 223 in international level F/TR with 90s, I wonder just how many hours of my life were spent trying to achieve the single kernel of Re15 level of precision (1 kernel = 0.02gn). A far cry from loading 223 in the hundreds on a progressive press!
........... and let's not get into clever use of QuickLOAD and all these these three-alpha abbreviated techniques (OCW, OBT, OCD ??
) whose names / abbreviations alone confuse me.
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Depart123
Great post! I mirror your 1% increments doing initial work up to pressure. Then I use 0.5% when fine tuning.The poll's question potentially confuses two issues - working loads up from scratch without experience of that cartridge and/or powder and fine tuning for precision. It also makes no distinction between an experienced precision handloader and Joe or Jo Tyro starting out with a bullet maker's reloading manual and puzzled by the sometimes vast discrepancy between highest and lowest listed charges (>15% in the Hornady manual last time I bothered looking) and how many increments should be used between them. The answers so far tend towards the latter interpretation, as one would expect on the Accurate Shooter forum, albeit taking as a given that there are many inexperienced members or visitors looking for basic advice here too. As @ShootDots says, you can short-circuit a lot of work up on a cartridge you know well.
On the working loads up from scratch interpretation of the question, I bear very old advice from two excellent sources in mind. Sierra Bullets which used to say, use ~1% of max charge weight size increments, so 0.2-03gn in a 222/223 Rem size cartridge; 0.5/0.6gn in the SAUMs/WSMs etc. Also, for years and years, Hodgdon never listed starting loads, only maximum weights with the advice to reduce those by 6% to get a starting load with the exception of H110 where it was 2%. So, taking Hornady's 7th ed manual and the popular 165gn / H4350 30-06 hunting load, max 58.9gn, minus 6% = 55.3gn start, not the manual's 48.0gn (19% reduction!) Cross checking with current Hodgdon practice, its starting loads generally run 8-10% below max these days.
On fine tuning, having done the basic coarse work-up and satisfied with velocity / absence of pressure signs, I tend to fall in the 0.2gn camp for mid size cartridges, but often go down to 0.1gn for smaller numbers such as 223 Rem with heavy bullets, 6mmBR with 105-108s. Of course, you've got to be weighing to this level of accuracy which I've found I fail to do with beam scales .... so it's the tedious business of not only weighing each charge but doing so on lab quality electronic scales and adjusting charges down to a single powder kernel or two at most of most powder grades. On some cartridges, I've found that 0.1gn makes a significant distance - when I shot 223 in international level F/TR with 90s, I wonder just how many hours of my life were spent trying to achieve the single kernel of Re15 level of precision (1 kernel = 0.02gn). A far cry from loading 223 in the hundreds on a progressive press!
........... and let's not get into clever use of QuickLOAD and all these these three-alpha abbreviated techniques (OCW, OBT, OCD ??
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