Powder for Black Hills 308 (175 GN SIE)

[MVW]

Gents:

I shot some factory Black Hills 175 GN SIE 308 cartridges this morning and sadly or perhaps fortuitously it shoots much better than any reloads I have been able to come up with to date. I note that the bullets are loaded 0.060-0.065 off the lands in my gun and have 41.50 GN of powder. Any ideas what powder they use? I have been using Varget, but would consider giving whatever powder they are using a try and see if I can fine tune it from there?

Thanks for any thoughts.

Mike

 

[thefitter]

I do not know the answer to your question but I will say that there is no reason that you can not come up with your own hand loads that surpasses BH factory ammo. Don't give up! Once you get it down you will never go back to factory again.

 

[MVW]

Judging from the published speed and weight of the powder I suspect it is H4895. I just haven't had the luck with Varget that most folks report.

 

[cmillard]

is it stick or ball powder?

 

[MVW]

it is a stick powder

 

[MVW]

Gents: Sorry if I am beating a dead horse here. The powder is a stick powder just a little darker in color than H4895 and Varget and much smaller granules than the two above mentioned powders.

Given the size and color any thoughts on what it might be?

Mike

 

[liltank]

I'm going to suggest RL15. I know that is what they are using in M118LR. Try that powder.

 

[LESLEY]

its RL-15

 

[amlevin]

Is it possible that BHA shoots better due to case uniformity. New cases, uniform elasticity, perhaps greater bullet pull pressures?

It's more than just duplicating powder loads, it's also about duplicating all the other parameters as well.

 

[jonbearman]

I am certain with a 99% probability that it is rl-15 as the military uses this in their LR ammo loaded with the 175 sierra matchking.This knowledge comes from the amu unit.

 

[flatlander]

Dittos on what's been said about RL15 being what's used in LR118 ammo, but the stuff in the pan in your photo doesn't really look like RL15 to me. RL15 usually has a wide variety of shapes & sizes of individual powder kernels, not like the uniform kernels (at least, as close as I can tell) of the powder in the photo. That stuff looks more like IMR8208 to me, but it'd take a closer, more detailed photo to tell for sure whether it's RL15 or not.

 

[MVW]

Thanks guys. I have rl-15 and it looks darker than what is in the BH, but it is pretty easy to check and I will do that. The BH gives a <v>=2,700 fps with 40.5 GN of the mystery powder. Roger on the reloading technique. My SD are ~5 and ES ~ 15. The SD on the BH was about 15 and the ES=40, so I think I am converging on decent reloading technique.

Actually, what I think the problem is is a bad case of COPPER! I clean it after every use with Butches and never see any blue. A few weeks ago I let the Butches soak about 30 minutes and it came out a little blue. Once I got a little blue coming I got a lot more. I cleaned the gun with Butches, dry, put sweets in for 20 minutes, dry, cleaned the gun again and put CLP in it and let is sit over night. Done that every night for three weeks. Tonight was the first night I didn't get any blue.

I did shoot it yesterday and all of my groups were a lot better. All of them were ~0.3" at 100 yards and none of them were tuned to the gun using H4895.

Mike

 

[amlevin]

I cleaned the gun with Butches, dry, put sweets in for 20 minutes, dry, cleaned the gun again and put CLP in it and let is sit over night.

Rather than the CLP, I'd probably use Hoppe's as it works on any copper remaining without being as harsh as the Sweets. Also, try KROIL. It gets under all kinds of fouling and will leave a nice protective film on the metal. CLP is OK but I've found it doesn't live up to all it's hype for other than a light lube.

 

[markr]

4064 or one of the canister grades thereof. Great powder in that combo.

 

[MVW]

Thanks Amlevin. Good idea. I'll give Hoppe's a try. Took 2 weeks, but I finally got all the blue out.

 

[btm_54]

http://www.gunzilla.us/copperzilla.htm
is another option.
I hope this helps.