Powder substitution

[Beiruty]

I often wondered what Big Game would do with the 105 type bullets in the 6BR Norma. I t falls pretty close to N140 on the burn chart.

As usual, if you provide the data needed for GRTools, I can run you a sim:
1) Case Capacity
2) COAL
3) Exact bullet
4) Barrel length

 

[Laurie]

TAC and Wild Boar produce very high MVs in .308. Wild Boar suits .223 with 75-80gn bullets.

I said in that (10-year old) Targetsports feature that Western's Accurate 2520 and our Europe-only Ramshot Wild Boar appear to be the same thing based on identical published loads tables right down to a single psi pressure, but also US retailed ('Accurate-2520') bottles labelled as 'Made in Belgium'.

Since then, I've been assured by US based Accurate Shooter Forum members that the latter has changed to 'Made in the USA' and their enquiries to Western confirmed this. It seems that Western Powder Co. switched procurement to General Dynamics' plant in St. Marks, Florida which also produces Hodgdon's 'spherical' powders, Winchester grades, and more recently Alliant's 'Power-Pro' grades. This would make all 'Accurate' brand 'ball' powders also St. Marks products these days, but it seems that 2520 and Wild Boar continue to use similar charges for similar results. Ramshot brand powders in the US currently continue to be sourced from Eurenco P B Clermont in Belgium, and of course Accurate / Ramshot have recently joined the Hodgdon products stable. Whether that brand ownership change also results in a switch to St. Marks we'll have to see.

I'll rerun (Belgian) X-Terminator, TAC, Wild Boar, and Big Game range-tests in a long-throat / fast twist 223 Rem F-Class rifle later this year with the 77gn SMK and alongside some other ball grades in an ongoing search for viable VarGet and H4895 alternatives. TAC is certainly an excellent alternative to the Hodgdon pair. These days, I mostly use it in 6.5 Grendel which it is very well suited to.

 

[Rsadams]

I try to use powders for more than one caliber to keep inventory as small as possible.... Unfortunately just because a powder will work doesn't mean it works as well as a different powder... I use TAC for .223 because it flows like water through a powder thrower... You can use it for .308 but I choose to use imr4064 for .308 instead so that adds it to the list of powders I need to keep in stock... I can use it though in 6mm Remington and 30.06 though so I don't mind keeping it around and normally it's easy to find...

 

[D-4297]

Shooters world precision rifle, which Laurie references in his Reach articles, has been showing promise for me in replacement of Varget, and seems to have decent availability. IMR 4064 is tough to beat as a versatile powder unless you absolutely must have temp stability.

Why do you think Temp stability would be a issue with IMR 4064 ? I shoot it year round in Arizona , and only drop my Summer load about three to four tenths from my winter load . Thats a temperature spread from mid 30's to over 110 - 115 .

 

[D-4297]

Don't over-look VV N 150 for the .308 . I'm working up a load for TR with 185 Bergers . Looks like the load is going to come out around 43 - 43.4gr ....Should get to do the final node tests right after the SWN . I'll post it when I have it . BTW ; Close to 95% case-fill , too . Never a bad thing .

 

[jpmimproved]

Why do you think Temp stability would be an issue with IMR 4064 ? I shoot it year round in Arizona , and only drop my Summer load about three to four tenths from my winter load . Thats a temperature spread from mid 30's to over 110 - 115 .

I like IMR-4064 quite a bit and use it regularly. If I was competing at long ranges in variable temps, I would prefer to have slightly better temperature stability, particularly if I was pushing maximum velocities/pressures. The Hodgdon extreme powders are pretty well documented to be some of the best performers in that category.