hornady reloading book data
- Thread starter bandit86
- Start date
Imo reloading manuals are a guide line only. Most guys use the reloading books for a start point and work up to a max or best accuracy load in their particular rifle. Some rifles will accept more than a max book load, some rifles won't reach max book load before showing pressure signs.
Hornady book tends to be a bit conservative compared to say, Hodgdon's recommended max loads. Then again, always check for high pressure signs when getting near any recommended max loads. Fortunately most of my best loads have been middle of the road in the Hornady's book or low end of Hodgdon's data.
Yup, because, after all, the ammo manufacturers don't have decent pressure measuring equipment, and they hire grade school drop outs as their interior ballisticians. Book max IS max. Can you sometimes stuff extra powder into a case, and not see 'pressure signs?" Yup. Are you over SAMMI specs? Prolly. Are "pressure signs" reliable? NO. They worked good for guys who knew what they were doing, had nothing more than a Powley computer to go by, and didn't have smartphones recording their every booboo!
One quite reliable, after the fact indicator is, if you increase charges incrementally, observe incremental increases in velocity, and then the velocity jumps, or sometimes even fades, you were over-pressure for several increments. But it is your gun, and your fingers. Just don't shoot over book beside me.
One quite reliable, after the fact indicator is, if you increase charges incrementally, observe incremental increases in velocity, and then the velocity jumps, or sometimes even fades, you were over-pressure for several increments. But it is your gun, and your fingers. Just don't shoot over book beside me.
hometownhero
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Toon Town, Sk
Not all books have the same max. Like if you look at max in the berger book and max on the hodgdon site the max will be very different on everything I have looked at.
sharp shooter
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Essex county (Ontario)
The four load manuals I have are all over the place. Just look at the 22-250 loads with with H380…In some books the max is the same as the starting point in others….
I've been in the test tunnel in the basement of the Hornady plant. They have pressure receivers, but also use regular rifles for their tests (when I was there they were working with a Wby Accumark in 30-378). So the pressure results won't be the same as tests done with other components. It will vary, sometimes greatly. Max is not max when it comes to loading manuals. I have had guns where max in the gun was the start load in the manual, and others where it went the opposite way. As mentioned , they are guidelines, that's all. - dan
I guess Hodgdon, Alliant, Accurate etc just make up their own data because they only make the stuff that goes BANG for ammo manufacturers. What the heck do those guys know...
