Ken Water's Book "Pet Loads"

[farshot]

Has anyone used this book for loading?

I have used some of loads and where he generally says that such and such a load is absolute max -- i just dont see that it is the max for that load. I always look at the many other reloading books I have, and generally they are all over Water's "maximum" loads and aligned to mine. Older books tend to have stiffer loads - sure I understand that in todays litigation world. But Water's is really low.

I am not talking target stuff here, but good, accurate hunting loads (I try for sub-moa in everything I do - its an issue I have to deal with)

I dont want to blow up anything, ....I measure (micrometer) the web of the brass before and after each round, and I swear I cannot read .0005 of an increase that he talks about at length. Even turning the brass slightly will give it a bounce of a couple of tho -- how can that be a basis for over pressure determination? Sure, I agree that by the time you get extractor polish or stiff ejection or primer pop etc, you are too far. But tradtionally I then cut back slightly to the next best accurate load and I go with that (without the basic symptoms). But again, according to Water's book -- I am still too hot.

Any opinions?

 

[dan belisle]

Are you using the same gun and brass and bullets and powder and, and, and..... It's what he found, and basically, like all load books, it's a guideline, that's all. I dare say Ken Waters has forgotten more about reloading then you and I will ever know, however. As for the measuring, practice, practice, practice. Years ago (9more then I care to remember), I remeber watching some of the old machinists whipping off measurements faster then I could align the tools, and measuring consistantly to a standard it took me a long time to reach. And now I can't see the damned numbers, I blame the tool makers, LOL. - dan

 

[aulrich]

I have used it a lot though now lots of the data is way out of date. I find the write-ups of the testing more usefull than the data, where he says x powder gave best results with Y bullet wieght that is really usefull. The one danger I ran into was bouncing between component combinations it can cost losts of money and you end up with alot of useless components.

I'll still use his recomendation of powders for certain bullet weights as a starting point but work up my own loads using current max data.