Wish me luck ( IMR 4320 + 168 gr hornady BTHP)
- Thread starter safetyalwaysfirst
- Start date
It's a pain in the Richard for me too.
rnbra-shooter
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Brunswick
IMR4320 for some reason is a bit of an orphan powder; you don't see much loading data for it nor do you see a whole lot of people using it, even though on paper it looks like a perfectly fine companion powder to 4895, 4064, Varget, etc.
I suspect you will get very good results with IMR4320 with your Hornady 168 BTHPs, 180SMKs, etc.
To the OP - it is good that you are approaching this very prudently and working your loads up exactly like the reloading manuals instruct you to. Keep it up.
Oftentimes you'll find that a very mild load gives extremely good accuracy at short range (100 yards). If you were to chrono such a load, you'll usually find that it is very slow, and the variation in speed from one shot to the next is quite large (having a velocity spread of 100fps or even more). There's nothing wrong with this, if this fulfills the entirely of your shooting needs. It is worth knowing though, that working your load all the way to max can give you a load that gives you very good accuracy and very good velocity uniformity; this sort of load would give you much better results at 600 yards (and possibly further), as well as at 100 yards, in case that is of any interest/use to you.
I suspect you will get very good results with IMR4320 with your Hornady 168 BTHPs, 180SMKs, etc.
To the OP - it is good that you are approaching this very prudently and working your loads up exactly like the reloading manuals instruct you to. Keep it up.
Oftentimes you'll find that a very mild load gives extremely good accuracy at short range (100 yards). If you were to chrono such a load, you'll usually find that it is very slow, and the variation in speed from one shot to the next is quite large (having a velocity spread of 100fps or even more). There's nothing wrong with this, if this fulfills the entirely of your shooting needs. It is worth knowing though, that working your load all the way to max can give you a load that gives you very good accuracy and very good velocity uniformity; this sort of load would give you much better results at 600 yards (and possibly further), as well as at 100 yards, in case that is of any interest/use to you.
Side note, not to derail my original purpose of this topic but is it worth buying a used chronograph or should I just buy one if I had a buddy with one I would obviously "borrow it" but they are simple and like factory. I plan on only going to 400 yards max 100y-250y more often and am I still making a good decision with the 168? The 4320 if you haven't worked with before meters great !!! Plus only one I see on the shelf most times
Safety
Safety
I was going to say, just noticed this thread now. I use it regularly, 33gr seems awefully low for a starting point.
Exactly, if you plan on stretching out the legs of your rifle, I find the most consistent (accurate) rounds at 600+ are typically on the hot end of max load. Higher velocities are also a benefit in the wind.
I just tested some loads this past weekend 308 hornady 168gr BTHP match bullets with IMR 4320. In my Remington 700 SPS Varmint it liked 44.6 gr and I thought I had it but kept shooting my 5 rnd test batches and the best ended up being 45.2 gr and I was shooting at 200m. the group was slightly tighter with the 45.2 gr than the 44.6 gr and was more consistent. As the range got busier I didn't actually go out to measure but looked to be about 1"-1.5" at 200 m. I am impressed with this powder as I have previously used BL-C2 as that was all I could get when I started reloading this fall. I did some research and there appears to be quite a few long distance competitors that use this powder. We had a chrono with us and I don't have the data with me as I am at work so I will post later tonight with the FPS we got with some of the lower loads. I started at 44 gr and worked up by .2 gr increments until I hit 45.2 gr staying well under the 46 gr max. I also checked using ballistic software my buddy has and the 45.2 gr will still be supersonic just past 1000m. I did play with some gong shooting out to 500m ( the max on the Rocky Mountain House Range) and they were very consistent.
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Thanks, I'm still at stand sill I have a summer full of weddings... Won't get out until the 17th I have those loaded so I'm looking forward to my results as well. Thanks haywire I think we are onto something may hafta delete this thread so we can stock up, one of the only powders still on the shelf. I will repost when I get out.
Got my low node all set 168gr hornaday hpbt match 41grains of 4320 CCI 200 primers, coal 2798. Triangle hole paper almost ripped between at 100 yards. Very very happy. Got my hands on some varget but my home made sand bag let go and didn't get a nice set up so to be determined. My hornady is saying max of 42.2 gr of imr 4320 any one have some numbers in other manuals ?
