Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Powder charge increments

I used to go .0 & .5 til I found a good load, then go .2 increments either side so basically .1,.3,.5,.7,.9 etc… chasing accuracy. Last couple years I’ve simply loaded .0,.5 til I found a good load, tested seating depth's then quit. Am I missing anything substantial by not fine tuning powder charges between whole and half gr charges? Hunting rifles.

Also would I be better off spending time checking concentricty and working towards loading rds more consistent with less run out than fine tuning charges and seating depths?

This is what I do. I'm no match shooter but I get some really nice groups.


Okie John

Key words

'Hunting rifle'

I always looked at Nosler's load data first on new loads

'Most accurate'

Worked pretty good

I'd go 1/2 gr increments

I produce ammo that is consistantly accurate using Redding sizing die and Hornady New Dimension seater. Checked concentricity of this ammo and it was always .003" TIR so I no longer check concentricity. this is plenty good enough for a hunting rifle and 3 shot groups are often tight cloverleafs. I do weigh every charge and trickle up to weight, I use SAMMI OAL and never have fooled with seating depth variation. Alway have been able to produce accurate loads using this method.

Kiss,find pressure and rock on. Hint………..

It really does boil down to this, doesn't it?


Okie John

For your hunting loads at normal ranges, I believe your fine to keep doing what your doing with the 1/2gr increments. I guess it really depends on how much powder / primers you want to burn. You could always take your best powder charge and then fine tune the seating depth and get better accuracy. All in what you want.

Not really. If you want a good reliable hunting load, you never want the bullet kissing the lands. To each their own though. For most c&c bullets, you'll find acceptable accuracy with the bullet .020" off the lands. You also generally don't have to fu ck around with seating depth to find acceptable accuracy. You can mess around wasting components, though, if you want.

Precisely,though I can only attest to 100's of barrels and 100's of thousands of rounds,while BullSchitArtist has her hands beyond full,feverishly trying to stuff 108's in her 6x45 upper. Hint.



It's never been difficult to cypher,who who actually shoots. Hint.

Fhuqking LAUGHING!.................

For myself…..it depends upon case volume and powder burn rate. A small case…..initially in 0.5 increments. Large case……initially in 1.0 increments

Once I feel that I’m closing in….I’ll generally cut that in half. Though, this past summer, I didn’t bother cutting my increments on my large case capacity rifle. Stuck with the 1.0 grain and am pretty satisfied with the results! memtb

I vary it by case capacity using a spreadsheet that I developed based on the OCW method. I plug in the top loads from 3 manuals, and the spreadsheet kicks out the increments to test including 3 pressure test loads.

For instance .223 might be .3 while a big boomer is .5. This is from two of my OCW worksheets:

.223:

Test Loads: 3 or 4 Rounds Each

Charge 1 26.8

Charge 2 27.0

Charge 3 27.2

Charge 4 27.3

Charge 5 27.5

300WM:

Test Loads: 3 or 4 Rounds Each

Charge 1 75.3

Charge 2 75.9

Charge 3 76.4

Charge 4 76.9

Charge 5 77.5

I've found there is no magic seating depth, so normally I look for the manufacturers recommendation as a start point, and vary once I've ID'd the node. For instance I just learned a valuable lesson that my recently re-barreld 300WM with it's Bartlein does not like 165 Accubonds 0.20 from the lands, but shoots lights out at Nosler's recommended OAL.

I modded the above mentioned Excel to compute suggested OALs in .010 increments once I plug in the base measurement.

For a hunting rifle, usually the initial load testing suffices.

When I was in the Army, KISS was the acronym for Keep It Simple Stupid.

1/2 grain increments works out just fine with me... I burn more shot gun powder in most of my rifles, than I do regular rifle powder. I have no need to redline a round.....

I do that keeping an eye on barrel life, and economy of powder, allowing me to shoot a lot more....

I can still ring steel at 300 and 400 yds all day long.. which is more than I ever need to accomplish in the field.

Unlike little short Big Schmuck... I take care of my equipment... like not spending time throwing my rifle into a stream and then take pictures of it with a dead fish....to post on the internet....

Perfect example of 'A Legend in her own Mind' mentality.

OCW is the first thing I thought about when I read this thread title. I would be interested in seeing your spreadsheet.

No worries.. PM me an Email address and I'd be happy to send you a copy.

Mag restraints don't often allow kissing lands, but I've never found that to a deal breaker.

Finding pressure is just that, finding the pressure you want to operate at. For me, that's never at the lower end of published data, so I concentrate on the upper third, and usually come in 1/2 to 3/4 of a grain or so below published max.
Small case capacity rounds I work a ladder in conjunction with a chrono and find my node with .1 grain increments. The chrono shows me exactly where the node comes in, and where it ends. Pick the middle charge weight of that node and rock on with seating depth adjustments to close groups and tune out muzzle oscillation. At the end, great groups, low es/sd, and a higher tolerance of atmospheric fluctuations.
Medium capacity cases I'll do the above with .2 grain increments, large capacity with .3 grain. The smaller the increments the more refined look you get at the nodes coming in and leaving. Too large an increment and you'll miss important data.

Just the way I do it, YMMV.

PM Inbound

Got it, and sent the workbook!