Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Tips on loading the 190 Hornady BTSP in a .30-06

Unless it proves really inaccurate, I think I've settled on trying out the 190 Hornady BTSP for a deer/elk combo load for a friend.

Looking at the books, it seems mostly the top velocities are from powders in the 4350 - Rl 19 range. Any recommendations for top accuracy with good velocity?

I have nearly ever powder from the 4350s up to the BMG powders and a few things in the faster burn rate range, but I'd rather not try them all.

Also, any opinions on seating depth? These bullets have a crimp groove and are pretty long for a .30 cal. I've never messed with this gun before, so I don't know if she has any special preferences for seating depth in general.

Gonna just use standard primers, but if you think mags are appropriate with your powder preferences, I'll hear you out.

Thanks

IMR4350, and seated to the crimp grove is just fine.

55-56gr RL17 and about .030 off the lands.....

Near max loads of Ramshot Hunter is showing promise in my 30/06. I may soon be putting my .375 H&H on the market, so I too am considering that 190 Hornady as an all-around '06 load.

What kind of velocities are you getting using Ramshot Hunter?

I bet those 190's penetrate deeeep thru the venison. Should be a good elk shoulder breaker.

I had one of those sail through the shoulders of a 5 pt. bull a few years ago. Bull ran about 40 yards and went down. IIRC, I used H4831 for the load. Damn fine bullets, as are all the Hornady's I've used. They often make me wonder why I try anything else.

Good luck,
Steve

Just eyeballing the bullets next to some -06 cases, it looks like seating the bullet at the crimp groove perfectly puts the base of the bullet at the shoulder. So I'm not gonna fiddle with seating depth.

On the other hand, I could go through a lot bullets just in powder testing. I settled on the following 9 powders:
RL 17, H4350, Hunter, H100V, N160, RL 19, AA3100, H4831 and RL 22. Any powder combo that doesn't get me at least 2600 fps with pressure I'm comfortable with won't make it to accuracy testing. Everything I've read so far makes me think 2600-2700 fps is doable without a breaking a real sweat.

I've loaded them to 2700 in my -06 using IMR4831. The next time i load this bullet I intend to try Ramshot hunter.

Expat

I've been wanting to try IMR 4831 for this, and in my .264. But with 25 or so different powders on hand, including H4831, it's hard to justify yet another pound of something in the same range. Although, in reality, what's another overlapping powder?

The Hornady manual says IMR4831 will push the 190 to 2700 fps.

It just happens that this was my favorite powder for the 190 Hornady in my 30-06 Winchester 670. Maximum charges gave great accuracy. It would shoot MOA out to 300 yds.

COAL? I set the seater die to maximum length allowed by the magazine. The bullet did not hit the lands, so that is the way I left it. The cannalure was a bit outside the mouth of the case.

cannelure! that's the word I was struggling with. Ah hell, why not pick up another pound of powder?

RL19....trust me.

I trust you, it's on the menu

I haven't ran any of the 190gr Hornadys, but I've shot a few thousand 190 Sierra Matchkings through my 30-06.

No problem reaching 2900 fps with RL22, and a 26.5" bbl. QL calc'd pressure under 60K lbs-psi, and all physical indicators were good.

I've been running 190 Hornadys in my 03-A3 for about 35 years. The old, 2-groove barrel has a longer-than-normal (worn out) throat, by about 1/10 inch, so I can seat bullets out and not get much pressure. 55 grains of IMR-4350 in G.I. cases and CCI primers chronographed just over 2,690 in that rifle, when I tested it about 25 years ago.

In Model 70 Winchesters, with a SAAMI chambers and throats, I seat the bullet to the cannelure and use 56 grains of IMR-4831 with Winchester cases and F-215 primers and that load chronographs, depending on the rifle, between 2,650 and 2,680 fps.

For some reason I've never reached those velocities with my lot of RL-19. On a grain-for-grain basis, RL-19 chronographs about 100 fps slower than IMR-4831, but that could just be my particular lot of powder.

Well, with just some quick shooting in the yard with H4350 to see where this rifle stands in comparison to the published data, I went up to 55 grains and was just a hair over 2700 fps. This is in a custom Vz-24, with a 23" barrel.
So apparrently 2700 won't be out of the question at all. I'm not sure how hard I wanna push on the throttle with this gun, but I'm liking her potential.

This has just been my experience but day in and day out 2700 is pretty much the top end of for the safe and sane..<g>

Dober

........in a 308 Win.........(grin)

I stopped at 57.0gr of Ramshot Hunter. This got me about 2,740fps. This is out of a Ruger #1 with a 26" barrel. Check with Ramshot, but I think their recipies call for at least another grain as max. I'm happy with 2,700 though. That little football looking projectile should fly fine at that speed.