Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Ball Powder for 30-06

Ok Guys,
I have a 30-06 Rem 700, that shoots Hornady Factory 165 gr SST's, like a house of fire. I dissected one of the rounds and it's a ball powder (62 grs). This load fills the case pretty much.
I'm trying to duplicate the load. Does anybody have any idea what powder Hornady might be using or of a ball powder that would pretty much fill the case with 62 grs of powder? Any help would be surely appreciated.
Thanks,
Cag

No clue what Hornady is dropping in their cases but if'n I wanted to go ball powder in the 30-06.........I'd pick up a can of W760 and start there. Refer to your local manual for acceptable charge weights.

Not sure, but 56.5 gr. of H380 and a 165 gr. jacketed bullet shoots very, very well out of my .30-06 M70 FWT Classic SS/walnut

There is a new slow ball powder, WW780. Not much data out there yet for it. Factories can get special powder that are not available to handloaders as well. So unless they come out a divulge their recipe there is no way to tell. However, I have never known a factory to divulge their recipe.

I don't think that factories get "special" powder. I think they buy powder in bulk and based on burning rate, decide what all they can load it in to get their advertised velocity with "acceptable" accuracy. (Who knows what acceptable accuracy is to a manufacturer?) This is why when you pull bullets from factory ammo from different lot nos. you might find ball powder in one and extruded powder in another. Although, these days it seems the ball powders are cheaper in bulk and certainly more consistent to meter, so I would be surprised if most factory cartridges these days weren't using ball powder of some kind.

It could be Ramshot Hunter. Around 62 grains is a safe maximum load with 165's, and Ramshot does provide some powder to ammo manufacturers. Hunter is also a SUPERB powder in the .30-06 with 165-180 grain bullets, with top velocities and fine accuracy.

strut64,

You should look at the factory Hornady ammo for the 6.5 Creedmoor. They have the powder type and charge right on the box.

Thanks Mule Deer and to everyone who replied to my post. I'm going to try the Ramshot Hunter and see how that works out. Although I've read some on Ramshot Powders I have never tried them.

Thanks again
Alfredo

It would be hard to tell exactly which powder Hornady might be using, especially if its in the Superformace line. There are over 40 different powder blends they are using for that line of ammo alone. Hodgdon's Superformance is actually just one of those blends that covers 7 different cartridges. Could you use it in an 8th? Sure and you might get better performance than your older load. If you tried to chase Hornady's speeds or anyone's speed for that fact, it could be dangerous. There are too many variables in the firearm, cartridge components, and environment that can effect speed and accuracy.

Hunter is a good powder for the 06. Because of the age and popularity of that cartridge, I've found many different loads using different powder's and they all turn in sub-MOA accuracy.

I'll second Mule Deer on the Ramshot powder, like he needs a second.

Anyway, have had excellent luck with Hunter on 165 and 180 grain bullets and Big Game with 150 grain bullets.

Hi folks, I'm going to try the Ramshot Hunter. I thought I would let you all know that the powder that Hornady uses in it's Superformance line is Hodgdon, Superformance. Said so on the Hodgdon website and the Hornady site as well. Hornady's last reloading manual list the loads for Superformance loads and Leverevolution as well!

Cag

Yes, but there's Superformance� and then there's Superformance�.

As mentioned, the stuff in factory rounds is custom-blended for those EXACT components. The Superformance� you can now buy is a sort of "generic custom blend" that isn't exactly like any of the blends in factory ammo, but is more or less the base composition they begin with before it is blended for a specific load. Confused? I'm not surprised.

To the original question, several spherical/ball powders are excellent in the -06: W760, Hunter, and Accurate 2520 are just three.

Just got off the phone with Hodgdon...scratch my above comment. The loads are for the seven calibers that they list and the 06 is not one that showed any improvement with that powder.

Cag

Ramshot - Hunter.

Though off topic somewhat, Hodgdon's LeverEvolution's propellant formula for 170 grain Flat Nose Sierra bullets was extremely accurate and chronoed @ 2300+ fps out of my 30-30 Scoped Topper single shot. I used the data and components exactly as printed and it worked as stated.

I have tried both Big Game and Hunter in my single shot -06 but so far with 165 grain and 180 grain Cup and Core Speers and Hornady flat base bullets, H4831sc and W760 have proved more consistent over a range of tempratures. I had real good success with Hunter during the first round of trials but was never able to duplicate the results since that time.

Surprisingly some leftover H4831sc from a failed experiment with my buddies 7mmSTW has shown excellent accuracy with good velocity over a wide range of temps in my -06.

I'm going to continue my testing with both Big Game and Hunter with my remaining 30 caliber bullets, but I'm using the H4831sc with Hornady 180 grain flat base spitzers #3070.