Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles H 335 Temp sensitivity

Thank goodness I only have one pound of h335....

I'm running 27 gr. H335 with 50gr. pills and cci 450 caps. The load shoots very good from my Ruger bolt in mild temps 'jan-feb yote calling' with all of the obvious pressure signs normal. I have not put the load across the chrono yet but it likes to make one hole multiple shot groops. Its an upper end load so that makes me wonder...

Maybe I will leave those loads at home when the temps get hotter, in the summer sniping ground squirrels...

Good morning ALL...

I normally set up for sage rats, with a pair of 223s, and then a 22.250for the shots past 250 yds....and have a rimfire setting next to the truck tire, that is for those real close shots, that wears a 1.5 to 4 shotgun scope on top...

My shooting bench on those outings is the hood of my 88 4 Runner...

I alternate the 223s every 15 shots..... I figure that 90% of my shots are within 200 yds, so that is why I use light loads, either with Blue Dot or SR 4759.. less powder I burn, the longer it takes the barrel to heat up, and the quicker it will cool down not letting it get so hot...

with either powder, I have it figured out, that even shooting one rifle, 3 shots every 2 minutes, will allow me to shoot continuously for 5 or 6 hours straight if need be..

I usually limit my day to 500 to 600 shots.. even tho I can shoot more if I get out there early enough, by 5 or 6 hours, I am starting to get such a headache from scope squinting, that it takes even 800 mgs of Ibuprofen a while to make it all go away..
for that 125 to 150 mile drive home...

BSA don't know how you are liking the 53 V Max, but I have chosen to make that my standard bullet for this years varmint season.. running H 322, SR 4759 and Blue Dot, its giving some pretty accurate results in each of my 223s....but only the fast twist 22.250 will stabilize it tho...

its a long range shooter tho...with the lack of rain etc, I am betting there will be a lot of sage rats out there to get rid of this season....at least her in Oregon...

BSA nice shooting and very correct statement. 335 maybe?

This would be a wise decision IMO

I really like that 53gr v-max and my rifle likes it. I bought that 8 pound keg in Pendleton about 5 years ago and I don't shoot my .223 rem very often. I wish I had some tac or some of the newer temp stable powder instead. I keep a close eye on what the cases are doing and the report from the rifle and all seems good. I'll keep my fingers crossed until I burn up the last of this keg ...That group I posted earlier is sub moa (.854") and shoots good in the wind etc....

This is how it shoots when the barrel starts warming up:

Seafire, hope all has been good with you.
Unfortunately the closest dog towns open for me are the rose bud, and pine ridge reservations.
That means a 250 mile 1 way trip, and with the price of gas anymore plus the fact that the res's have gone and upped the prices it makes for and expensive proposition. Also the fact that they banned handguns awhile back kinda spoiled going up there.
Never have tried the V-Max as I don't particularly like bullets that are dedicated to just a couple of my 5 22's. I tend to shoot more Sierras and Noslers than any thing else as they will stabilize and shoot very well in all of them.
Haven't tried any 322 yet, but did run across some 8208 XBR and am going to see how it compares to benchmark and 335 as tomorrow is supposed to be in the 50's and I need to get out of the house.
I will let you know how they compare on the chrony, and group size.

BSA, again nice shooting. congrats looks like you are dialed in just fine.

You all have a great day, gotta go change a water pump.

One thing that no one ever things about is how different various lot# of powder can be...that is another issue.

One thing that I did learn was that if the ammo is allowed to heat up in a hot car or truck, primers crater much more.

I learned that if I was going to go to a hot climate, then I would down load the powder about 1.0g from my load...this technique seems to cure a lot of ills...I credited this for not having any issues. We normally worked up our loads in 75* temps. I can remember my hunting partner and I stripping down to our shorts shooting p. dog in some isolated valley's in N. Wyoming it was so hot. The dog shooting was so great, we would dump out a box of 50 and fire as fast as we could load an acquire target. I learned to pull the trigger with my middle finger and not take my hand too far away from the bolt. I had a Rem 788 with 8 Magazines. I would shoot till I could no longer see through the scope, then grab another rifle. My load for that rifle was 26g of H335 with a 55g Win soft point. I also shot 27.5g of Win 748 with the 50g Sierra Blitz and 26.5g of 748 with the 55g Sierra Blitz, never any issues with them also.

At that time, my hunting partner and I shot around 24,000 to 26,000 rounds a year on dogs, j. rabbits, ground squirrels, and chucks. One thing we learned real fast was that H335 and Win 748/ do not have the deterrant of calcium carbonate in the powder that build up in the throat like AA2015 and H322. A powder ring can build up in the throat that is really tough to get out if your shot strings are too long. We learned to clean the 223's at 125 rounds when shooting H322 and AA2015, and could go 250 rounds with win 748 and H335.

You have to use some common sense when you are shooting an accuracy node at the very top end of the pressure curve. Letting rounds cook in your hot chamber...well, you will learn better sooner or later...or maybe you won't learn and just look for a more temp sensitive powder, then learn the lesson all over again. Letting your ammo cook in the sun...well...HERE'S YOUR SIGN!

I find the best way to keep from all these issues is to not load to the ragged edge. Leave some room at the top for potential issues. That, and every Remington 700 gets it's firing pin hole bushed. Had some serious issues there, especially with the newer rifles.

Thanks for all of the advice. I wisht I'd have had it before I went on numerous pdog shoots with 4 to 6 rifles.
As far as someone shooting 30 rounds as fast as he can pull the trigger, the only time I've seen that was a bunch of wannabes destroying phone books with their "platforms".

You oughta go on a good gopher shoot someday, a fast 30 rounds is often only the 'opening volley'!

Opening volley? Oh, I wish -- but I have had shooting good enough that strips of old towel and a spritzer bottle are a good thing.

Use someone other than Bubba to bush firing pins. Those little voids caused by cutting through the plug threads are a pet peeve of mine. If they would use a tapered head screw as their plug and cut a small matching taper in the bolt face they will face off perfectly flat.

Unless I am using a 10/22 ( which is rare), then regardless of how much a target rich environment I may be looking at...I'm of the bolt action single shooting crowd....

call me patient....

You've never had seething hordes of Varmint Cong breach your perimeter then!

Greg Tannel does mine. Have been quite happy with the results.

Sure I have... they just don't intimidate me...

you Montana boys just need to grow a pair...



Besides, I am not into bang flop on varmints... I am highly into the red mist factor.. and I want to enjoy watching each one do so... or the other thing I like is to hone my skills on hitting them just right, to make them go airborne just right...

that is why I love Shrapnel's pics of the exploding prairie dog or the digital disappearing crow...

bang flop is for deer hunting... explosions and red mist is for "real men" varmint 'hunting'...but you Montana boys understand that, unless you are freaking out over your "perimeter"....

now if we could just legalize Democrats under the heading of varminting.. and get a permit with no bag limit...

Why do you think we shoot from the truck so much?

It ain't safe out there!

And besides, theres plenty of time for 'finesse' shooting after they throw the first few 'waves' at you��

Until then, high body count trumps style

I thought that was why a fellow always carried grenades or a bloop gun - to halt ravenous hordes of Varmint Cong.

We carry those too, and if we can set up in the AO before dawn, we set out a perimeter of claymores

Something tells me the next shoot will have VC wind flags -- red, blue with the yellow star in case you boys have forgotten.