Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Load Development question?

Okay as some of you know this whole reloading thing is very new to me so forgive me for all the questions. Here is what I did tonight for my Kimber 300 WSM with 168 TSX's. I loaded up 4 of each of these:

63.5g H4350 COAL of 2.85 (.03 off the lands)
63.5g H4350 COAL of 2.83 (.05 off the lands)
64g H4350 COAL of 2.85
64g H4350 COAL of 2.83
64.5g H4350 COAL 2.85
64.5g H4350 COAL 2.83

All these were loaded using WLRM primers and after resizing I trimmed all the cases to 2.090 per SAAMI prior to seating bullets. My plan is to take these to the range with a Chrono and shoot em and see which ones shoot best and what kind of velocities I am getting. Am I doing this right?

Cub,
Looks good to me. Might want to load three or four "foulers" so you can run a patch through her after shooting a couple of the different loads you have worked up then foul the bore before you start with the next group of reloads. Powder fouling is a good thing to keep patched out of a "magnum".
If you have some try 62g of H380 with the TSX's. Should be around 3150 and be real accurate. Keep us posted on how you do.

Dave

Everyone has a little different way of doing things. Yours seems as good as any. I personally just vary charges when I try a new powder/bullet combo, not seating depths (I save that for later). But there's definitely nothing wrong with what you're doing. I'll agree with RaceTire and plan for fouling shots. I'll remember to take a note book too. I loaded for a friend's 300WSM and he's getting close to 1/2" groups. He wipes out the barrel after about every 6-8 shots, then he absolutely has to take one fouling shot. That one fouler is ALWAYS about 1/2" higher and 1 1/2" to the left. Then the rest are back dead on until he wipes the barrel again.

I can't say about the specific data being safe or not as I don't load for a 300WSM, but just guesstimating that the loads sound in the ballpark. I assume you got these loads by looking at at least one manual or other trusted source of load data if not several.

Past that, there are a lot of ways to approach looking for that right load. Part of it depends on what you want. Is accuracy paramount over all else and to the exclusion of velocity? Or do you want the best combination of both? Or do you want top velocity with "minute of deer" accuracy.

Rememeber that no powder charge number you see in any book is a hard and fast number for your gun. And the published velocity for a given load may vary in your gun as much as 150fps for a multitude of reasons. Dont expect to always match the velocity of a published load...you rarely will.

Remember the numbers to watch closest are the ones on your chrongraph. Look at the data you have, and see what the top end velocity is with H4350 and 168s (of all makes). They wont be exactly the same, but you'll notice an "average" max velocity...say for instance 3100. One may say 3150, another may say 3050. When your shooting 168s with 4350, and you approach the lower end of that average, you're approaching or at a safe max load...assuming nothing else tells you you're getting over pressure. And then the bbl length and other variables from that which the data was derived can play a part in what your max velocity is. Just for instance, if a book says 68grs of 4350 is the max load at 3100fps, and you're getting 3100fps with 66 grains of powder...my advice is that you're at or very near the max for your gun already. I personally hold the opposite as true too, but some people wont exceed a book max powder charge even if their velocity is way slow. Velocity should be the 1st, but not only key to your pressure ceiling. As a very general rule of thumb, the faster end powders like the 4350s wont give the best velocities compared to the slower ones like R-22 or R-25 in cases like the WSMs, but thats only a rule of thumb, not hard and fast. Still, they might give "enough" velocity and be the most accurate. That's just something you have to sort out by experimenting.

As for accuracy...you may see a big diff in these loads based on seating depth, you may not. The powder charge could too, but IME, a half grain one way or the other rarely affects it too severly. If this shows some promise with accuracy, you can either adjust powder charges or seating depth to try to "dial it in"...thats up to you, and dependant on what your pressure indicators tell you about the loads too. If it slings them all over the place, the gun may not like the bullet, or may not like the powder...changing one or the other and starting over might be something you try.

My approach is to find a bullet/powder/primer combo that shows nice promise for accuracy, then work it up to my desired max velocity and see if it holds it's accuracy. I rarely play with seating depth and most alway seat touching the lands if mag legnth will allow. But that's just my approach, and its but one approach that works and it works for me. Others have equally successful or maybe even better approaches.

The way you're working up and playing with seating depth seems to be a good approach.

Lots of luck...there's lots of good info from experienced loaders here. Read it all and develope your own way. Have fun and be safe!

P.S. Take a notebook like someone above wrote...write down all the details. make persona notes and observations...you'll start to notice trends, and also be able to duplicate what you did when you want to, or know what to not try again.

I try to change only one thing at a time. I work up the load at one seating depth, (touching the lands) then once I find my max load I vary the seating depth to see if tuning helps.
Nothing really wrong though with the way your going.

280,
Great advise!! As Cub will find out he is about to embark on a journey that he will have a lot of fun with. I have found reloading to be great therapy as it normally gives me that sense that I accomplished something when a load/rifle comes together.
Your comments regarding published load data and pressure are spot on. Long throated barrels will really throw a guy a curve as will many other things that a man learns as the journey heads farther down the trail.
Hope Cub keeps us posted on his progress.

Dave

Second to what some others have said.

You are doing several things right, THE most important of which is that each test load varies only one thing at a time. You do have two GROUPS of one-factor test loads, but that's fine as long as you keep good records. I'd suggest having two load data sheets, with all loads at each seating depth on one sheet.

DO take lots of range notes. "Wind came up on shot #3, load #16" will be invaluable later when you find that "flyer" on the target! You might save what is actually a good load, rather than dismissing it because that group looks bad.