New thread as to not derail Pharms thread.
There are lots of stories about H335 (or assumed H335 as in the Black Hills ammo) good, bad and ugly. Has me curious as I recently purchased a 8# jug (recent mfg) of it and have been shooting 55gr Varmageddons with it. Yesterday in fact I had my Tikka T3 Varmint out and was testing some loads. What proved to be the most accurate was 24.8gr of H335, 55gr Varmageddon in Rem Brass with CCI 400 primers- ~3000fps. Multiple 1/2" or less 3 shot groups confirmed it shoots very well indeed. Second place with the smallest group of the day but not as many 1/2" groups was 24.1gr with the same other components- ~2925fps (3% rule on powder weight seemed to work here). It was a beautiful evening at about 60 degrees and moments of complete still air (very rare here in So Idaho) and during those periods the rifle & load shot some excellent groups.
I bring this up because the loading manuals are all over the place with H335. Possibly due to what Muledeer mentioned in Pharms thread about having a 'Hot" batch back in the 80's? Hornady has a Max load of 23.2gr. (Old manual way higher), Nosler 25.0gr, Speer 26.0, and on the jug from Hodgdon 25.3gr. all with 55gr bullets. Wow, that is a pretty big range for a small volume cartridge.
So, the real question is my load safe? I have seen no signs of pressure and have shot it in 40degrees to 80degrees. Velocity does increase about 50fps over that range but it stays accurate. I don't like to shoot in weather much out of that range so I don't have a worry at 100degrees. I have burned up around 500 rounds with H335 so far this spring and still have a bunch of it left - like 1800 rounds worth @ ~25gr. I will probably not buy more when this is gone but until then I'd like to shoot it up and not have an experience like Pharm's. Thoughts?
