Now that everybody has had a say, here are some comments:
The reason only "weird" powders were mentioned in the article is that they were the ones that got the velocities desired without extreme compression. I have been loading the .358 since the 1970's and tried all the usual suspects, including 3031 and 4895. There is is plenty of data for those powders already out there, if that's what you want to use.
Instead, I was looking for powders that would match factory data in the .338 Federal, and beat the .338 Federal in the .358. The powders mentioned were those that worked best.
This is an ongoing problem with any handloading article. Some people basically want the same old stuff, because they use the same old powders. They could easily find this data either in loading manual or older articles. But repeating the same old data was NOT what this article was about.
In fact, I try not to repeat the same old s--t in any article I write. If you want the SOS, there are any number of other sources for it.
I did not include 250-275 grain load for the .338 Federal because they are too slow. With bullets up to 225 grains, the .338 is indeed about 3% slower than the .358--but once bullets above 225 grains are loaded too much powder space gets taken up, and the loss in velocity is greater.
Plus, as I pointed out in the article, the entire concept of the .338 Federal (especially vs. the .358) is a flater-shooting, higher-pressure round capable of longer range shooting, especially with lighter premium bullets.
Given this, what would be the point of loading it with 250's at 2200 or 275's at 2100? If spitzers, neither would expand reliably much beyond 100 yards. If round-noses (to save powder space) they might expand a little farther, but so what? Would they penetrate deeper than a 225 Partition at 2400, or a 210 TSX at 2600? Woukd they shoot as flat?
The entire history of rifles has been a trend of lighter bullets at faster speeds. This is because bullets keep getting better, in terms of both exterior and interior ballistics. Yet every time another increment in this progress takes place, somebody is determined to take a step backward, and load a cartidge DESIGNED for lighter, faster, deeper-penetrating bullet with heavyweights that will compromise the new cartridge's virtues.
If anybody wants to load the .338 Federal with 250 or 275-grain bullets, they should. It's a free country. An approximatel;y correct powder charge can be arrived at easily with a little figuring. But WHY? If you really want to use a 250, buy a .358--or .35 Whelen or .338 Winchester or any other round designed for that use.
