Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Hodgdon H1000 Anyone?

Had a good day shooting at the range today. Not over 80 degrees. Cold for Houston! Shooting Karma was good, not great. .257 Mag. Vanguard shot like a champ. Handloads and factory loads both under an inch. It don't kick and it shoots like a laser. Ruger 77 .257 Bob still won't shoot. First shot at 100 yds. from a cold barrel always goes 2" left and 3" high. It's more unpredictable after that than a scorned woman. It's a chump. Bought some Vitavouri N160 and Hodgdon H1000. The intention is to use the H1000 in the Weatherby and maybe my .25-06. Anybody use it? I am more interested in accuracy than skin peeling velocity.

By the way, an old man sitting next to me was shooting a TC Contender with about a 16 inch barrel with a break that looked like a Flowmaster muffler. He took the scope completely apart and put it back together before he shot it. I didn't even know a scope had that many pieces. It took him about 30 minutes to fire 2 shots. The necks were virtually shooting off the brass cases and he showed them to me. He said they were very old and I advised him to quit. He did and chunked the old loads. He told me it was a 7mm so I assumed it was a TCU. I looked at them and they were headstamped .224 Weatherby and yes they were belted. He said yes it was a .224 Weatherby necked to 7mm. WTF??? Blowtorch

I like the powder speed/temp insensitivity of H1000 and plan on trying it in my 25-06 under 115 Noslers. It gave acceptable results in my 7RM under a 160.

As to the 224/7mm belted case. I'm sure it was some kind of wildcat. Wonder how long his frame will last if he isn't keeping the pressure under ~ 40K psi.............

To me the best, base case to use for the Contender is the 444 Marlin. Have several built on it. It will prodcue all that you want to handle at Contender acceptable pressures. If that doesn't work, I have a 350 Rem in an Encore pistol that will.

If you cleaned your barrel and left a coating of oil in it that you didn't remove before shooting, it would explain your first wild shots.

A defect in the crown can also cause wild first shots. I think the mechanism is that there is a little burr (very hard to see) that becomes filled with jacket material on the first shot or two which causes subsequent shots to go where they're supposed to. I had a 30/06 barrel that did what yours does until it was recrowned and fire lapped.

As for the old guy with the Contender, I'm surprised he's old. Anyone who shoots a belted magnum case in a Contender is just asking for a catastrophic gun failure. Are you sure he wasn't shooting an Encore?

Absolutely certain it was a Contender. He had it in three pieces when he took it out of the tiny case. I agree that a Contender is not something to take a chance with. I had a .444 Contender that kind of scared me so I sold it. I have a .30-30 AI that I seriously overloaded using Ackley's data in his old book. Too much 3031 is not a good thing. The first three rounds had cracks at the head and one of them fell off after I got home. I made the mistake of not looking at them until I had fired three. Having a case turn loose in a Contender could not be any fun. Blowing the action apart would be the pits. Of course I did not shoot any more of them and they were discarded. He had a Colt Sauer rifle that I wanted to steal! It was a 7 mag. and shot like a dream. It looked brand new and had that "new car" smell. He was very afraid of it and shot it only one time. The rangemeaster shot it in for him. He was an older man and was not in very good shape. He was very shaky and had not shot in a long time. A very nice guy who wants to deer hunt this year but his physical limitations make it very hard for him. His choice of rifles made it even harder. I will be that old very soon and I hope I am able to still enjoy shooting and hunting. I hope God will continue to bless him. BT

I have had good luck with H1000 and 160 grain bullets in the 7MM Rem Mag and 200 grain in the 300 Win. Mag, in my 25-06 RL 22 always performed better for me.

I've had good luck w/ H1000 in:

25-06/110's
257Roy/100's
7RM/140's
300RUM/150's

Here is a 600y target (4 shot group) with my 6.5x284 with H1000 and 139g Scenars.



100y group with my .25-06 with 115g NP and H1000

Thaks for the help. I am going to try it in both my .25-06 and my .257 Roy. BT

I absolutely love H1000 in the 264 Win and 7mm STW.

Were
I to acquire a 257 Roy or a 25-06 it would be the first powder I tried.

H1000 is probably my favorite powder for the 6.5-06AI under 140 Hornady SSTs.

My 7STW loves H1000 with 150-160gr bullets