Loading Over Max?

[edwea]

Well I loaded up .1 over max and touched a few rounds off last weekend. Results were promising. My group did tighten up a bit. I did see pressure sign, but not more than factory ammo. 20 more rounds are loaded and we'll see how they do down at the farm this weekend.

 

[BiscuitsandGravy]

FWIW... We found a very tight node right at 30.6gr of H335 under 90gr Speer TnTs. Its just under 'book' max load at 32.0gr. We see the start of primer pressure signs so we always try to check the primers and cases for other pressure signs.

Our goal is ALWAYS accuracy when reloading. It just happens that in this case, we're close to max.

YMMV.

 

[NKBJ]

Measure base, body, shoulder and neck diameters before and after shooting.
And take macro setting photos of case bases / primers before and after.
The tech is there so store away in data.
Never know what can "click" for you later if the info is there for retro-think.

The SBR-118 looks like it's just the cat's meow for heavier 5.56, right in the hot zone. But hey, apparently that's what it was designed for.

 

[edwea]

Okay, so I am at a loss here. With max load and .1 over max, I am turning out some confusing results and would love some input from you smarter types. With EVERY 3 shot group there are 2 holes touching and a flier. The 2 hole pair is pretty consistent in location, the flier is not. Often low left, sometimes right, sometimes high. Is not always on the same shot. Could be first, second or third shot. The extreme spread is about .5-.75" at 50 y so it is certainly minute of deer, but I would love to bring that straggler in for 1 hole groups at 50. Any ideas? I have some loads at .1 under max to burn thru today to see if that helps. I can live with the results that I am getting, but again single hole groups at 50 y would be sweet and I'm almost there.

 

[Trapper Jim]

I doubt if your groups are effected by the amount of powder (especially slow burning stuff) than everything else that you have control of. Barrel, fire control, marksmanship, scope/sights, components, hand loading skills, etc. playing around max or over is like driving car at 6000 rpm all the time. The benefits are not worth the cost. Best equipment first. I see so many less than best choices made by today’s shooter which will always have its drawbacks somewhere in the field. I have witnessed comments like, “l just love my Vertorx scope , I had to only send it back once, but they paid the shipping!!!!!” Or, “got this powder from Slavkia and it meters great!!!” Or , I don’t under stand fliers, I always support my barrels on my rest out past the forearm”.

if your stuff is working for you it’s okay to let it work for you with less pressure. Just saying.

 

[Wolfhound]

I doubt if your groups are effected by the amount of powder (especially slow burning stuff) than everything else that you have control of. Barrel, fire control, marksmanship, scope/sights, components, hand loading skills, etc. playing around max or over is like driving car at 6000 rpm all the time. The benefits are not worth the cost. Best equipment first. I see so many less than best choices made by today’s shooter which will always have its drawbacks somewhere in the field. I have witnessed comments like, “l just love my Vertorx scope , I had to only send it back once, but they paid the shipping!!!!!” Or, “got this powder from Slavkia and it meters great!!!” Or , I don’t under stand fliers, I always support my barrels on my rest out past the forearm”.

if your stuff is working for you it’s okay to let it work for you with less pressure. Just saying.

I agree with this 100%.

 

[johntheplinker]

Okay, so I am at a loss here. With max load and .1 over max, I am turning out some confusing results and would love some input from you smarter types. With EVERY 3 shot group there are 2 holes touching and a flier. The 2 hole pair is pretty consistent in location, the flier is not. Often low left, sometimes right, sometimes high. Is not always on the same shot. Could be first, second or third shot. The extreme spread is about .5-.75" at 50 y so it is certainly minute of deer, but I would love to bring that straggler in for 1 hole groups at 50. Any ideas? I have some loads at .1 under max to burn thru today to see if that helps. I can live with the results that I am getting, but again single hole groups at 50 y would be sweet and I'm almost there.

Try 5 shot groups instead of 3. With 2 shots together and 1 wild, it could be anything causing it especially since the flier is in a different spot and not in the same order.

 

[shibumiseeker]

Look for pressure signs. It seems that newer reloading manuals are more conservative about max loads than older ones. I have a few reloading manuals from 20+ years ago, and the charges in those books go up way stouter than my new ones. Could be because of lawyers, further testing of powders, who knows. Elmer Keith loaded his 255gr 44 mag with 22grs of 2400. Absolutely zero reloading books would ever recommend anything close to that stout of a load, but I'm willing to bet Elmer put more of those through his Model 29 than most of us have put rounds through all of our guns combined. So, case in point, look for pressure signs.

It’s sort of a fallacy to compare load data from older publications when using newer powder and vice versa. There are subtle changes in burn characteristics from batch to batch of powder and there is change over time. While it is true that newer publications are more conservative than older ones, it’s also true that that same name powder probably has changed some over time, or newer guns with different characteristics are on the market, or, or, or.

Pressure signs that most people rely on are also not reliable. One thing a lot of people don’t consider is the yield strength of the gun parts. The closer you push the edge the fewer times you can get away with it before failure in some guns. Other guns are so overengineered that a steady diet of +p won’t ever be an issue.