Time to open a can of worms

[beemanbeme]

In a couple of the books I have, 55grs of IMR 4831 WAS the starting load with a yield in the neighborhood of 2500fps.  I have a Nosler book --somewhere-- but it is old. 
With a slower powder like 4831 and a 30-06 sized case, you are close to or run out of case capacity to reach the max.  A couple of my books also show that the max for 4831 is compressed. 

As long as you are getting a reasonable increase in velocity with each increase in powder, I would continue up, keeping an eye on your cases of course, until I hit max or if my velocity gain flattened out, then I would stop. 

My experiences with my '06s has been they like to be near max but were sensitive to being hot rodded.

[steve4102]

I talked with Paul at Sierra bullets today.  He said the new manual was 2 grains lower than the previous manual due to a new rifle with a tight chamber.

  One thing about Sierra is that they do not have pressure testing equipment.  They are old school and still use the the same old pressure indicators that we as handloaders have relied on for years. 

[buck460XVR]

Everything that we have been told to look for as far as pressure sighs in our handloads for the last 50 + years is now said to be no good , and we are to go by what the loading manuals data says as far as pressures and velocities and to use a Chronograph to make sure our loads are in line with the data provided .

So what are we to do when our Chronograph tells us that the load is 300 fps slower than what the book says we should have , do we just keep adding powder even though we are at max per the book ? or do we trust the book data and not the chronograph ?

The point I am trying to make is that even though there is a ton of science behind loading your own ammo , it still requires a good bit of common sense and thought to keep yourself and others safe .

Tell me what you think about the whole thing ?

stimpy

I am new to reloading, but have found that like most things in life, there is no substitute for experience and practice. For us newbies, we need to learn from the experiences of our teachers and to believe they really do  know more than we do.  Before reloading, I never gave a thought to looking for "pressure signs" and just figured as long as my shells fit and went "boom" I was fine. Now I visually inspect each spent casing several times during the process of recycling it. As far as a Chrony, at some point in the future, I hope to have one as I see them as a valuable tool, but I don't see them as a necessity.......not yet anyway. Right now I'm just trying to make safe, accurate and reliable ammo. I yet don't care if the bullets are 200fps slower than published data, just that they hit where I aim consistently.....and go bang everytime I pull the trigger.  All my guns are more than adequate for the game they are used on. so shot placement and bullet performance are still more important than how fast the bullet is going when it hits them. Chasing the magical fps "pot of gold" at the end of the reloading rainbow just to get a desired speed readout on one's Chrony while disregarding other signs of trouble is an addiction I hope to avoid. As foolish as it sounds, for the time being,  I assume the publishers of reloading data are looking to give me safe, reliable and accurate loads and not to send me into the field with sub-performance ammo while using their products.....that said, I intend to stay within the parameters of their published suggestions. When I find different published data for identical bullets/powders I tend to stay away from the extremes.

 Again, I am a new reloader, not a expert handloader.

[Sweetwater]

Buck460- You are on the road to a life-long love affair with some pretty good attitudes for safety. Stay with it! It is a hobby like no other I have ever had and I still find I can learn things from others, as well as garner new insights from my own data. I reloaded for over 40 years before getting a Chrony. Mine is the Beta Master model from Shooting Chrony, and though it was a long time coming and I have a lot of fun with it, it does NOT take me down that primrose path to higher velocity desires. It does help me figure out various questions in my mind like 'do I really need to .... whatever the step in prepping I'm thinking of not doing anymore - and if it will make any real difference. My buddy has the plain jane Alpha model from Shooting Chrony; no bells no whistles. Turn it on and it spits out velocities. It is way easier to manipulate than mine - sort of more shooter friendly. They come with a form to jot the velocities on, which I also use with mine for future reference. I'm a math jock so the need for the statistical capability is not as strong as just plain ease of getting going. Mine I have to get the instructions out every time I go to use it. Takes just a tad of the fun out, while adding just a tad of user frustration. I just don't use it enough to get real good at running the buttons.

Even being tenacious about going by the book is no guarantee that high pressures will not be encountered. We still need to stay tuned to our weapon and listen to it and inspect the cases for 'changes'. Some powders are very touchy about temperature to the event that a load cooked up for a November sub-zero temperature hunt, but developed in July, very likely could be a very poor perforner when the mercury plummets. Vice-versa, a load developed in late fall or early spring could be a bolt jammer in late August. Other powders don't seem to care what the weather is, they just perform. I like these. They have simplified my life a bit. I can develop when I have time, and they will work in their proper season. I can handle simple.

Regards,
Sweetwater