Straying from the manual

[The Sodbuster]

Just curious how many others do the same as I do.  I don't exceed maximum, recommended loads for a given bullet, but I frequenty regard other spec's more casually.  Load manual used Federal brass?  Sorry, I'll have to make do with Remington or Winchester cases.  Winchester large rifle primers?  I'm afraid these CCI 200 primers will have to do; don't have any Winchesters on hand.  Hornady doesn't give a load for Benchmark powder with their 52 grain A-Max?  Well then I'll go with Hodgdon's load data for a 52 grain Sierra HPBT.  I figure as long as I'm starting low and working my way up the powder weight, I'm OK.

I think it was Barsness who had an article on what a difference primers can make in pressure and velocity for the same load (Rifle magazine, I believe).  What I remember from the article was that CCI primers gave lowest pressures for a given load and Winchesters generally gave the highest.  Since reading that, I don't feel bad about substituting CCI primers if the manual suggests something else (I tend to use CCI primers since when I started reloading I bought a box of 1000.  They were what I always had on hand).

Am I acting recklessly?

[victorcharlie]

I don't think your acting recklessly, provided you start a little below max and work up......now, lets say you've already developed a load you like that is near max......if I was to change components I'd drop below max and work back up.........

[fishdog52]

I have to admit similar practices.  I have a pretty good collection of reloading manuals,  plus Handloader magazine writeups on cartridges I am interested in.  A little common sense goes a long way.  My benchmark is an old Speer #8 manual.  I have always felt that it has been the very reliable source for maximum load data.  However, as it is getting so old, many nwere powder are not represented. Interestingly, I bought a couple pounds of IMR 4320, & IMR 4064 this morning, so some things have not changed to much, well, maybe the  price.

[Questor]

Sodbuster:

I do as you do but am careful about it. When I have all of the same components specified in the manual, I'm much more likely to start closer to the maximum charge. When the variance from the recipe is greater, I use the "reduce by 10 percent and then work up toward maxumum" rule. That said, I prefer to acquire load data for components I have available. Typically I pick load data that I can buy components for. In my case, that means Winchester brass is favored, as are CCI or Winchester primers.

[ButlerFord45]

The newer Lee manual describes the when where and how of fudging. I think you'd find it intresting.

[HL]

Guilty!,,,

But I always start around 7% below max and work up in 0.2 increments, looking for accuracy. I figure a deer is not going to know the difference between 2800fps and 3000fps. and the bullet performs the same at either velocity.

Good shooting,

HL

[PaulS]

I always thought that this is what handloading was all about.
you look up the load in your manuals - research the differences a bit.
Get the components for the load that you selected.
Using common sense to start a bit low and then work up slowly to find the best accuracy.
Make a small change and work it up again - always looking for that magic load that puts all twenty rounds in a single hole at two hundred yards.
I select the initial components for my own reason - just like most do - my bullets are chosen for performance based on experience or for testing a new bullet to see how it compares with past experience with others. The powder is usually selected as the three that are listed as giving the highest velocity. I then test them in work up loads to see which one my gun likes best and which one I get the best performance with. Primers are swaped around in testing to see what each one does for me. Sometimes the give better groups and others times they don't. Primers are wierd in that at times they don't seem to do anything but change the standard and mean average deviations without affecting accuracy and other times they affect the group size negatively while making the standard and mean average deviations close up to very small numbers under 1%.
When I see that I usually work that load up and down a bit to see if I can get the groups to reflect the sd and mad. Once in a while it all comes together with a load that has a near maximum velocity, very small mad and sd and groups that are as close to that "magic group size as I can get. Then over a month long test at different altitudes and temperatures the groups stay small and very consistant. Those are the loads that make it into my "Favorite Loads" book while the others are delegated to my reload history book.
I keep the workup data, test targets, and as much information as I can about all my loads so that once I work with a powder and bullet I have a good history of what worked and what didn't. It keeps me from working up a load that I have already done before just to find that it doesn't work any better now than it did back then.

[longwinters]

I think you are pretty much going to hear the same thing from everyone.  You can change components with care.  Barsness said in that article that he felt comfortable swapping the CCI primers for any of the standard rifle primers.  Not so with Winchester etc....

Long

[Brithunter]

Hmmm the trouble here is that not all rifles are nor do the react the same  after loading for my BSA CF2 Stutzen in .270 Winchester for many years I took a recipe right off a powder manufactures leaflet and as I had the exact components on hand and loaded exactly as they specified. First shot showed slightly sticky bolt lift ............................... Hmm perhaps I need to check how old these cases are. Then the next shot expanded the primer pocket so the primer fell out on extraction  In my rifle these loads are over the top that's for sure.

 With a Husqvarna Model 46 I have using the top load listed in the article on loading for the 9.3x57mm I found that the cases did not obturate properly so I edged up the loads until the pimers sat almost flush and the blackened necks dissappeared. I think I could still go higher but as it's working as it is will leave it having no way to measure the pressure in my rifle. Internal Ballistics is not an excact science as every barrel and chamber is slightly different  .

[Dusty Miller]

I wouldnt even CONSIDER doing such a thing, except on Saturdays, Sundays, and weekdays!!

[PaulS]

When it comes to reloading I am reminded of something said of soldiers;
"there are bold soldiers and there are old soldiers but there are damn few old bold soldiers"

I think the same applies to reloaders. The bold ones either learn to be less bold or they don't grow old.