Confusing info in loading manuals

[Sweetwater]

Add to the confusion.
Get a 2nd 'identical' rifle and make them work. My 1949 Remington 722 in 257Roberts will stick a case in warm weather with a load that my 1952 Remington 722 in 257Roberts will shoot all day no matter how hot the weather. We, later on, decided to back down the loads to what the 1949 rifle wanted as that was easier than 'always' keeping the ammo separated. As stated previously in paraphrase, "we often load much heavier than we need". The 1952 rifle has never failed to deliver using the 1949 rifle ammunition.

Your rifle, or handgun will 'talk' to you. It's similar to your pet. You handle it, feed it, learn to understand it's likes and dislikes. It comes to you and you think you know what it wants. Sometimes you goof and get scratched, but don't need to be hospitalized. When you get 'out of bounds' with your rifles and handguns, they will tell you - if you are listening, you will be spared a bunch of unpleasantness. Experience is a great teacher, but we don't need the experience when we are surrounded by great folks like those on these forums who so willingly share those experiences to try to keep others from having to endure the same experience. I keep telling my son, "I've been there, you don't need to go there, it's no good." Sometimes he does listen. Other times he gets a bit of experience. From your weapons, you will get a noise that isn't right, or recoil that is intolerable, or sticky cases, or blown primer pockets, or a combination, or, as stated above, just doesn't feel right. It's been my experience that these events are way before a modern weapon by a reputable company is ready to come unravelled. My Mausers and Remingtons have let me have these experiences and get to where I realized I didn't need all that whiz-bang and toned them down a bit and stayed in one piece. Same with my Rugers and S&W's. Did loosen up a couple wheelguns, but they never came apart with me. Even my 94Winchester and 73Winchester let me know they appreciated the diet I was feeding them; then when I increased the rations, accuracy bowed out so I never got into high pressure loadings at all with them. I had learned to listen by that time.

I love the experimenting of working up a load, and, because of the variety of minimum and maximum loads listed by the various manuals, I have learned to factor in the variables to my comfort zone of where to begin and when to quit. Until I get rich and have a pressure lab available, that's the best I can do with what I have to work with.

This load development has been a lifelong hobby for me, not a project with a deadline. It's not done until I find nothing else to try. When I loose this passion, I'll get my factory ammunition from Sportsman's Warehouse and just shoot.

Regards,
Sweetwater

[LaOtto222]

It really gets confusing when the starting load in one manual is higher than the max load in another. Do you start with the higher listing or lower listing? What I have concluded, is make sure all of the components are the same. Chances are there is something that is different. A different case, a different primer or maybe just a different lot of powder, which you do not know. Depending on the powder being used some times I am suspicious of going below listed minimums. In these cases, I try to match the listed loads to what reloading supplies I have on hand. If they call out a WW case, then I try to use that, in another manual they call out a Remington case, that is what I use. If they call out a CCI primer, I try my best to match that . With bullets, if I can not get exactly the same one, I try to get one of similar construction and shape. Once I have assembled all of the components to match as close as I can, I then start with the loading data that most closely matches them, be it the lower one or higher one. I like to use Remington 7 1/2 primers for my smaller capacity 224 rifles, but many reloading manuals call out this primer in their load data too. Over the years this is what I learned. Match components as closely as you can, start at listed minimums for those components and work your way up little by little. If you have a chronograph, use it to determine if you are getting the same velocities as listed. Use that knowledge to determine if you are reaching maximum pressures. Hopefully you reach your best accuracy before you reach max pressure. If not then start over with a different set of components - like a different powder or bullet, and work up again. Before I had a chronograph I used the signs. I developed a load for a 223 that was under the max for the powder company's list max, but over on everyone else's. The signs said that every thing was fine. I was not getting any case problems (long life), no sticky cases, bolts that lifted hard, flattened primers, shinny spots on the case head, etc. What I found out was I was running 3600+ fps with 50 grain bullets I backed off of that load right away, 2.5 grains, now I get around 3250 fps and the cases and primers look the same, go figure. I did not loose any accuracy either.   

BTW The smaller the capacity of the case, the more charge weight comes into play. A 1 1/2 grain difference in a 30-06 is quite different than a 1 1/2 grain difference in a 22 hornet so even more caution needs to be taken the smaller the case capacity. Make your charge changes in .2 or .3 jumps instead of .5 grain jumps.