I am reloading for 243 have ????

[backstrap]

I am reloading for my stevens 200 in 243, i was reloading some 55gr ballistic tips,and on Hodgdon web sight the have a load that says 55gr nos bt.Is this i am assumeing 55gr nosler ballistic tip?I am useing h380 Well any way i was loading some brass and the start load is 46 grains and max is 51grains,any way i started at 46 and when i got to 49 the powder is all the way in the neck of the brass theres no way a person could get 2 more grains in the brass so i stoped..On there web sight unders this powder dont show a compresed charger,so what do u all think i should not shoot these rounds,48 grains was at the bottum of the neck.The reason i am loading 3 of each powder weight is so i can see wich weight the gun likes best. but i am not going to shoot this bullet if the guns going to blow up in my face,Please let me know what u all think .

[Kurt L]

Some powders will be compressed yours never used it in 243.
I tried your load ,I got over 51 grains with room for your  bullet
with H380 and I used a funnel and drop tube for a quick check.
mine does great with 58 vmax and hodgdon varget.
You need a drop tube on your funnel to get big charges of compressed loads.
my 30-06 improved takes takes 67 grains of r-25 only way to get it in is a long drop tube.
try your load with a drop tube you should be fine to work up to the 51 max.

[Graybeard]

I don't think your gun will blow up with the load so long as you are certain the book gives the numbers you quote. I've used plenty of loads that were actually listed as up to 105% of case capacity in the book.

The way I do it is to put part of the powder in and vibrate the case then add the rest if it is going to fill it beyond the case mouth. If it doesn't then I drop the charge and set another load block of same type on top of the cases I've dropped powder into and then vibrate them. To do that I just use my vibratory tumbler and turn it on and touch the load block to it a few seconds.

I've had cases slap full to the top that dropped below the neck after such a vibration.

I'm not commenting directly on your loads as I've not checked the book. I'm merely commenting on procedure for loads that are within book limits but which tend to completely fill or over fill the case.

It would be odd tho if the case will not hold the max load if the book doesn't mention it being a compressed load. I think I'd double check the numbers in another book before using it as it is rare for them to not mention a compressed load if in fact it is a compressed load.

BUT it's not necessarily compressed just because it comes to the bottom of neck. You might have room for the full 51 grains to top of neck. Still that constitutes a compressed load unless you vibrate the powder to settle it. I have no specific answer to why your case seems not to hold what the book says it can. Still I have experienced that as well. Most likely due to your case having less volume and more weight than the case they used. Different powder lots might bulk up a bit differently as well.

[yooper77]

backstrap,

Have you shot any of the 55 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip's in the past or just starting?  I am just asking because I couldn't get any to group well enough for my 243 Winchester unless the bullets were 70 to 100 grains.  I have a 1 in 10" rifling twist rate which is normal for the 243 Winchester.

yooper77

[huntducks]

Your not going to blow your gun up if it's a listed load.

Every brand case is different with the volume it will hold WW RP FC Norma PMC Hornady.

What brass are you using?

I load for a 270 and use 60grs of H-4831 it will fit into a WW & FC case but not a RP right from my powder measure.

If needed I use one of the small hand engravers to viberate the case.

I load for a 243 and use 55gr Sierra blitz and H-380 i'll check my load tomorrow and see how many grains i'm loading.

I use WW brass ( rifle) most of the time in everything I load,

[backstrap]

Yooper i am just starting to reload this bullet for this rifle

[backstrap]

Graybeard it might hold the whole 51grains but just the way it looks to me that it wouldnt so i stoped at 49grains

[Graybeard]

It is NEVER a bad plan to shoot the loads a grain or two BELOW max before loading up those with more. Back in my younger and more innocent days I'd start at the minimum and go to max loading them all up and go to the range. It didn't take me long to learn the value of a bullet puller as often those max loads were too dang hot for my gun and quite often the best accuracy was found before getting there anyway.

I've loaded both the Hornady and Nosler light weights and shot them in my Browning Low Wall .243. I really never got the kinda accuracy I wanted from either. I went to the Hornady 65 V-Max and got super accuracy and almost as much velocity.

On the other hand the Hornady factory load with their 58 grain was SUPER accurate and really shot better than anything else I ever fed that rifle and it was really accurate rifle shooting most loads into 0.4" to 0.8" with a very rare exception going slightly over an inch at 100 yards. That Hornady factory 58 stayed under a quarter inch consistently.

[Bearcat 74]

The 55gr NBT's have shot really good out of a couple .243's that I have worked with.  The 2 best powders we have used is H414 and IMR4895.  With H414 I found I got much smaller velocity spread with Mag primers.  Over all I like the IMR4895 loads better, the 414 is faster but not by much and the 4895 is much easier to work with.  My .243 is a Savage 110 and the others have been Stevens 200's.  Nosler's book max was WAY too warm with 414.  We found 49-50grs to best with 414 and the best IMR4895 was 43-43.5grs.  My old Savage liked the Nosler book max of 52.5grs H414 and chrono'd 3998fps, brass lasted about 2 loadings.  None of the Stevens could handle the 52.5grs, a friend decided he was going to try it right off, we liked to have never opened his bolt, start low!