Another nice day at the range!

popper

Well-Known Member
larger span than the Norma data From my limited experience, when you have a small load span, you better stay in the window. H110 is one that is tricky - made a 'belted' magnum out of a BO case in AR - first one extracted, 2nd didn't. The marlin doesn't have a great extractor either. Barely get one jammed in the lands and extractor won't pull it. And it wears. Measure that fired case at the base to see if over pressured. Hottest I've loaded was 33gr leverE under a 185gr GCd/PC/WD and accuracy was good (~40k psi).
I've shot a lot of hornady factory 308mx FTX (that stuff will wake you up) & 30/30 FTX stuff that is HOT/high psi, no problems extracting.
 
Last edited:

Ian

Notorious member
I wish I could give you my accuracy load with that bullet in my 336 but it doesn't translate well and would have to be worked up very, very carefully with a given lot of powder. Basically it is Reloder 7 settled in the case and BPI granulated shotshell buffer sifted in through a funnel to provide about 3mm of compression when the bullet is seated. Light engraving pressure when seated and a light roll crimp does the trick. Powder charge is in the upper third of book data for a 170-grain cast bullet, but the amount of buffer and compression is critical. Too much compression and pressure gets a little erratic and groups spread dramatically. Too little and the buffer mixes with the powder. Too much powder to buffer ratio and pressure again can get high (starting load levels are not necessarily safe with the buffer). Normal lot to lot variance in powder burn rate is enough to throw the load off of an accurate node, but once you get it right, it's magic, like half-inch groups kind of magic with a lube the rifle likes.

Reloder 7 (at least the Alliant stuff from the last decade to present!) is unusually stable at both high and low pressure and also at reasonably low loading densities all the way up to slight compression, and that quality makes it ideal for experiments involving fillers and buffers.