General Powder Question For a Rifle Load

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  • deemus

    my mama says I'm special
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    IMR 4895 is a great versital powder. I use it on 30-06, 270 and 308.

    You can do a ladder test to tune your ammo to your rifle. Every rifle has its own harmonics. The ladder test allows you to identify a load that best fits your rifle. I have done it on every rifle I have owned.
     

    Txmark

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    I use H4895, IMR 4064, and Winchester 748 in all these calibers. 748 seems to be easier to get these days.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     

    Txhillbilly

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    While there are many powders that can be used on multiple cartridges / bullets, finding one powder that works great in all of them is a pretty rare thing to do.
    I wish it was that easy, I wouldn't have over 30 different powders on the shelves.
     

    hooper

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    I get it. I think right now I just want some place to start (again once things cool slightly) and then build. I'm not into competition shooting, at least not yet, so these are mostly utilitarian desires.

    However the part about reloading that attracts me is the fine tuning for a particular caliber, gun and projectile combination. I can see where more powders will be required.
     

    deemus

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    Win 748 was originally designed for the 308. I get some good loads with that one in my 308.
     

    Axxe55

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    Certain powders work better for specific cartridges. Some powders are fairly versatile and will yield decent results with many different cartridges.

    For a lot of my rifle loads, I use a lot of IMR 4350 powder. But I also have specific powders for specific cartridges as well.
     

    miniion26

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    To answer the question in the OP, Varget is what you seek. I use it for 223 up to 45-70. The only rifle round I don’t use Varget in is 338 Lapua.
    Agreed with Varget. Hard to go wrong with it. Although lately I've been switching to Shooter's World Tactical Rifle, and it's the best powder I have ever tried with my rifles. And it's pretty cheap too, at $150 or so for 8lb jugs.
     

    hooper

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    Yeah I was looking at pricing and although out of stock Varget, runs higher than most, at least. Which is fine since it sound like it performs well.
     

    popper

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    H4895 will work fine for all. IMR is OK but not the same powder. BLC or H335 are good too. These days you get what you can find. May not be the optimal but work well.
     

    deemus

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    I tried to find Varget after several mentioned it on this board. That was after the obummbler debacle, and didnt find it when I wanted to try it out. I heard that it was temp sensitive, so I stopped trying to find it. But lots of folks like it a ton as you can tell from the comments.

    Here are some powders I have used in developing various loads for me and my kids. For most these I tried several powders. But the powders below were arrived at after performing a ladder test for each of them, some multiple times.

    308 - W748 (also used IMR4895 in the past)
    223 - H335 - 3/8" group
    6.5 Creedmoor - H4350 - .448" group
    300 Blackout - H110 (AA#9 works great on 110g bullets for that round too)
    30-06 - IMR4064 - 3/4" group
    30-30 - IMR4064 (Also used IMR 3031)
    270 - IMR 4895
     
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