New to re-loading - fist batch too hot?

[Bspurr13]

Hello! New guy here in desperate need of advice from experienced and knowledgeable re-loaders.

OK, I've been shooting my whole life; Been building ARs for years; But I am brand-new to the world of re-loading. I'm really excited, especially since I just built a 300 AAC/BO (16' with a carbine gas system) and am in the process of building a 300 pistol.

I just loaded a batch of ammo - my first ever. I have a reasonable attention to detail, and take my time to do things correctly. But I think, due to my inexperience, mixed with some inaccurate load data, I worked up some very hot loads.

I could only find IMR 4227 - powder is hard to find around here (Kalifornia).

I got my load data from the IMR (Hodgdon) site.

Bullet: Hornady 165 gr SST - 16 grains of 4227 - seated to the groove (first mistake - I know) with an over-all length of 2.15 (Max COL 2.26)

The powder weight was right in the middle of the range given on the IMR site - but after looking around (and joining Loaddata.com) it seems about 2 grains high. I'm worried with the heavy charge, and the bullet too deep, it's gonna be too hot. BUT - I'm so new, I don't know, what I don't know.

Please, give me your opinions. Should I just pull all the bullets and start over? Or will they be safe to shoot a few and look for high pressure signs?

Thanks - Brett

[golfindia]

Picking a powder charge randomly is not "working up" a load.

Working up a load means you start at the min and, uh..... work up.

Pull the bullets and "work up" your load the safe way.

[TMD]

I suggest you spend a little more time actually reading your reloading manuals instead of just picking a charge weight and plopping a bullet on top.

[Bspurr13]

I am new to this, as I said, so I'm not familiar with all the terms yet ("working up" the range now makes sense). I didn't just randomly pick a powder charge and "Plop on a bullet" either. I went to what I thought was a reliable resource - the powder manufacturer - to find my starting point. One does need a starting point - right? I started in the middle of the stated range. The entire reason I'm here, is because of my further reading and research - it looks like I got some bad or misprinted load data, when I compared it to the many other resources (It's the only one with that big of a charge) I've been using.

Again, I didn't just by a press and start "plopping bullets on". After reading a bunch, watching a bunch of videos, reading forum threads, etc. I made my fist batch, using data from what I thought was a reliable source. There are several threads about aberrant or misprinted load data from Hodgdon - but only found that after specifically searching for "bad data".

I'm here asking for help and input from those of you who have way more experience. To learn. As someone way smarter than me said - "An error only becomes a mistake, if it's not corrected." Because I'm interested in doing this correctly, I caught what seems to be an error, before it became a big mistake.

So pull them?

[smustian]

Do yourself a favor and buy a collet bullet puller with the 30 cal collet. I use a RCBS collet puller and have different collets for other calibers I reload. Makes easy work of bullet pulling, partial pulling to reset the depth, etc. The kinetic hammer is fine for 1-5 pulls but after that it is just annoying.

Yes pull all the charges that are over and any others that you have from your ladder that do not perform well.

[rjacobs]

I didn't just randomly pick a powder charge and "Plop on a bullet" either. I went to what I thought was a reliable resource - the powder manufacturer - to find my starting point. One does need a starting point - right? I started in the middle of the stated range.

To be honest you kinda did just "randomly pick a powder charge" by picking the middle of the charge window. That MAY be a safe charge, it may not be. Every chamber is a law unto itself. TYPICALLY a manufacturer when they do their testing uses a min spec chamber so in a looser chamber there SHOULDNT be any issues.

Here is how I start with BASIC load work up:
check the manufacturer data(you did this)
load 3 at the min charge
load 3 up 3% from the min charge(example... 10 was min book charge, so now you would load up .3g)
repeat until you are 3% ABOVE the book max(example...book max of 12, so you would load to 12.3 or there abouts)
head to range
shoot those, collect brass, look for pressure signs(ejector swipe, extractor claw marks, flat primer, pierced primer, blown primer, bulged case, etc...). You might not get to your max charged loads so dont keep shooting if pressure signs show up. Ive been quite a ways above max book without any real pressure signs before, again pointing back to "every chamber is a law unto itself"

After pressure testing I move into OCW testing to find nodes to work in. These are done in 1% charge weight changes.

Then I move onto chrono testing inside of my defined nodes in order to find low SD and ES numbers and remove the shooter from the equation. Chrono exclusively at this point. These are typically worked in .1 grain increments.

So wide area's, narrowing, really narrow.

[Bspurr13]

Well, I guess I did "just pick a charge" :/ I thought anything within that range was appropriate, and figured mid-range would be a good place to start.

I will buy the collet recommended, and start over.

I really appreciate the help,

Brett

[dellet]

Tough crowd today.

Your big mistake was not giving enough details of what you did and how you got there.

Hodgdon lists 15.8-16.9 as min/max, 16 grains is not that random.

The bigger problem is you also switched bullets and seating depth.

Hodgdon used a 168 BTHP seated at 2.230"

You used a 165 SST seated at 2.15"

Hornady 168 BTHP is 1.232"

Hornady 165 SST is 1.274"

You took a longer bullet, and seated it deeper. That will make a huge difference in pressure. You have about .120" more bullet in the case if I did the math right.

To use the data you have either, move the bullet out to a COL of 2.275". Which will not work in a magazine and may not fit the chamber.

Now you have two different problems to solve.

How long can you safely seat the bullet?

How much powder can you safely put under it?

That's going to take a book and some tools to figure out.

You have a couple of options there. Look at load data from Hornady, which will likely have that powder bullet combo. You could also buy the correct bullet for the data you have.

It looks like there is a headspace/overall length gauge and a couple of books that need top go on your Christmas list real quick.

Here's a good reference for bullet lengths to compare what you have with what was used in the data.

http://www.jbmballistics.com/ballistics ... ml#Hornady

[Bspurr13]

"Tough crowd today."

Just the first two - but that's ok, I have thick skin. Plus, the other 3 of you guys took some time, from busy lives, to give me some great info and advise - and it's much appreciated.

The difference in bullet lengths was a big factor in making me realizing I had done at least one thing wrong - prob 2 (bullet depth, on top of too big a charge). Yikes! In a few places the reference material has the 165 and 168 grain bullets lumped together like 165/168. But as I looked closer I saw the different dimensions, resizing it would seat deeper. Plus I sat it too deep anyway, regardless of the dimension difference.

On load data.com I found the bullet / powder combo that I needed (I signed up today).

With that bullet, and a COL of 2.26, the powder range is 11.8 - 14.2 - sound right to everyone?

So, I'll get a pullin - then do a real "work up".

[DoubleJ]

Getting started reloading is scary. Getting started reloading with a cartridge that was recently a wildcat and involves a bottleneck? Even scarier. I started off with straight wall pistol cartridges, never deviating from published data, and only moved on to bottlenecks (which will double your investment with the trimming involved) once I was comfortable and had seen some stuff. I also read three loading manuals cover to cover, and watched the RCBS DVD. Also pretty good info on youtube, if it's from reputable sources. Ideally, you'd want a local mentor. Barring that, places like Sportsmans Warehouse give classes on basic reloading. I can't comment on your bullet/powder combo, as I only shoot heavy subs, but that bullet rings a bell, is it a solid? If so, solid data isn't interchangeable with cup/core data, as you've already found out. There are a million intricacies in reloading and hand loading, and attention to detail can never go away. Glad you asked around before you put those in your rifle, who knows what would have happened.