Reloading for velocity node?

[z7]

first off, you must start low and “work up”
And you must follow published data and not exceed a max charge

Now to my question: I have a good load for my 308 using 44g of varget in win brass pushing a 178eldm at 2660fps

All of that is within the Hodgdon load data

Is it reasonable to think imr 4895 might perform well at a similar speed, I can load up 10 rds in a ladder of sorts to “pressure test” and see what sort of velocity I am getting with 10’shots or so, then go back and load another small batch to bracket my target velocity and see if they group well around 2660. I want to use the ammo in local prs type matches and don’t want to have to gather new dope.

I am low on varget but have a pound of Imr 4895 sitting in the shelf that I want to use up but don’t want to dedicate lots of rounds to load development,

Hodgdon shows varget maxing our at 2690fps and Imr 4895 at 2704fps both with 45grains of powder with win brass, fed primers and a 24” barrel which matches what i have

 

[30Cal]

No guarantees IME. I'd try it and see. Even if it does reasonably well at the same velocity, it wouldn't surprise me if you need to fudge your zero's a bit.

 

[Blue68f100]

Different powder will have a different burn pressure curve. It's highly possible that the node will be in a different velocity range.

 

[Nature Boy]

I’ve never used IMR 4895 but have good comparisons between H4895 and Varget. In this case when loading 185g Berger Hybrids the faster burning H4895 hits the velocity target with less powder and less pressure signs than Varget

In this case, the accuracy nodes for both powders align at roughly the same velocity, but it’s not exact.

In other words, you’ll still have to go through load development with the IMR 4895 and let the target tell you where your node is.

When making ammo for competition purposes, I just don’t think there are any short cuts