working up loads...

[Afy]

Increment 1/10th of a grain at a time or .5 grains at a time?

also how many cartirdges do you load per step while working up loads?
5 or 10?

I think 2 groups of 5 shots would be better than just one... to avoid shooter mistakes...

Thank you once again for inputs.

 

[Sgt.Dusk]

I usually use .2 or .3 increases in loads.
1/10 is not necessarily noticeable enough increase...BUT
when you are working at or above maximum loads 1/10 is fine.

I usually load 15-20rnds, then you can usually tell how the load works.

 

[Walkalong]

The closer you get to Max, the smaller the increment. It all depends on the caliber, the powder, the cartridge, etc.

 

[Sunray]

Beginning with the starting load given in your manual, load 5 rounds only. Go up by half a grain of powder, loading 5 of each keeping them separate until you get to the max load in your manual. Do not load above the max load given in your manual.
Then go shooting. Shoot at 100 yards, for group only, slowly and deliberately off a bench.
Change targets between strings of 5 and allow time for the barrel to cool.
When you find the best group, sight in. Where you sight in, as in where the group should be at 100, depends on the cartridge and bullet weight. However, most hunting cartridges tend to work best when sighted in 3 to 4 inches high at 100. This'll put you on target out to about 300 yards with no hold over. Consult a ballistics table for the exact POI by cartridge and bullet weight.

 

[taliv]

what walkalong said, assuming your desire is to be somewhere around max

 

[USSR]

The closer you get to Max, the smaller the increment. It all depends on the caliber, the powder, the cartridge, etc.

+1.

Don

 

[WayneConrad]

For pistol:

.2, until near max, then .1

5 of each.

When test firing, examine each group of five carefully before proceeding to the next increment.

Once near or at max, examine each individual cartridge before firing the next.

 

[armoredman]

Ditto, 1/10th in handgun loads, usually 1/2 in rifle loads.

 

[sqlbullet]

I divide the difference in the manual from the starting to the max by 5 and round to the nearest .1gr. That is my standard increment. This rule of thumb handles the aforementioned need to adjust for pistol/rifle/cannon/etc.

 

[snuffy]

I look at the size, or over all volume of the case to decide on what increments to load at. 30.06 volume cases won't know the difference from less than .5 grains of powder. Any smaller increments is a waste of components, especially when working up a new combination. .223 WILL notice the difference of .2-.3. But loading in smaller increments leads to using up a lot of bullets, primers, and powder before finding an accurate load.

Also, the recommended starting point is never the most accurate load, so I never go that low. If it's a brand new rifle/cartridge, I may go as low as 1 grain ABOVE the recommended starting load. Otherwise I split the load in half, starting half way between starting and max for my starting point. It saves a lot of components.

 

[qajaq59]

The closer you get to Max, the smaller the increment. It all depends on the caliber, the powder, the cartridge, etc.

Generally though, since I only shoot rifles that use .308 projectiles, I'll use the .5 grain steps. And I load 5 of each. The only hard part is letting the rifle cool down after each shot.

 

[Afy]

3 primary calibers:

300 WM
8x60S
.222 Remington Magnum.

Hence my presumtion would be .5 in the first two and .1 in .222 RM...

 

[Walkalong]

.222 Remington Magnum.

An oldie but a goodie. I have a heavy barrel Sako in .222 Mag. It likes H335 and Hornady bullets. I went by .3 until I got close to max where I went by .1 in it.

A couple of other powders worked well, but no better than H335 and not quite the velocity.

There are newer powders available today vs 20 years ago, but H335 is still plenty good enough.

 

[Afy]

I have a Win 70 XTR in .222 RM that is getting a new Walther Lothar barrel. Hope it works

I like the caliber and the rifle... at least until I can find an affoardable 6.5x47 Lapua.

 

[DWARREN123]

I reload 40 S&W only and this is my way of doing it;
Check the manual(s) for starting load, do 10 rounds for each pistol. If I feel it is a safe load then do 10 more at +.2 grains and so on until I do not feel comfortable to go up any more. Test fire the rounds and make notes, go from there.
I never max out a load so I have so far not had any problems except for too long OAL, I corrected that and went from there. I always make sure the rounds fit in the chamber and mags now.