SmallCaliberCentral

I finally got my loads worked up, H322 looked physically the same (size, color, shape) as the powder HSM uses in the load I am trying to duplicate but after investigating I don't think it is. The HSM load avg. weight (I took apart and weighed 3 rounds) was 26.7gr of powder and that exceeds the maxim...

The powder I took out of the loaded cartridge also looks very similar to your two right side powders, thanks for posting the pics, very helpful. I might have jumped to the conclusion too quickly that the powder might be H322. I wish powder manufacturers offered smaller bottles, 7000 grains will make...

.....and thanks for the recipe Mike, if I had a similar name it would 1098SNate...my other love.

Thank you both for your input. I'm only going to be using powders to work up a load that are either on the powder manufacturers website or out of the Sierra loading book. Nate

Just as a follow up if anyone is interested. I took apart 3 loaded rounds and weighted the powders, 26.75 is the average. I also looked at the powder under 10x jewelers loop. It is a homogeneous extruded powder that looks exactly like H322 (color,length,diameter). I'm going to start off with it at 2...

I agree 100% with playing it safe, saving a few bucks isn't worth possibly hurting myself or my rifle. All I was suggesting is that if I took out the powder and discovered it was a homogeneous ball powder and a widely used known good ball powder for a 204 is ABC123 it might be a good place to start....

I also called Sinclair and they said maybe they mix powders but in general mfg's don't like to give out the load data. Maybe I could pull out the bullet and look at the consistency of the powder, grain size, etc., see if maybe it is a mix? Anybody know if its possible to tell that way?

That was my first call, they would not share the load data.
Nate

Hello,
I found a load that works very well in my Savage .204 LRPV from HSM and would like to "reverse engineer" it. Does anybody know the powder and primer used in the HSM 40 Grain Berger Match Varmint Boat Tail load?

Thanks,
Nate