SmallCaliberCentral

Hi just spent the first hour on reading previos posts

Has anybody got near to Hornady factory published velocities when reloading?

thanks

Yes. But because of pressure concerns you probably wont see any posted.

http://www.rugerhunting.com/forum/viewt ... 906#p18906

http://www.rugerhunting.com/forum/viewt ... 3339#p3339


Silverfox shares some of his load data here. Be very careful with these loads!!!

Sound reloading practices and attention to detail are paramount when chasing numbers like these.

http://www.rugerhunting.com/forum/viewt ... 3928#p3928

Nope I topped out around 4100 fps with 32 gr. bullets which, all things considered is quite good. It rocks the snot out of prairie dogs. I 'm not much into pressing the issue of max loads, not my thing in any of the 20 some odd guns I load for.
A book max load of RL10x will do it.

Londonhunter: In a word, "yes", but only at great risk to self and rifle. Don't even try, as the factory is using a special blend of powder not available to us handloaders.

To try to equal the factory velocity would be folly, and could well result in shearing off bolt lugs, and sending the rifle bolt through ones skull at a pressure over 80,000 psi in a nano second or less. Our rifles are proofed with loads that exceed the 80K mentioned, but the extra speed is just not worth it in both terms of safety or the velocity increase. No varmint on the planet would know the difference between getting vaporized with a 32gr bullet at 4,000 - 4,100 fps or the advertised 4,225 fps.

As it is now, my two 204's are faster than any of my 17's, or even my Swift for that matter. I'm happy with my skull in it's present condition. I'd not go much over a max load from any of the published manuals.

FWIW I have around a case left of the second batch of Hornady 32gn factory ammo that clocks 4120 fps.
Silverfox has/had some of the first production run ammo. I do not recall if he ever published velocity figures for it.
As I recall the only way to get 204 ammo back in those early days was to prepurchase it.

My point is even Hornady does not achieve their advertised velocity.
4225fps has been broken. I've pushed 35 Bergs over 4300.
You need to be very careful and be prepared to pay big time for any mistakes
Not recommended for beginners, faint of heart, people with dependents and folks who dislike rebarreling their guns frequently.

Once you find a tack driving load in a safe velocity zone the appeal of the big numbers on the chrono will be replaced by the joy of the small numbers on the target.

In a recent survey 99% of animals that expressed a preference said they would rather be missed with a very high velocity bullet than hit with an accurate one.

jo191145 wrote: Once you find a tack driving load in a safe velocity zone the appeal of the big numbers on the chrono will be replaced by the joy of the small numbers on the target.

Well said.

That was a good one foxwhistler