SmallCaliberCentral

I was somewhat concerned how my new loads were going to shoot since I've switched to only Nosler brass for my .204. The Nosler cases do not have the same capacity as the Hornady brass did. My loads were not compressed in Hornady brass, but they are compressed fairly heavily in the Nosler cases. Surprisingly the velocity and POI are the same as the uncompressed loads.

Pic is sideways............MY BAD!!

and i thought it was the shooter that was on his side. interesting about the compressed loads. i never have done any compressed loads. did you feel the compression as you were seating the bullets ?

To check if your reloads are truly compressed loads, here is a way to check for sure. After seating the bullet, check the total length of the cartridge with a dial or digital caliper. Make a note of this length,and let the cartridge sit vertical for around 24 hours. Re-measure the the COAL again with the same caliper, and check this measurement against the first measurement. If your load is truly a compressed load the COAL will be longer than the previous measurement.

As a side note, I "did" truly have some compressed loads for my .223, while working on some loads with H4895 and 40gr VMax bullets. Just because you hear the crushing of the powder, does not always mean a compressed load.

Please be careful when working on these loads, especially when loading the 204R, as pressures build rather fast in the 204.

Well I guess that I cant say for sure that they are truly compressed, however my powder is into the neck area of the case even after tapping the case repeatedly to get the powder to settle. When I seat the bullet I can hear the powder being pushed/crushed and their is definately no room left whatsoever. I am curious tho after a firing if the case will hold more powder even after resizing. I am shooting an AR so I resize with the Redding Comp die set so oversizing should not occur. With my old brass I had room left when I used 27.8 grains of H4895, now with Nosler it's chuck full.

Did you ever hear of "Don't fix it if it aint broken". I never have had any problem from slight compression of any load.
I really like H335 powder in an AR. Always has been reliable operation for me.
Did you try to turn your scope 90deg to straighten out that target?

Hotshot---no I dont plan to try to fix anything as I am happy with those groups from a semi-auto rifle. I do want to experiment with the new XBR 8208 powder tho.

and maybe my scope is sideways lol!!! maybe thats why I always hit an inch to the right lol

I love 8208 in my bolt guns. When my other stuff is gone that's all I'm going to use for 17FB, 204R, 220Swift.

Once I stop working so much I plan to do more testing with Superperformance in a few different calibers. I had some promising results in the .243 win with 75 grain vmax, but I've got more testing to do. I'll have to see if superperformance is much of an option for the .204.

ryutzy wrote:Pic is sideways............MY BAD!!

I just thought maybe you were shooting your weapon sideways, the way the movies show the bad guy and some good guys doing.
Bill K

Hotshot, I'm working up some loads for my Remington 700 in 204 Ruger using 8208. I'm loading both 39 gr BKs and 40 gr Vmax. What load gives you the best accuracy?

I used 27.0gr 8208 for 39Sierra, 40vmax&Berger.
Groups were great with all three. My rifle had not liked 40 vmax bullets before so I was happy to see several nice groups with them. I have not chronied these loads but they seemed to shoot to the same point as my previous ones.
I will not push my loads to the max because I've been in a prairie dog town at 100deg when I had to quit shooting because my loads started building too much pressure. Generally the last .5grains of powder give you very little velocity.
I also tried 28.0gr with some 32vmax & 32Nosler and shot real nice groups. I have not chronied these loads either and probably won't load any because they shoot to a different zero.

Well now that I have reloaded my now once fired Nosler cases they now have almost as much case capacity as my old Hornady cases. I FL resized them with my Redding Die Set and the cases have quite a bit more capacity then when they were new. I tried to FL the new cases to make them all uniform, however it was apparant the the new cases were so undersized that my FL die would not size them. So I have found that the new Nosler cases were excessively undersized causing my slightly compressed loads. Now that they are once fired even after the full length sizing the bullet does not even touch the powder. I was suspicious that this could happen and is why I quickly reloaded them to check this. I would have expected this if they were only fireformed and neck sized, but because of shooting a semi-auto I have to FL size them.