Nosler #8 Guide

[TOM H]

Engineering101...I found this little bit of info that i thought was intresting and wanted to share with you

"The .243 Win excels with a wide variety of powders, and excellent factory-loaded hunting ammunition is available. Off-the-shelf .243 rifles from Howa, Remington, Savage, and Tikka perform admirably with little or no modification. The "improved" version of the cartridge, the .243 Ackley, can do everything its parent can do, with more velocity, and greater brass stability thanks to its 40° shoulder. Among the Ackley variants, the .243 AI is rightly one of the most popular. It is easy to fire-form, and commercial dies are readily available. Barrel life is the downside of both the .243 AI and standard .243. These chamberings pump a lot of powder through a small bore. The result, typically, is rather short barrel life, sometimes less than 1500 rounds. A few folks have been experimenting with the use of very slow, cooler-burning powders. There is some evidence that the use of super-slow powders, combined with modified cleaning regimens, can result in significantly enhanced barrel life."

If you can get copy of Berger manual they have loading data for 243 using IMR-7828ssc, R-22/R-19 and H-1000. If you look at Nosler data 243 with 95/100gr bullets using
R-19/R-25,H-1000,IMR-7977.

I shoot 27" barrel 243AI on a Rem action and Kreiger barrel 243 on Sako action.

 

[Jud96]

The .243 is one of my favorite rounds and I can tell you that IMR 4350 is one of the top powders for 70-87gr bullets. I shoot 44gr with an 87gr V-MAX and 46gr with a 70gr, so 45gr with an 80gr sounds about right. I wouldn't worry about the book not listing the load. IMR 4350 is about the optimum burn rate for the .243 with 80-87s. The only thing that outperformed it and had the same pressure was IMR 4451, a .5gr more of it with 87gr increased speed from 3370 to 3430fps. I went to the next slower powder I have, which is IMR 4831, and 45gr of it with an 87gr had more pressure than both IMR 4350 and IMR 4451 but lost 20fps compared to IMR 4350. This is where I drew the line that anything slower than IMR 4451 went over the other edge and had no gain in velocity for an 87gr bullet. In my opinion IMR 4350 is about the slowest powder to use in a .243 with an 80gr and not have diminished results. H1000 and Retumbo are excellent for 100-107gr bullets in the .243 but are too slow for anything lighter.

If you are not seeing excessive pressure issues than don't change your load. I shoot many loads that are not in the books but are completely safe and function perfect.

 

[WildRose]

A few years back I learned of an old trick to get ES to a minimum. The trick is to cram a case full of powder that is way too slow. An example of this is RL-26 in a 300 WSM with the 200 gr ELD-X. 68.0 grains ran 2,975 fps yesterday out of a 26 inch factory Savage barrel with an ES of 9 fps for 3 shots. Shot from 200 yards, the group measured 1.578". I'm just starting load development so might be able to shrink group size a bit but ES is just fine. I have lots of reloading manuals and used to follow them closely but I have since learned that they are better used as guidelines and that there are lots of good loads NOT listed.

That is extremely bad and dangerous advice. Hopefully no one takes it to heart.

No, you never just cram a case full of powder, stick a bullet in it and see what happens.