What powder does Hornady use in their Precision Hunter ammo?

[Bravo 4]

A couple of years ago I had access to the Winchester 300 win mag white boxes with the Sierra 190 gr match bullets ( was told this was the military sniper ammo) the cases were Federal 07. When I took 1 apart the powder appeared to be H1000. I used the H1000 and Hornady eldx 200gr and was able to duplicate the performance. (1/2" and 100yds).

That powder was RL22.

 

[BountyHunter]

Military 300 win mag sniper ammo is loaded/adjusted to a matched MV for each lot so there is no lot to lot variance.

 

[Bravo 4]

I haven't read the whole thread so bear with me......It's not just powder guys.... as the saying goes....

Bullets, powder, barrel....these three things more than anything else have to work together.

I won't name the bullet makers...but a couple hold they're bullet diameter tolerances (I'm talking match bullets here not hunting bullets) to say size +.0002" but another maker holds size +.0007" and that's out of the same lot. Now factor in what actually your barrels bore and groove size measure at.... pressure the ammo is being loaded to and how much that bullet obturates when it gets slammed into the rifling.

Not comparing apples to apples but it cracks me up when I hear someone saying "I'm duplicating the load that Federal does for the GMM ammo...or they want to duplicate the load that LC does for the M118LR. I'll guarantee you that the powder they are using for that ammo....is not available to us hand loaders! Say what you want but it isn't available to us.

Again I'm not naming the ammo maker but we bought a pallet of 5k rounds of 308win. from them. In my 18" barrel gun (yes it has a custom 308w chamber not a Saami spec. chamber) I was only down 100fps from what the factory advertises. I called one of the ballistic lab guys there as we talk all the time because we make them test barrels if he could tell me what powder it was because it didn't look like 4064 or Varget etc... I said if you can't tell me it's cool and I get it. The powder charge for the bullet weight I thought was pretty stiff at 46gr. So he said give me the lot number..so I did. He said oh that lot! It was a hybrid powder as they couldn't get 4064 or Varget they're go to powders for 308w. This was back when Obama was in and we had a shortage of stuff going on.

So guys please don't pull a part a live round... look at the powder and guess as to what it is based on looks and or the powder charge etc...and think your going to duplicate it. Or think because of what was posted about GMM ammo or LC ammo that will tell you automatically what powder they are using because I can pretty much guarantee. It's not.

Later, Frank
Bartlein Barrels

Frank,
The gov usually lists the specs on ammo. M118LR was loaded with RL15.

 

[Bravo 4]

Military 300 win mag sniper ammo is loaded/adjusted to a matched MV for each lot so there is no lot to lot variance.

They have to match a certain window (a MV + or -). However lot to lot there is always the possibility for lot to lot variation. That's why our Sniper POI said that we are only supposed to use one lot for the entire class.

 

[Idaho Lefty]

I had HORNADY 6.5 PRC Precision Hunter ammo 143Eldx varie 175 fps from the same box lot ! Lab Radared ! WTH ?

Yup,. There have been, "some" Bad Lots of, 6.5 and 7 MM PRC ammo made, as I've heard of, several,. Complaints and,..
HENCE Why,.. Me and My Family, always,. reload, our Rifle Ammo for any,.. serious Use.
Also, I'd NEVER "Assume" What "Type' of, Powder, a Factory uses, as MANY of, them, ARE,. "Blends" !
My grandson is using StaBall HD, ADG Brass and 140 gr Berger, Elite Hunters, to Get, Sub 1/2 MOA Group's with His, 6.5 PRC Proof Bbl Savage Lite.
We Love both, Staball H-D and StaBall 65, Powders, as they "Meter" like, Water and, seem, fairly Temp Stable !

 

[Justice1327]

M118LR used several kinds of powders.
42.4g of RL15 was very unstable temp wise.

The initial M118 SB loads used either 44 grains of WC 846 powder or 42 grains of IMR 4895 with the 173g bullet.

Also, M118LR loads used 41.75 gr of IMR4064 175g SMK.

Later, when FCC took over they replaced the #34 primer with their FGMM primers and used 41.4g of H4895 in what is known as the MK316

 

[Bravo 4]

Justice, sent you a PM.

 

[crkckr]

The *ONLY* way to know with any certainty what any company is loading into their cartridges is to ask them. The likelyhood of an actual answer is near zero. Truth be told I only know of one company that actually published a load using available powders and that was Lehigh and I don't know if that one load they published is still valid (the data is valid, I just don't know if they still use it). Trying to guess, compare or read online what someone says it is without some actual data is just foolish and a recipe for disaster! If someone says, 'oh, they definitely use Brand X powder.' My first question is, "Where did you get your information?." It better be straight from the manufactures mouth or from someone who would know! If he says he used to work there, maybe. If he says his uncle Fred got the straight dope from a guy in a bar who knew the janitor there, the odds of me beIiving him are around zero! Just someone saying they use some off the shelf canister powder, I'm going to be extremely doubtful because I already know that more often than not they use powder that simply is not available to us lowely, peon, reloaders! This type of information is extremely hard to come by because that's the way the manufacturers want it!
Cheers,
crkckr

 

[Teri Anne]

Someone mentioned something about tightly matching the velocity of specific sniper rounds/match ammunition. I have found over the years that by going through the reloading manuals you can find a powder type and charge weight that closely duplicates whatever round you want the data for. I have had great luck doing this for 270, 308 and 30-06 ammo. Take the bullet weight and velocity off of the box you want to duplicate then using the bullet weight go through the reloading manuals for that cartridge's velocity. It's unusual to find an exact match but if you find a load that is within 100 FPS of what is listed on the box you are in the ballpark. As an example I had a box of 270 commercial ammo that was shooting sub moa in my Tikka T3x. The bullet on the box was a Nosler 140gr partition with a muzzle velocity of 2990 FPS. I found a powder charge listed in this case the Nosler #9 manual that was shown as 2900 FPS. I loaded up a test batch and the actual muzzle velocity with the reloads was 2940 FPS, pretty close to the factory ammo. The reloaded ammo actually shot a slightly tighter group than the factory ammo. I've done this a couple of other times with 308 and 30-06 and one may be surprised that you can match the factory ammo's performance with a published load of a known powder and bullet combination and no guessing to get you in trouble. Try it some time. You may be surprised with the results.

 

[Mike Matteson]

Well I'll get my 2-cent in. Great vido, and cover a lot of ground with the different factory ammo. The variance in POI change greatly at even 500yds, and farther out the worst it gets. I agree with him fully. What he missed was the fps change in temp change, has to be added to that. So the POI will change even more depending on what type of powder is used. Some powder change more than 1.5 fps per degree. Even taking the mean of that at 60' going into weather that's at -20 or 110. That's a 65 degree swing, and that has to be factor in. That can be 97+fps change in velocity as a factor. Changing lots of powder comes into play as he stated. It's stated here all the time about changing lots of powder and working up a load. That should be main factor in reloading and knowing what you are getting.