Working with new powders

[hunter24605]

So, I only have a little over a year of loading experience under my belt, and I'm far from doing this on my own, but I've read a lot of posts where guys start working up loads with new powders when the load data isn't published for a particular rifle/bullet combination, and come up with starting loads. Again, I'm way far away from taking on something like this, but I'm curious as to the method of developing a starting powder charge when no data is available.

 

[NWBlacktail]

You can try finding a similar bullet with known load data. For example, if you have data for a 168 grain Berger VLD with the powder you want. You'd probably be pretty close for the 168 grain ABLR. Or Hornady V-Max data for Nosler Ballistic. But NOT Hornady Round nose as a substitute for Nosler Partitions. In that example, the bullets are too different.

You can go directly to the powered manufacture site, and see what they have published for the cartridge you are loading for.

You can ask nicely, and sometimes folks on this site will give you Quick Load data. STill, be careful with that, as the powder burn rates are not always calibrated correctly. But you should get a starting point.

Beware of random internet searches though. It might be helpful, but I'd make sure you have several sources saying very similar things. Be very very careful with this.

It can be a dark and lonely path… :mrgreen:

 

[Elkman]

If you would identify the cartridge you will be loading for you will gets lots of good info , on this forum. Lots of great guys here.

 

[hunter24605]

If you would identify the cartridge you will be loading for you will gets lots of good info , on this forum. Lots of great guys here.

I pretty much have the information I need for my individual cartridges, I was mostly curious about the process.

 

[Polaris]

I load a lot of metric calibers, and often load data is either entirely unavailable or rather dated and only includes a few basic powders and bullets. In these cases, I will compare data for a case with similar capacity, geometry and capacity. Some examples: 7,5x55 Swiss vs .308 win (Nato data), 7.7 Japanese vs. 30-06 M1 Garand data. 6.5x50 Jap vs 6.5 creedmore.

 

[Alderman]

Ive made contact with bullet manufacturers and for the most part they have been very forthcoming with loading info if they have it available.
I recently went this route with Hornady and they responded quickly with the useful info I needed.



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[truck driver]

Where you really run into a bind is when your working with wild cat cartridges and that is always a new game with different powders and the manufactures won't help with these loads. The only way to get starting load info is from someone who will run a quick load prediction for you.