Powder and bullet preferences in individual cartridges
JUST as different guns exhibit distinctive preferences in ammunition, some cartridges will show a preference for a certain powder or bullet. Most handloaders gradually accumulate a variety of different powders but often the one they don’t have is the one most suitable for their new rifle and cartridge.
Today, it’s more than likely there will be a wide variety of bullets of different weights and shapes available for any chosen cartridge, but it is unlikely that you’ll reload more than one or two in your preferred weight, shape and structure for hunting. Once you have chosen the correct projectile(s) for the job in mind, you have to determine what seems to be the most promising powder. The logical choice is the one that will give the highest velocity for the proposed load.
The next step is to estimate the charge weight at which the desired performance is likely to be realised. Note that I didn’t say “maximum performance”. The word maximum is tossed about among reloaders without reservation, which is frightening because most reloaders don’t seem to understand what a maximum load is.
“In a hunting rifle, accuracy should always be the fundamental starting point.”
The reality is that what many reloaders refer to as their “max” is often
