Another reloading newb question

[JDArms1240]

I'm early in the learning stage so I have a question for folks that know more than me.

I have been loading 162gr hornady ELD-X's on top of 70 grains of retumbo.  I like these rounds quite a bit but I've noticed every time I shoot something, I find a mushroomed (if you could call it that) slug which I'm guessing is ~50% of the bullet and then a million little fragments, after a ton of research I found this is pretty typical with the ELD-X's.  Which brings me to the 165gr Norma Bondstrike, a bonded bullet.  I have found very limited published info about hand loading these bullets.  I'm going to try to buy their powder that they have listed in their manuals. That was a long explanation that brings the question if I cant find their powder or if its super hard to find:

Since the projectiles are only 3 grains different and very similar BC's, can I use my same recipe or very close, say 69.8 grains of retumbo instead of 70?  Or is this an irresponsible thing to do?

[JDArms1240]

BC info

[Wolfdog2314]

Sounds like finding your dead animal, the bullet had done its job  I’ve really liked the performance of the eld-X. But everyone has their own opinion on bullets of course, as with anything.

Switching to a new bullet, restart your load development with the new bullet. Typically lighter bullets will accept more grains of powder. So u may not necessarily have a reduction in powder weight as you stated.

At any rate, switching bullet, powder, case, I’d recommend starting somewhere in the middle or the reccomended charge for your 162 ELD-X and working up until you find signs of pressure.

[JDArms1240]

Sounds like finding your dead animal, the bullet had done its job  I’ve really liked the performance of the eld-X. But everyone has their own opinion on bullets of course, as with anything.

Switching to a new bullet, restart your load development with the new bullet. Typically lighter bullets will accept more grains of powder. So u may not necessarily have a reduction in powder weight as you stated.

At any rate, switching bullet, powder, case, I’d recommend starting somewhere in the middle or the reccomended charge for your 162 ELD-X and working up until you find signs of pressure.

Aw gotchya, Thanks for the info.  Just to say it though, I wasn’t unhappy with the ELD-X, I fact I was super happy with it.  This is more of a “I wanna mess around” experiment.

[Wolfdog2314]

Sounds like finding your dead animal, the bullet had done its job  I’ve really liked the performance of the eld-X. But everyone has their own opinion on bullets of course, as with anything.

Switching to a new bullet, restart your load development with the new bullet. Typically lighter bullets will accept more grains of powder. So u may not necessarily have a reduction in powder weight as you stated.

At any rate, switching bullet, powder, case, I’d recommend starting somewhere in the middle or the reccomended charge for your 162 ELD-X and working up until you find signs of pressure.

Aw gotchya, Thanks for the info.  Just to say it though, I wasn’t unhappy with the ELD-X, I fact I was super happy with it.  This is more of a “I wanna mess around” experiment.

Ahhh yes and that’s the beauty of hand loading, the never ending pursuit of finding something better/different/faster/higher performance haha.

[JDArms1240]

Sounds like finding your dead animal, the bullet had done its job  I’ve really liked the performance of the eld-X. But everyone has their own opinion on bullets of course, as with anything.

Switching to a new bullet, restart your load development with the new bullet. Typically lighter bullets will accept more grains of powder. So u may not necessarily have a reduction in powder weight as you stated.

At any rate, switching bullet, powder, case, I’d recommend starting somewhere in the middle or the reccomended charge for your 162 ELD-X and working up until you find signs of pressure.

Aw gotchya, Thanks for the info.  Just to say it though, I wasn’t unhappy with the ELD-X, I fact I was super happy with it.  This is more of a “I wanna mess around” experiment.

Ahhh yes and that’s the beauty of hand loading, the never ending pursuit of finding something better/different/faster/higher performance haha.

Yup, I have discovered this, last year I was only a little excited to get all the equipment and hand/re-load.  I loaded up 50 ELD-X’s and hit the field.  I stretched out the range on my rifle (as well as mine) and that was all I needed, after that I was hooked!  I stretched out my tikka’s legs until I found the limit of my scope, 925 yards and hearing metal ring! Now, I’m REAL excited about hand loading!

[jrebel]

Always work up a new load when switching bullets.  Don’t get fixed on any one powder but rather consider powders with similar burn rates as a recommended powder.   Lighter bullets may require a faster burn rates than heavies in the same chambering.  Always good to use multiple reloading resources / manuals to find a good safe staring point. 

Also….no dumb questions when it comes to reloading.  Lots of folks with great information to share. I’m personally not a fan of the HORNADY ELD-x or -m.   I’ll keep lead out of my meat now that monolithic bullets are available and performance is so good. 

[GWP]

Reloading is an addiction. Or can be. At one point between my personal loads and friends I was willing to load for, I was loading 19 different calibers. I only load for me now but that is still 12.
On my Hornet, which I have some great loads for, in the last two weeks, I tested three different bullets in four different powders.
See what you are in for? 

[JDArms1240]

Always work up a new load when switching bullets.  Don’t get fixed on any one powder but rather consider powders with similar burn rates as a recommended powder.   Lighter bullets may require a faster burn rates than heavies in the same chambering.  Always good to use multiple reloading resources / manuals to find a good safe staring point. 

Also….no dumb questions when it comes to reloading.  Lots of folks with great information to share. I’m personally not a fan of the HORNADY ELD-x or -m.   I’ll keep lead out of my meat now that monolithic bullets are available and performance is so good.

Thanks for the info. 

Another question:  I plan on making up 5-round batches of x number of powder grains, and then x.2, and maybe x.4 and so on.  How many of these ‘steps’ do you all start with?  I have 100 brass pieces so I figure I’ll make 5 5-round batches of various powder amounts 

[EnglishSetter]

Do you have a chrono or 300+ yard range available?  If so, a ladder test can help speed your load development.

[dreadi]

When I can't find load data, I call or email the bullet manufacturer. They tend to have at least something to get your started with.


Black Hammer Arms
www.blackhammerarms.com
The Guy On HuntWA Selling Suppressors
@blackhammerarms

[jrebel]

Lots of ways to skin this cat….and all work.  I don’t like to waste powder or components so I do it this way…

1. Start at a safe powder charge and a seating depth of 0.020 off the lands. 
2. Work up 0.5 grains of powder for each subsequent round.
3. Shoot these rounds, allowing your barrel to cool between shots (or at least after ever 2-3 shots).  I prefer 2-3 minutes between shots depending on ambient temperature.   
4.after each shot, look for pressure signs on your brass.  If you see pressure signs…..stop immediately and know that is your max load. (Pressure signs include flattened primers, heavy bolt lift, ejector or extractor marks, blown primers, primer dimpling, etc.)
5.  Watch your target for trends in POI.  Document every shots location.
6.  Hopefully you can chronograph each round to track velocities.
7.   Find a node with the velocities or the POI trends and pick your starting load.
8.  Now you can load 3-5 rounds and shoot for group.   You can fine tune your groups in 0.2 grains of powder increments and with seating depths working away from the lands (jam) in 0.002 or 0.003 increments. 

Don’t hesitate to ask for clarification.  I typed this on my phone so I tried not to be to wordy.   

[HereDuckyDucky]

JR laid out a solid process, particularly if you are good at recognizing "nodes." If you're not as confident in recognizing the "sweet spot" following a ladder test, take the charge you believe is the node and do an OCW test around it, but loading up 3-5 rounds at incremental charges above and below it, making sure to stay safely below pressure.

For example (using hypothetical numbers), if you think you have a node between 60.5 and 61 grains, you might perform an OCW test with 59.5, 59.9, 60.3, 60.7, 61.1, 61.5, 61.9 to confirm where your POI is consistent. Lots of information online about how to do an OCW, so I won't go into that, but it's not hard if you're patient. You will use up some additional components, but a proper OCW is pretty revealing and gives lots of confidence that you have in fact found a good node.

Whatever you do, ALWAYS know where your rifle reaches pressure, and keep your loads safely below it.

RW

[JDArms1240]

Nice, thanks folks!  This is the info I’m looking for. 

I have a spot that stretches to about 1100 yards, but my scope won’t go that far.  The furthest I can go is 925 before the turret tops out.  Real fun to shoot that far but I’m not too worried about the scope since I won’t be shooting an animal that far.

The chronograph is on my list of things to get, so I guess a trimmer isn’t the last item I need to get.  For now I have used someone else’s chrono.

[EnglishSetter]

Nice, thanks folks!  This is the info I’m looking for. 

I have a spot that stretches to about 1100 yards, but my scope won’t go that far.  The furthest I can go is 925 before the turret tops out.  Real fun to shoot that far but I’m not too worried about the scope since I won’t be shooting an animal that far.

The chronograph is on my list of things to get, so I guess a trimmer isn’t the last item I need to get.  For now I have used someone else’s chrono.

IMO 300-500 is plenty.  You don't want to stretch it so far that your equipment is being tested vs the rounds.  I'll add that keeping track of which impact is which gets more difficult the further the target.