It is very difficult to recommend loads for someone to shoot in their rifle when every rifle shoots so much differently. I am not pointing fingers here at all but I see a lot of guys asking on these sites (and I am just as guilty as I have done it before) what load they should shoot for X rilfe and caliber. Not only can it be dangerous to take a load that someone shoots off the internet and load it on your own bench but each rifle shoots very different. If you do take a load off the internet, just make sure to check it against the published load data from the OEM's to make sure it is in the safe range.
I will give you an example. One of my close hunting buddies shoots a 17 Remington and he asked me to work up a load for him while he was laid up due to a medical issue. I worked up several loads and after shooting and fine tuning, I settled on a tack driver load for him. The bullet I used was the Berger 25 gr HP Match and the power was Winchester 760.
After looking for a long time, I got my hands on a pristine 17 Remington in the 700 BDL model. It is the exact same model and caliber as my friends. I worked up some of the same loads as I did for his that shot sub moa and I could not get them to come even close to moa in my rifle. I went back to square one and after a lot of bench and range time I finally got a load that shoots like I want it. It is the Hornady 25 gr HP bullet and IMR 4320 powder. I then took his rifle and shot it with some of the loads that shot lights out in my gun and guess what? They were not even close to moa in his rifle.
That was probably the clearest example I have run into that shows how different rifles shoot, even when they are the same manufacturer, same model and same caliber.
If you are going to load for your rifle, you can get ballpark ideas and numbers on what other people are shooting but at the end of the day, you need to spend the time at the bench and on the range to work up a load that shoots in your specific rifle. That is also part of the fun or reloading, to fine tune your loads to get the most from your rifle.
Get out there, shoot and have a lot of fun with it!
I will give you an example. One of my close hunting buddies shoots a 17 Remington and he asked me to work up a load for him while he was laid up due to a medical issue. I worked up several loads and after shooting and fine tuning, I settled on a tack driver load for him. The bullet I used was the Berger 25 gr HP Match and the power was Winchester 760.
After looking for a long time, I got my hands on a pristine 17 Remington in the 700 BDL model. It is the exact same model and caliber as my friends. I worked up some of the same loads as I did for his that shot sub moa and I could not get them to come even close to moa in my rifle. I went back to square one and after a lot of bench and range time I finally got a load that shoots like I want it. It is the Hornady 25 gr HP bullet and IMR 4320 powder. I then took his rifle and shot it with some of the loads that shot lights out in my gun and guess what? They were not even close to moa in his rifle.
That was probably the clearest example I have run into that shows how different rifles shoot, even when they are the same manufacturer, same model and same caliber.
If you are going to load for your rifle, you can get ballpark ideas and numbers on what other people are shooting but at the end of the day, you need to spend the time at the bench and on the range to work up a load that shoots in your specific rifle. That is also part of the fun or reloading, to fine tune your loads to get the most from your rifle.
Get out there, shoot and have a lot of fun with it!
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