Thread: Some Thoughts on Handloading.

Greetings All and thanks for your posts,
Not raining today but cold and miserable so to continue. A large percentage of the Nick Harvey data seems to have been gathered form other sources rather than his own chronographing so I prefer to use the original sources where I can. There is one cartridge that has taught me more than any other and that is the 6.5-06. Until the late 1990's this was a wildcat cartridge and most data was pretty hot. I don't own a 6.5-06 myself but do provide handloading support for a friend with one. At the time I got involved the pressure tested Hodgdons data had come out which was way lower charges and ho hum velocities compared to early data. Chronographing some test loads showed velocities well below the Hodgdon data so the charge was worked up to the velocity of the Hodgdons loads or a little more.
More recently Nosler has offered on line data for the 129 grain projectiles with much higher charges than Hodgdon and significantly more velocity. The Nosler 129 grain LRAB projectiles are now loaded to a velocity around that of the Hodgdon loads (well short of Nosler velocities) but it takes more powder than the Hodgdon data to get there. All velocities are adjusted for barrel length.
All this would not have been possible without a chronograph. It has become common recently to bag optical chronographs and for the ones with short screen spacings this may have merit. Mine is an Oehler 35P with 3 screens which measures velocity twice and alerts you to a dud reading. I use a 4 foot screen spacing and have no problems. Oehler still use this chronograph as part of its Model 89 System.
Regards Grandpamac.