Eld load developement

nastynatesfish

nastynatesfish

Active member
Starting. To do a load test. Going to find my pressure ceiling and if it's not to crowded run them over my crony.
162 elds. Retumbo powder.
I tried them at my current load of h4831 and they were all over at 600 yards. Figure I'll try it right. Then start working on seating depth when I get a charge to work with.
These are .025 off lands and fit in my magazine

 
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200 yard round robin shot. 72.2-74gr retumbo. Little bit of 6oclock wind but not horrible. More heatwave that wind today

Gives me a place to start with seating depth now. 40 bullets down out of the 100.
 
The groups in the 73.6-8 range kinda looks like the sweet spot to me. I like how you grid up the box; gives me some ideas for something similar when building loads.
 
Those are the ones I was gonna try out too. I'm gonna load 73.6-73.7 and 73.8 all .010,.020 shorter and try them next. See why the weather is like tomorrow and may run them. Here's my primers. 72.2 on the left 74 on the right. My 63.5gr h4831 in the middle to compare
 
Next 20 loaded ready for daylight. Anyone care to run a quikload for me so I have an idea of velocity?
73.7gr retumbo, Winchester case and cci lr primer
 
Well the best the 3 lengths shot for 5 rounds was about 2". So I'll load some longer than my original 3.760 out to 3.795 where my lands are. After that I believe I'll shoot the rest of my amax and get ready for a rebarrel to either 7mm practical or 7mm rouge and start buying some 183/195 bullets for it
 
Your loads may be too hot. I shoot 71.5 with a 162, FEd 215, Rem brass, and the 162g SST shoots bug holes. Mine will not shoot an A max worth a hoot. The 162g SST with a tad more bearing surface rocks with the bullet touching the lands.

The 162g SST with the load above outshoots all bergers and just forget the A max.
 
I ran them the same as I tried my amax. I don't want 2700 out of them. Hornady max is 73.5. I'm going to try them longer and I'll try the low node. But if I can get the velocity I do with my amax I won't shoot them. I've not shot any of the sst out of my rem mag
 
With the lot # of Retumbo I was shooting, 71.5g was a safe working max load at 3130 fps out of a 26" factory barrel, any hotter load gave me case head scuffing and difficult extraction. Sounds like your lot # is a little slower than mine or your barrel may have more wear on it than my barrel did at this juncture of barrel life.

My 28" custom 7 Mag scoots the 162 SST at 3200 with Retumbo and 215's, Rem brass, bug hole groups but only two firings on the brass due to enlarged primer pockets. Win mag primers make the primer pockets feel tight again.
 
Mine is marked lot #4. My local guy gets it by keg and fills 8lb jugs. I've got 3400 rounds on my barrel. I get 2985+/- with my 63.5gr of h4831 and have over 15 firings on my brass. I just rotated 50 rounds of new in while working these eld bullets
 
You have set a record on barrel life, and eventually you will have to go to a bullet with more bearing surface, a 160g Speer spt flat base is a great bullet.
 
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