Best all purpose reloading powder, trying to minimize reloading setup

jakeaba

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Apr 19, 2022
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Hey all, I’m trying to minimize my reloading supplies. I am thinking about cutting down calibers I hunt with to not have so many powders, primers, bullets I’ve spent too much money trying various powders, bullets etc.

I have the Hornady book and like the eld x rounds. It seems like varget is widely available for a lot of man loads. Does anyone else run a minimalist type approach to reloading? I live in an apartment and hate cluttering with too much, thanks for any input!


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ID_Matt

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May 16, 2017
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Southern ID
Impossible to say without knowing roughly what cartridges you are thinking. H4350 is a versatile one that covers quite a few medium sized standard rounds. H1000 covers most all magnum rounds. Varget is popular for the varmint cartridges - 243, 223, etc.
 
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jakeaba

jakeaba

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I have a lot of rifles. Reloading and hunting with 6.5 creedmor, .308, 300 win mag, 270 and 30.06.

I didn’t reload when I acquired all these rifles over the years, and am now kind of seeing the perks of having a single rifle for hunting. It’s a lot of work making loads for multiple rifles.

I like to backpack hunt, so the ultralight rifles have been getting the most use. Those are the 6.5 creed and 308. Seems like varget shoots slower than some other powders in 6.5 but if I’m not shooting over 4-500 yards, does it really matter?


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peaches

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StaBall would be a winner. Hunter and Tac are great combo but you'll need a slower powder for the 300.
 
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jakeaba

jakeaba

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Thanks ! I have tons of powder from my beginnings and when I didn’t know what I was doing, lots of money on temp sensitive powders, which I had no idea was a thing before. Live and learn I guess…..


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sndmn11

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Morrison, Colorado
You could probably do all those with staball and some bullet flexibility.

The 270 and 300win might benefit from h4831
I lied!

I use it in 300wsm and 7-08, and assumed those were close enough to .308 and 300wm. Apparently I was wrong and can't find data for those two and staball.

It does look like you could win with varget and h4831/h4350, or imr4166 and imr4451.

I think I saw something on Hodgkin's Facebook page that they were releasing sometime soon additional staball powders to cover high and lower burn rates.
 
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jakeaba

jakeaba

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Yeah H4350 is a good one, thanks. Now what do I do with all this win 760 I bought…..haha


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jakeaba

jakeaba

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Does the 200 feet per second drop from staball to varget make that big of a difference for shooting in the 100-500 yard range? Is it any less accurate at that velocity? Thanks!


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sndmn11

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Does the 200 feet per second drop from staball to varget make that big of a difference for shooting in the 100-500 yard range? Is it any less accurate at that velocity? Thanks!


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Not one bit if it is one of those bigger cartridges and you select a bullet that has optimal upset in the velocity window you are looking at.
 

z987k

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RL17 and N550 are now two of my top powders. 6.5cm, 3006. I don't really have to worry about temps due to my location. N550 is probably more temp stable. I'd like to try some RL15.5 TS, but, have never seen it.
 
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jakeaba

jakeaba

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Has anyone found a load for 308 / 223 that takes win 760? I have 8 pounds of it. I’m stationed in Louisiana but tend to hunt back home out west and it seems like it may not be a good choice as I will be building up the load down here in the south where it’s hot and hunting Montana in November where it’s much colder. Would love to be able to burn it up just loading range 223/308 brass I find as end of the world ammo stockpile haha doesn’t look like it’ll work tho.


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z987k

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Has anyone found a load for 308 / 223 that takes win 760? I have 8 pounds of it. I’m stationed in Louisiana but tend to hunt back home out west and it seems like it may not be a good choice as I will be building up the load down here in the south where it’s hot and hunting Montana in November where it’s much colder. Would love to be able to burn it up just loading range 223/308 brass I find as end of the world ammo stockpile haha doesn’t look like it’ll work tho.


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What bullet, what barrel length, COAL?
 
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jakeaba

jakeaba

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I was just looking for FMJ cheap bullets to stockpile , I think the 1000 packs are 55grain for 223 and 150 FMJ 308 comes in 1000 packs too I believe. Shot out of just an AR or my basic 308 bolt action loaded to Hornady COL recommendation. I’ve been using N133 for this task, something to do to keep busy, but am running out and would love to be able to use up the 760 on some rounds that I just keep in an ammo box for a rainy day.

Cheees


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z987k

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I was just looking for FMJ cheap bullets to stockpile , I think the 1000 packs are 55grain for 223 and 150 FMJ 308 comes in 1000 packs too I believe. Shot out of just an AR or my basic 308 bolt action loaded to Hornady COL recommendation. I’ve been using N133 for this task, something to do to keep busy, but am running out and would love to be able to use up the 760 on some rounds that I just keep in an ammo box for a rainy day.

Cheees


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308 win with a Hornady 150gr FMJ out of a 18in barrel at 2.800COAL, full case load of w760 should be around 49.95gr , estimate 2475fps. You're not close to pressure with that load.

223win with a hornady 55gr fmj out of a 16in barrel at 2.260COAL, full case load of w760 should be around 27.85gr. You're pretty far from pressure with that load. Estimate 2680fps.

That's obviously not remotely an ideal powder for either of those, but it'll put holes in paper.
 
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