Lee Loader

Went to a local gun shop this AM and picked up some Hornady 158 grain XTP's. Looking up some load data and I see why sometimes the world of reloading seems so confusing. H110 powder:

Hodgdon on-line - 15 - 16.7
Hornady #9 - 12.7 - 15.6 (W296 12.4 - 16.00??)
Lyman #49 - 16.3 - 17

The book "Reloading for Handgunners" (Patrick Sweeney 2011)includes a warning that H110 does not take well to reduced loads and to not load below the Hodgdon recommended 15 grain minimum. And I thought H110/W295 were identical?

Makes me go huh?

You probably already know this but ........
Case , primer , powder lot , brass lot , local humidity , sizing and 25 other seemingly tiny factors that added together make giant differences .

I have 2-7 references for every cartridge I load . When it's new ground I average the start and end with the lowest max load . In this case I'd definitely get 2 more references as the start loads look like they would be pretty close to the lowest max .

I've been seeing a lot of this sort of discrepancy questioned all over of late ........

It's getting worse by the year IMO. In this case I'd start at the bullet manufacturer's load. I bet 13.0 is too little though.

GasGuzzler wrote:It's getting worse by the year IMO.

That is the truth

Having that much swing in a handgun powder is a bit scary. When I first started loading for pistol (9mm) and saw the small difference between start and maximum I broke out into a cold sweat. I was using the Lee scale and I never felt comfortable that I was reading it correctly. It was the primary reason I bought an electronic scale. Even then I stuck to start loads for a long time. Sometime I will share my experience duplicating the 38 special 200 grain "Police" load with L'il Gun. Glad I have a Blackhawk

I get the same thing for herco. Max loads will vary by as much as 3 grains. I just use past experience with the powder to get my starting loads.

Honestly, consistent H110 data is like finding unicorns...

"Conventional wisdom" says "Don't download H110! <Insert horrible catastrophic result here> will happen!"
In Mr. Don's example - 16.3, 15, or 12.7 grains don't reduce.

300 Blackout is a similar sized case (not exact but you get the idea) and Hodgdon's site shows a MAX load of 9.2 grains for a 220 grain bullet. I thought <Insert horrible catastrophic result here> would happen!

I think a lot of it has to do with the "new" electronic measuring system and psi. Looking at another bullet, the Speer 158. The older, cup measured loads were much heavier.
Speer #12, #13 158gr H110 S. 13.9gr Max 15.5gr psi 35,000
Speer #10, #11 158gr H110 S. 15.8gr Max 17.8gr cup 46,000

38 spl
Speer #10, #11 158gr H110 max 9.6gr cup 18,900
38 spl +P
Speer #10, #11 158gr H110 max 10.8gr cup 22,400
Don't get me started on Blue Dot.

On the 300 blackout, with the 150 grain bullet, the H110 max load is 17.2 grains.

fullagofast wrote:Honestly, consistent H110 data is like finding unicorns...

"Conventional wisdom" says "Don't download H110! <Insert horrible catastrophic result here> will happen!"
In Mr. Don's example - 16.3, 15, or 12.7 grains don't reduce.

300 Blackout is a similar sized case (not exact but you get the idea) and Hodgdon's site shows a MAX load of 9.2 grains for a 220 grain bullet. I thought <Insert horrible catastrophic result here> would happen!

There is considerably more at play than case capacity. In all the years and all the pounds of H110 I've gone through I've always paid heed to the warning about reduced loads. On the other hand I never found minimum loads to be very accurate. The worse case I've ever personally heard of with a reduced load was a stuck bullet in a Super Blackhawk. All powders have their quirks and if you're going to use them you need to respect their quirks.

I start with the bullet maker's recommendations then move to the powder maker's. Unfortunately bullet builders can't test all the possible powders and powder folks can't test all the possible bullets, though I suspect both test more than they publish. You wind up with the best combinations that they are willing to publish. So far going on 52 years of this adventure it's worked for me. YMMV.

Make smoke,

On powders that have down loading issues, I would start at or slightly above the powder manufacturers recommendation. They are dealing exclusively with their powder and have most likely tested it with a large variety of bullets under a large variety of conditions.