Lawdog -
First, congrats on your new Savage - in my experience they are way under-rated by most folks. My old 110E was "ugly" according to Daughter #2, but it could shoot --- at least until I wore the barrel out. The new Savage rifles are good looking, have a great trigger, and should shoot just as well or better. Hope you enjoy the Savage for many years to come!
But...
...
As far as this load goes, 64.0 gr. of H4831sc behind a 130 gr. bullet, it was given to me by a fellow shooter. He gets good accuracy from his Winchester M70 .270 WSM using it. I figured it was as good a place to start as taking a loading manual and running your finger down the sheet until you find one that tickles your fancy.
...
Here I'm going to disagree, if only for the potential benefit of longwinters and others who may be new to reloading. To them I say this: listen to your friends if you want, BUT ALWAYS VERIFY AGAINST FACTORY, PRESSURE TESTED DATA AND WORK UP TO MAXIMUM DATA SLOWLY. The point of the game is to have fun, not blow yourself up! When I first started reloading it was for my 7mm Remington Magnum. A friend suggested a load of xx grains of IMR4831 with a 160g bullet. Although the load was slightly over the maximum listed in the then-current #10 Speer manual, I trusted my friend. Instead of working up the load in my rifle I went straight to xx grains. The result was very short case life (4-5 loadings) and a couple of separated cases. That was over 20 years ago. Within two years I had reduced my powder charge by 2 full grains and have not had a case failure since with less than 18 reloadings.
Here is the data from Hornady and Hodgdon:
Hornady
WW brass
WLRM primer
Hornady 130g SP
START: 55.5g H4831 - 2800fps
MAX: 62.9g H4831 - 3100fps
Hodgdon
WW brass
WLRM primer
Hornady 130g SP
START: 63.0g H4831 - 3085fps
MAX: 67.0g H4831 - 3228fps
Your load is reasonable according to Hodgdon -- IN THEIR TEST BARREL -- but beyond max in Hornady's test barrel. Nosler lists 62.5g H4831SC as the starting load for their 130g bullets, for 3065fps, and 65.5g/3239fps as the maximum load. You load is probably not going to blow you up, but it may be beyond where it should be.
longwinters -
Lawdog is hardly incorrect when it comes to choosing a powder - if a particular powder works well in a particular cartridge for a friend, it is reasonable to expect that it may work well for you, too. The only issue I have with his methodology is that we don't know if he verified the powder charge against factory data before building 100 loaded rounds. If he has a sticky bolt lift or other pressure signs, he'll be tearing a lot of rounds back down.
Let me explain my methodology in a moment, but first let me recommend you get a chronograph. You can go to Shooting Chrony's web site (
http://chrony.ca/sc_mc-MV.html , bottom of the page) and pick up a reconditioned but perfectly good chronograph for under $50. If you plan to be working up to maximum loads, a chronograph is your best friend. Although chrono's don't measure pressure directly, velocity is a fairly reliable indirect measurement -- if you are matching or exceeding published velocities, you are at or very close to maximum pressure. A chrono will also tell you things about your loads that group size alone cannot.
Let me also suggest you use manuals which publish actual pressure as opposed to "does not exceed" pressures. Hodgdon and Accurate data lists actual pressure, many other manuals use the "does not exceed" type pressure data. I would also suggest that you can't have too many manuals. Accurate, Alliant and Hodgdon list load data on their web sites, as do some bullet manufacturers - especially for new cartridges. Get all you can for free and all you can afford that isn't free. The Hodgdon Annual Manual is an outstanding value - it sells for about $8 and has over 5,000 loads with actual pressure, many of which are not on the Hodgdon web site.
OK, to my methodology. My goal is always to find accurate loads - velocity without accuracy is about as interesting to me as a 80-year-old hooker with AIDS. Here's how I generally work up loads:
1. Collect all the current load data I can find for the bullet weight and cartridge in question.
2. After reviewing the available data, select a powder. (A whole topic in itself, so I won't get into it here.)
3. Determine the starting and maximum powder charges I am interested in. The maximum may be considerably less than the published maximum, and on occasion it may be slightly more.
4. Build loads in .5g increments, from the starting powder charge to the maximum I am interested in. Sometimes I will build the same number at each charge weight, but not always. If I believe the final load will be well above the starting load, I may only build 1 or 2 loads at the starting charge, 2 or 3 at the next charge weight, and so on, until I am building 4 or 5 at each charge weight. If I exceed the published maximums I will usually taper off the number of loads built. When I am done building loads I may have 35 to 40 to take to the range. Loads are bagged in baggies, sorted by powder charge, as soon as the bullets are seated - and a slip of paper goes into each baggie identifying the powder charge. Then all the little baggies go into a larger baggie along with another piece of paper identifying the bullet, primer, powder type and maximum load data (powder charge and velocity).
5. At the range, starting with the starting powder charge, I shoot the loads over a chronograph. I write down the powder charge, individual shot velocities and the group size for each powder charge. This is generally done slowly enough that the barrel stays relatively cool (shoot a group, then wait).
6. If I see any signs of pressure (sticky bolt, difficult extraction, split cases, etc.), STOP. The remaining loads will be taken home and disassembled.
7. If I match or exceed published velocities, STOP. Now is a good time for caution. I may well choose to continue, but only if I have good reason to believe it is safe. (Example: SAAMI maximum for the .257 Roberts is 45,000 CUP, but +P data is 50,000 CUP. Also, I know that Ruger uses the same action for cartridges with 52,000 and 53,000 CUP SAAMI pressures. If I exceed SAAMI 45,000 CUP velocities I know I can go to +P velocities without a problem - and I can probably exceed them by an additional .5g or 1.0g powder and still be well under dangerous pressures in the Ruger. But nothing is certain, and I don't recommend such actions.) If I choose not to continue, as is usually the case, the remaining loads will be taken home and disassembled.
8. Back at home I enter the shot velocity and group sizes into a spreadsheet. Then I let the spreadsheet calculate Average Velocity, Standard Deviation, and Extreme Spread. (If you want a copy of the spreadsheet, drop me a PM or email.)
9. I review the numbers, looking for "dip" in Standard Deviation. Generally Standard Deviation will get down to around 10fps, often under, and generally my most accurate loads will be found in the immediate neighborhood. After reviewing the numbers, I will select a particular powder charge to be my standard. Knowing that I can easily mess up a group, I tend to choose based more on minimal Standard Deviation than minimal group size.
That's a lot of rambling, hope it provides some useful information somewhere!
