Friday, July 31, 2015

Well, that puts a crimp in that idea Updated

Browsing about for possible .338 loads, I took notice of the Hornady 200-grain FTX bullet; nice boattail, ought to work nicely.

However, I can find NOTHING official on the subject.  A few notes by people saying "I tried it in the .338 Whatever with good results!", but no specifics.  This is troubling, as the Hornady bullet sits a bit deeper in the case than other 200-grain bullets, which generally means higher pressures with the same charge, meaning you can't use the same data.

So I contacted Hornady: "I'm looking for information on this, can you help me?"  Response: "Nope.  Got nothing.  Try Hodgdon."

So I e-mailed Hodgdon: "You got anything?"  Response: "Don't have anything, or know of any sources."

So far nobody will admit to having any knowledge on this.  Any suggestions?

Update:
Got some suggestions- good ones- from AM and Arthur in comments.  Also got some new information: I wrote to Lyman(which I should've done earlier, considering the manual on the shelf behind me) and asked if they had any data that might've been worked up for the next edition.  Response:
We do have data in our 49th Edition Reloading book, but not for that exact bullet.  We used a Speer 200 grain jacketed soft point.  You can use this data for the Hornady Bullet as long as you begin with the start charge and work up the load.  You may also have to tailor the OAL a bit but you shouldn't have any issues
So looks like I'm in business to load a few of these to try.  My thanks to everyone.

5 comments:

SordidPanda said...

The FTX is just a standard boat tail spitzer hunting bullet except the nose is much more flexible fore use in tube magazine lever actions.

As such, any cup and core 200gr boat tailed spitzer data will work to get you started. As always, start at the starting charge and never exceed max.

Good luck reloading.

Arthur said...

Does it have to sit deeper? If you crimp it outside the cannelure will it still fit in the mag and/or chamber?

That might get you a start anyway.

Arthur said...

If it's just a little too long, you could cut the plastic tip off, seat it to the same depth as the bullets with usable load data and test it over the chrony. Then slowly seat them deeper while watching the velocity.

Firehand said...

Due to the flexible nose AM mentioned, it would sit deeper into the case to meet length to fit in the magazine. I was able to get a few of the bullets to mess with, so can compare it with some 200-grain Speer.

At what's listed as max length for the cartridge, you'd be crimping just a bit behind the cannelure. That idea of cutting the polymer nose off so it could sit further forward hadn't occurred to me.

SordidPanda said...

Seating deeper isn't a problem that I worry about during the first part of load development, just start at the starting charge and work up from there. Seating ultra deep and being jammed into the lands produces about the same max chamber pressure, so doing a normal load workup from the starting charge will account for that chamber pressure increase from the get go.

Check the primers, measure case head expansion, chrono the resulting velocity. Stop when you get the accuracy you want, or when you hit max published charge.