Computer reloading program is a gun geek’s dream

Reloaders can geek out endlessly with a computer program called QuickLOAD.

I learned about it while visiting with Bill Pool, gunsmith and owner of Arkansas Gun Traders in Benton. I was riled up over a series of magazine articles I’d read about reloading for the 264 Winchester Magnum. Every article said that particular cartridge requires ultra slow propellants like IMR 7828 and Accurate Arms 8700.

The 110 propellants listed in the Hornady Handbook of Cartridge Reloading Fifth Edition appear in order of burn rate, from fastest to slowest. IMR 7828 is 100th. AA 8700 is 107th.

The standard bullet for 264 Win. Mag. weighs 140 grains. It’s a long, slender bullet with an excellent ballistic coefficient. Nobody ever recommends such slow powders for loading 140-gr. Bullets in 7mm Remington Magnum, I complained. I load a lot of 7mm Mag., with 162- and 175gr., bullets. My best results are with moderate burn rate powders like IMR4831 and Reloader 22.

“140 grains is 140 grains no matter what kind of cartridge it’s plugged into,” I said. “Why wouldn’t 264 data be comparable to 7 Mag., data?”

“Well, let’s just take a look,” Pool said, spooling up his QuickLOAD program.

This program allows you to enter all of the components for any load. A drop-down menu contains every bullet and every powder under the sun. You can match any powder charge with any bullet, along with primer and barrel length. In seconds, it will show you muzzle velocity and chamber pressure for any load. It also shows you where the pressure curve peaks in the barrel.

Optimally, pressure should peak about two-thirds of the distance down the tube. That means the bullet is still accelerating and that most of the propellant will have burned by the time the bullet exits the muzzle.

QuickLOAD confirmed my suspicions. The 264 Win. Mag. Is suitable for a wide range of propellants, including many that are not tested in reloading manuals.

About 90 minutes later, Pool and I had long departed 264 Win. Mag. data. We were immersed in data for 6.5x55, 25-06, 7mm-08 and some of the weird “wildcat” cartridges in which Pool likes to dabble. We added grains of propellant to all kinds of loads until we surpassed maximum chamber pressures for all kinds of loads to see just how fast we could push things.

It was a paper exercise, but Pool said the data is remarkably accurate in terms of what he’s seen on the range.

2019 HUNTING LOAD

For the upcoming deer season, I will return to an old favorite, the 7mm-08. My pet load for this cartridge in a Remington Model 700 BDL is a 130-gr. Speer Boattail powered by 41 grains of IMR 4064 and a Winchester Large Rifle primer. It is supremely accurate despite pairing this rifle with a cheap Bushnell Trophy 3-9x40 scope.

Last winter, I obtained a very gently used Winchester Extreme Weather Stainless with a Leupold VX-3 3.510X40. It is a true, all-weather rifle which I previously lacked.

I finally set aside a range day to sight in this rifle, and boy was I disappointed! It would not group anything. I tried 120-gr. Barnes Triple Shocks with several different powders. I tried 139-gr. Hornady Interlocks and 140gr. Nosler Partitions with several powders. If I hadn’t used a huge cardboard sheet as backing, I wouldn’t have known where many of those bullets went.

The Barnes loads were the worst. One round hit 8 inches high and 8 inches right. The next one hit 6 inches low and 4 inches left. The third was off in a different part of the county.

Finally, I got to the 130gr. Speer/IMR4064 loads. I started with the hottest loads, which contained about 45 grains. They grouped well enough to kill deer. As I reduced the charges, the groups tightened. The sweet spot was 42 grains. I shot a five-shot group. Two went through the same hole in the middle of the bull’s-eye. They other three strung out beneath the first two as if underlining the point. They would have grouped tighter had I used a more stable rest.

Just like that, that rifle went from “cull” to “keeper.” I posted the results in the 7mm-08 group on Facebook. Another member replied, “Is there any 7mm-08 that doesn’t LOVE 130-grain Speers and 4064?”