Reloading Manuals for European Powders and Monolithic Bullets?

[Heym SR20]

Most of the available reloading manuals are American authored with an emphasis on US components, in particular powder and bullets.

Many of these are unavailable here in the UK. There have been lots of developments in European sourced powders over the last few years. We also have lots of new monolithic bullet developments.

And pretty much everyday there is a post on SD asking about which powder and bullet to use in 243, 6.5cm, 308 erc etc.

5 years ago the correct response was go and get a decent reloading manual or two and be guided by that.

However start with a Hornady or Lee manual, the vast majority of loads listed will be totally unusable in the UK as the powders and bullets are simply unavailable.

The Powder Manufacturers do provide a good source of data. So do bullet manufacturers. But is there a good source of reliable independent data for the UK and European handloader and especially for the more novice type handloader.

 

[Sash]

With respect, I don’t think that even Lee is/was “independent” in terms of the loads in the manual.
Rather, he collated the loads from each of the manufacturers, organised and grouped by specific bullet, or type.
I was initially surprised that “his” loads seemed to match those from the powder manufacturer, until I cross-checked.
But he did not, certainly in later editions of his manual, do much, if any, independent testing.

This still leaves the problems of what to do with European powders - I think that is relatively straightforward, since they have ever-improving websites and apps.
New bullets is harder, especially for the novice - Yew Tree has, IMHO, set the bar suitably high with the quality of their recommendations and product support - other bullet manufacturers and importers take note.

But I fear we will not get a single-source of data, let alone one that is independently tested and derived - those are the recommendations on the internet that we so often decry!

 

[Steff]

RWS and the DEVA manual come to my mind.
Otherwise, any good manual for ‚how to‘ and Quickload for ‚how much‘.
It‘s not really rocket science. Common sense will help though.

 

[Steff]

One thing I do occasionally. Enter a cartridge, bullet, seating depth and pressure into QL and let it run a simulation with all available powders. Export this into excel and filter by fill grades, MV etc.
This gives you a pretty good idea of what‘s suitable and possible. And at times it‘s also quite an eye opener …

 

[Scotty99]

I only use VIT powders these days. They have a really good website and App with all of their latest updates which cover most regularly used calibres and bullet weights.

 

[Heym SR20]

RWS and the DEVA manual come to my mind.
Otherwise, any good manual for ‚how to‘ and Quickload for ‚how much‘.
It‘s not really rocket science. Common sense will help though.

The RWS and DEVA manuals - never heard of them. Where do you get them?

 

[Steff]

The RWS and DEVA manuals - never heard of them. Where do you get them?

The RWS manual is available online for free.

https://rws-ammunition.com/de/infotainment/wiederladen

It only covers RWS bullets and powders though.

Here‘s a link to the DEVA manual.

Wiederladebuch und Beiheft „ergänzende Ladedaten“

Wiederladelehrbuch mit BeiheftWiederladebuch und Beiheft „ergänzende Ladedaten“ Für die 6. Auflage des DEVA-Wiederladebuches wurden neben dem Rechtsteil auch die Wiederladedaten komplett überarbeitet. Da teilweise die Komponenten für Ladedaten aus der […]

www.deva-institut.de

This is a collection of loads which were sent to DEVA by reloaders and have actually been tested.
You will have to see how to get this in or into the UK.

 

[Heym SR20]

The RWS manual is available online for free.

https://rws-ammunition.com/de/infotainment/wiederladen

It only covers RWS bullets and powders though.

Here‘s a link to the DEVA manual.

Wiederladebuch und Beiheft „ergänzende Ladedaten“

Wiederladelehrbuch mit BeiheftWiederladebuch und Beiheft „ergänzende Ladedaten“ Für die 6. Auflage des DEVA-Wiederladebuches wurden neben dem Rechtsteil auch die Wiederladedaten komplett überarbeitet. Da teilweise die Komponenten für Ladedaten aus der […]

www.deva-institut.de

This is a collection of loads which were sent to DEVA by reloaders and have actually been tested.
You will have to see how to get this in or into the UK.

Thank you.

 

[bobo]

Here in Denmark it is more or less impossible to get american powder, so they dont really have much interest.

Load data for our most common powder types are for free online:

Norma

Reloading Data | Data for handloading with every caliber

NORMA wants to contribute to development and therefor we share approved reloading data for handloading with every caliber. Learn more about hand loading here!

www.norma-ammunition.com

Swiss powder

Reload Swiss loading data

www.reload-swiss.com

Vithavuori

Reloading data tool | Vihtavuori

Vihtavuori has developed a new online search engine to make reloading data even easier to access! Our new reloading data search tool enables you to search for

www.vihtavuori.com

Lovex

https://explosia.cz/app/uploads/2016/11/reloading_Lovex_EN.pdf

Pesonally mostly use Swiss powder, because they got it ready in most shops here.
I check my loads in Gordons reloading tool (also free), find it to be very accurate.

[Rocket2MyLuna]

www.grtools.de

 

[sauer]

Vhit app is good

 

[Ronin]

PMax that was developed by Geoffrey Kolbe is about as good as it gets for indication of pressure using LTS

 

[Scipio]

Hello everyone, great subject for a thread, as is the thread "load data resources for all calibers" also started by @Heym SR20

Now the two threads do overlap somewhat, and thus the link for this site https://www.xxlreloading.com/
Which I also linked to there, might be of good use here too.

 

[Bavarianbrit]

This translation from the DEVA site.

For the 6th edition of the DEVA reloading book, not only the legal section but also the reloading data were completely revised. Since some of the components for charging data from the 5th edition are no longer available or their properties have changed in such a way that the specified gas pressure values no longer correspond to the previously determined values, all charging data have been redeveloped and tested in the 6th edition.
Furthermore, the focus was on lead-free bullets. This edition only contains a small number of loading data with lead-containing bullets.
As a reloader, you are aware of the effort that must be made to develop a loading data with standard deviations of speed ≤ 5 m/s, gas pressure < 50 bar and 10% below the maximum service gas pressure.
That's why we made the decision in 2017 to publish the reloading book with more than 500 tested loading data for 66 calibers. We published additional charging data in the “supplementary charging data” supplement in 2019.
We are now working on the 7th edition of the reloading book, which is expected to be completed in 2026.

 

[Scipio]

Hello everyone

Speaking of european powders, i can see that there has been some discussion on here in the past as to how much barrel erosion is increased by using double base powders, such as RS 60, vs single base ones. Well, I just found this statement by RS themselves:

We know that erosion depends heavily on the flame temperature. Double-base propellent powders contain nitroglycerine and thus naturally have a higher flame temperature. For Duo RS50/RS52, the difference is around 125 Kelvin. For Duo RS60/RS62, it is approximately 250 Kelvin. RS52 thus shows greater erosion than RS50. The same holds true for RS60: it causes greater erosion than RS62. How much more rapidly does the barrel degrade with double-base powders? That is of course the question behind this column. According to our best estimates, double-base powders reduce barrel service life by 15 to 35 percent. Let’s look at a concrete example: With a single-base powder, the barrel will hold out for e.g. 3,000 rounds. When I use a double-base powder, this costs me 25% of the barrel’s service life. That leaves me with a barrel service life of 2,250 rounds. At this point, the long-range match shooting community will speak up and point out that they change their barrels after 800 – 1,000 rounds. That’s true, but not every shooter wants to put their rounds in the black at 800 or 1,000 yards.


The pistol community will also have something to say. Handgun barrels last considerably longer than rifle barrels. This is due to the lower total energy input. A charge of 4 grains in a pistol is just not going to develop the same energy as 45 grains or more in a long gun.

To sum up: Double-base powders deliver more power, and generally better temperature coefficients as well. The trade-off is a somewhat greater erosion. We adjust our powders to keep this greater erosion within acceptable limits. To get the maximum service life out of the barrel of their weapon, shooters must use a single-base powder, foregoing solely that last quantum of performance. I hope you find this information helpful.

Yours,
Dominik Antenen

Erosion behaviour

www.reload-swiss.com