175 SMK's for the 06'

[oakfloor]

What powder for target shooting? [03' springer]I been searching around for awhile any favorites? Thanks.

[YARDDOG(1)]

I would Highly recamend gettig a manual or two, And READ & then READ some more, Not to be foolin, Just some good info IMO ; )
Y/D

[firewrench044]

For my Garand, 1903 and 1903A3
IMR 4064 works best with a variaty of brands of bullets

[oakfloor]

Yup yur right, im asking for "favorite loads" and recommendations to start with. Thanks for your advice.

[SVO]

IMR-4064, IMR-4895 or H-4895. Lots of Hi-power Service Rifles have been fed using those powders with the Sierra 175's or Sierra 168's bullets.

[Bamashooter]

IMR-4895 is the only powder I use to load 30-06.

[Slamfire]

I use and have used any of these loads in match bolt rifles out to 600 yards.

AA2495 is Accurate Arms copy of IMR 4895 but stupidly they call it something different and confuse everyone. Grain for grain it is the same. This load is a maximum load for Garands based on the velocities of NM ammunition. I have used it in my NM Garands out to 1000 yards. You could cut it a half a grain and not hurt anything.

I would only use 4350 in bolt rifles as the pressure curve of 4350 is not appropriate for gas guns. As you can see the difference between my H4350 and AA4350 is about one grain, I believe that is within the manufacturing tolerance standards for powder manufactures. In the 80's H4350 was advertized as a copy of IMR 4350, AA4350 is advertized as a copy of IMR 4350, based on what I saw over the screens, looks to me like these powders are close copies of each other.

30-06 M98 Match Rifle 26"  1-10 Wilson Barrel

175 gr Sierra 55.0grs  AA4350 wtd. FED 210M W/W cases OAL 3.30"	

5 Oct 2000 T=70°F	
								
Ave Vel =	2710						
Std Dev =	18							
ES =	43						
Low =	2679						
High =	2722							
N =	5							
								
								
175gr Sierra 56.0 grs  H4350 wtd. WLR  Commercial cases OAL 3.290"

5 Oct 2000 T=70°F	
								
Ave Vel =	2733						
Std Dev =	24							
ES =	80						
Low =	2686							
High =	2766							
N =	14							


175 Sierra Match 47.0 grs  AA2495 wtd CCI 34 R-P Cases OAL 3.30"	

5 May 00	T=82°F	
								
Ave Vel =	2704						
Std Dev =	17							
ES =	44							
Low =	2677							
High =	2721							
N =	5							
						

M1 Garand  Douglas Barrel 1:10 twist 			
								
175 Sierra Match 47.0 grs  AA2495 wtd CCI 34 R-P Cases OAL 3.30"		
5 May 00 T = 82 ° F							
								
Ave Vel =	2631				 			
Std Dev =	8				 			
ES =	23				 			
Low =	2617				 			
High =	2640				 			
N =	5							

[JR_Roosa]

I like VV N-150 with loads based on the Hornady manual for M1 Garand.

It's a little more expensive and it meters a little better than IMR4895. I get ever so slightly better accuracy with it in my testing out of the Garand. If I was shooting a bolt gun, I'd try something slower to drive the bullets a little faster.

For offhand and rapid fire rounds, I use the 4895 with Hornady 150gr FMJs. I don't see much improvement over 4064, and the 4064 is hard to meter reliably in my measure.

-J.

[kraigwy]

For what it's worth, 4895 was designed for the 30-06.

I load 46 grns for 168 & 175 SMKs and 173 pulled military match. I see no advantage of the SMKs in my M1 since I pretty much only shoot it at 200 yards (CMP GSM Garand Matches). The pulled 173s work great.

I have Model 70 Vietnam Era Sniper Rifle Clone which really likes the SMKs but I've started using it for 1000 yard matches, thats where the 175 SMK shine. Still I only load 46 Grns of 4895 for it, can go faster but I see no need.

If you just want plinking ammo you should check out the CMPs surplus ammo, at about .48 cents a round you can't load much cheaper. They work good in just about any '06 to 200 yards.

[A_Gamehog]

I had an O3A3, and a 1903 with the Pederson device. They both liked H4831 and the 180's. IMR4831 worked on the lighter bullets also <165 Federal 215M primers.

[Unclenick]

Oakfloor,

There are a number of appropriate powders for '06 in a bolt gun like your Springfield. If you also end up with a Garand, you have to watch out to keep muzzle pressure within its limits if you don't add a vented gas cylinder plug, but your '03 won't care.

In general, you want to load for accuracy. Guns don't normally shoot to best accuracy if they are being unduly stressed, so loading for accuracy normally keeps you from going over pressure lines your gun doesn't like. Don't try to simply match a particular velocity as faster and slower powders will reach a given velocity with higher and lower peak pressure values, respectively. Matching velocity only tells you that two loads have equal average pressures from breech to muzzle, not equal peak pressures back near the breech. The peak pressure is usually what detrermines whether a load healthy or unhealthy for a gun.

The military's reason for liking a powder does not usually have to do with getting best accuracy. IMR 4895 does better than about any other powder at functioning with extreme charge weight errors. Some military loading equipment can't seem to throw stick powder very precisely, often spanning several grains, round to round, and IMR 4895 is great for that as it ignites well even in a case that's only 60% full. It also tends to ignite well in extreme cold, and the military cares a lot about that in rounds that could find themselves fired from aircraft at significant altitudes in winter. The military loads cartridges to get within both a velocity and a pressure envelope, and any powder that doesn't make both happen simultaneously is rejected. Too little or too much velocity, and the ballistic tables are off. Too little pressure and automatic and semi-automatic mechanisms can fail to function. Too much pressure is obviously unacceptable in any gun.

WC852 was the last military powder developed for the .30-06. It is spherical, so it mitigates metering errors (though I've still seen about a grain of round-to-round spread in the LC 72 M2 Ball I've pulled). It also produces about the most gas port pressure a Garand can tolerate, though your '03 won't care about that. A canister grade version is available from Hodgdon as H380, but I've never had great match performance from it. Still, it's something you can play with if the fancy strikes you.

Several powders have done well for match accuracy in the .30-06 over the years. IMR 4895 is one of them, even if it wasn't originally developed with that in mind. I prefer IMR 4064 among the IMR powders because it fills the big .30-06 case better, creates about 5% less gas port pressure in the Garand for a given velocity (according to QuickLOAD), and has a burning property that makes it more temperature tolerant (within the range of normal outdoor match temperatures, anyway). I think that's why it has long been a popular match powder, even though its long sticks don't meter smoothly in many measures.

For a bolt gun, many swear by IMR 4350, which fills the case best of all, and if you're going to shoot at 1000 yards, that's a good choice, as it will provide a muzzle velocity edge of about 50 fps that can help at that kind of extreme range. It can create gas port pressures too high for the Garand, and even in a bolt gun, higher muzzle pressure is more demanding of a clean, symmetrical muzzle crown to avoid imparting deleterious yaw to the bullet as it exits.

The IMR 4064 burning property of interest to me was mentioned by John Feamster writing in the Precision Shooting Reloading Guide. He loaded .308 with both IMR 4895 and 4064 to specific velocities in his M1A. He started with 2200 fps and worked up to 2500 fps, IIRC. At the low end it took less 4064 than 4895 to make the 2200 fps number, indicating 4064 was the faster of the two powders (assuming same energy content per pound). At 2400 fps the two charge weights were about equal, suggesting similar burn rates. At 2500 fps, it took less 4895 than 4064, indicating that at that higher pressure 4895 had become the faster powder. The burn rate order had flipped on the way up the pressure range.

Burn rate increases with pressure for all powders. The rates you see in charts are measured under standard conditions with either just one particular lot or are learned for lot averages over time. Their exact ranking order under the standard conditions may not apply under your particular conditions or pressures or powder lot. What Feamster's experiment showed is 4064 has a shallower slope to its increase in burn rate with pressure than 4895. That may be due to the longer grains or to other geometry difference (perforation count, grain or perforation diameters, etc.) or to a deterrent coating difference. The point is that conditions that increase pressure, such as powder temperature or primer temperature will have less effect on 4064 than on 4895 within the range of ambient conditions Feamster tested under. 4895 may still do better at extreme temperatures or with low case fill percentage, but I don't normally shoot it under those circumstances.

More recently I've also been using Varget. In about the same % case fill as 4064 it produces about the same velocity and peak pressure. It seems to meter a little more easily. It's got good temperature insensitivity. It produces slightly higher gas port pressure than 4064, according to QuickLOAD, but still less than 4895, so it's good in the Garand.

If you want to mimic the last lot of M72 match ammo produced, you can do so from the following recipe:

CCI #34 primer
LC case
Sierra 175 grain SMK
46.5 grains IMR 4895.

That's a mild load by some of the old '06 load standards. You can order the 1995 Handloader #114 (March-April) as a back issue to get John Clark's article on Garand match loads, many of which would be applicable to the '03 as well. Just watch out due to its age. Even if the IMR powder numbers have remained fairly similar since then, other components have not. Winchester brass now has more capacity than it did in 1985. Most primer makers have altered their product some since then.

[oakfloor]

Unclenick, slamfire and others you so helpful and I thank you, Im shooting my 06' at steel rams @ 550 yards, and just want get a consistant load and go to town. Your right about 4350 it's "the" 30/06 175GR powder. So off to the loading bench we go. Shoot safe.

[mehavey]

Don't discount IMR4831 !

For the same pressures/better case-fill/total burn, it outperforms even IMR4350 for higher velocities w/ heav(ier) bullets.