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I need to knock up a few rounds of my .303 for Sunday (otherwise I go to the Club's AGM in the morning then have nothing to shoot). Having run out of N140 and none to be had I've landed on a pot of IMR4895. I'll be shooting 174 grain SMKs and it looks like I will start my load at about 39 grains. Has anyone any experience of this powder in a .303?

4895.?
Horrible stuff.

Send it to me for safe disposal. No fee.

If you go to the Hodgdon web site (http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/) you will see that they do not recommend imi 4895 for 303 British.
PS where did you get 39 grains from?

I'm sure my manuals list 4895 as good for .303

The problem with some manufacturer sites is that they are in the business of making money.
If they choose to push people toward "a new better powder/round/bullet" then that's what they'll do....

Look at the history around the main firms dropping percussion caps from production.

DOGGER2UK wrote:If you go to the Hodgdon web site (http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/) you will see that they do not recommend imi 4895 for 303 British.
PS where did you get 39 grains from?

They don't discuss the 174 gr but do have loads for a 150 and 180 bullet. I've taken 39 grains as a sensible starting point given the maximums for both a lighter and heavier bullet.

saddler wrote:I'm sure my manuals list 4895 as good for .303

The problem with some manufacturer sites is that they are in the business of making money.
If they choose to push people toward "a new better powder/round/bullet" then that's what they'll do....

Look at the history around the main firms dropping percussion caps from production.

Indeed! I've used Hodgdon H4895 in my .303 ever since I bought the rifle back in 1996
From what I've read IMR 4895 is almost the same but not quite. H4895 is the least temperature sensitive of the two - apparently. If you compare load data though they are very similar.

The Hodgdon web site lists the 174 gr sie HPBT .311"bullet in the .303 British load data for H4895. The recommended start load is 34 gr and the max load is 38 gr.
Hodgdon do not show IMR4895 in the .303 British section.

Have a look at the web site (link above) for the published data!

Lyman 47th loading manual for 180gr JSP, with IMR 4895, give 39g for 2,207 fps start load. Max load 44g for 2,469 fps.

I would go with your start load Watcher, it would be good enough for me.

Joe

The Lyman 49th Edition (current) via Load Data gives a start load of 37gns of IMR4895 for 2032 fps.

The maximum is 41 gns for 2341 fps.

Why are people so leery about equipping themselves with decent, up to date reloading manuals?

They have to be one of the cheapest pieces of reloading kit to buy and as essential as a good scale.

I have seen IMR 4895 loads for 174 303 recently.

Its a nice enough powder, although mine is all going through 77gr 223 loads.