Grendel powder that falls between H-335 and CFE

[grayfox]

if it's "1 or 2 slots away" all that means is it is 1 or 2 slots away. There's more to powder than just the burn rate. Unless you have proven pressure/MV tools to measure both inside and outside of the barrel you are better off sticking with 1) listed powders by the powder mfr or bullet maker, or b) consensus powders that have some appreciable, sound history among experienced reloaders. I say this latter, b), because in the grendel, for example, Ar Comp works well for 120 class bullets but it is not listed by Hodgdon/Alliant etc or bullet makers... it does have multiple users and some consistent load data history/ranges however.

AND starting low and working up, for grendel, in 0.2 or 0.3 gr increments -- otherwise you can miss seeing the node you're looking for. Pressure signs in grendel mean you are already way past the 52,000 psi saami list pressure.

In 300 or 8.6 Blackout these caveats are just as applicable.

[LRRPF52]

@LRRPF52 I was more asking a general question on substituting powder and if you pick a powder that is next to each other, or 2 slots away, in theory doesn't that mean they have almost the same burn rate?

About 6 months ago it was almost impossible to get 1680, so I bought CFEBLK as I could get it and it was only 2 slots away on the burn rate chart. I bought it with the intention to use as a 1680 replacement. Does that make sense, or would you use something other than burn rate to select powders?

[muvef]

Lot's of good advice above. For Accuracy, try 8208. It's slow, but it is accurate.

For speed, PPV is my choice.

TAC can give you a little of both speed and accuracy.

[Konocti's Wigwam]

Indeed, I have done all of that on my loads as well. Your original point was good, that the spread of powders is really across half the chart for any given cartridge.

In the case of the 6.5 Grendel, there's a mismatch on load data, where the Hornady app shows using H335 with 26.4 as the max load, but on the Hodgdon site and info from the Barnes site show 28.0 as being the max for a 120 grain TTSX.

I think your books have as good of load data as any other source. As I've said before, it's too bad I don't have a collection of information like that for other cartridges.

EDIT: While I was posting I received my package from UPS, and the gas port on the 12" 6.5 Grendel match barrel w/1:8 twist is about .075" Nice looking barrel I might add!