We have been loading 80 gr Barnes TTSX for my son-in-laws 243 Ruger American using Reloader 17 and getting velocities averaging just over 3000 fps. He wanted to get more velocity for the 80 gr TTSX so we decided to try the Hogdon Superformance. Here are the end results.
CAUTION: USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. The writer assumes no liability for any damage or injury resulting from use of this information.
Materials:
Winchester cases
Winchester Large Rifle Primers
Barnes 80 Gr TTSX
COL = 2.610
Hodgon/Hornady Superformance
Our loads are within the parameters published by Barnes, and can be found on their web site.
http://www.barnesbullets.com/files/2016/03/243WinchesterV7ForWeb.pdf
Results:
We tried 5 different loads (See the graphics below) shot at 100 yds. The velocities were chrono-ed with a magnetospeed V3. For each powder weight we loaded 5 rds (each weighed separately on an electronic balance). The rds were 0.5 difference in gr. All 5 rds were shot as a group, not round-robin. The idea being , that since you have to be a contortionist to shoot at the range with you rifle in a sled balanced on a too-small table while sitting on several chairs stacked up so you could see through the scope, we would shoot 5 and throw out obvious outliers. That being said, our conclusions are based on the complete 5 rd groups, nothing thrown out. It wasn’t obvious to us that there were any outliers. We found that the tightest group (0.421 moa) was for 47.5 g Superformnce which gave an average of 3284 fps. None of the rds shot displayed any obvious signs of over pressure. This is a significant increase in velocity over what we saw with Reloader 17.
Note that the sweet spot appears to be on a plateau in the load shown in gr vs fps plot. Suggests that there is more to learn in this region of the plot that might be revealed by loading at a 0.3 gr interval. However, we will probably load in volume on a progressive press where the powder loads can vary by ±0.2 gr. It is probably not worth the effort unless we were shooting bench rest. Never saw a deer on a bench, so not likely to do this.
Last edited:
