Duplicating Hornady commercial load

[tcoz]

Robinhood, I was intending to use the OCW method from 41.5gr to 43.5gr fully expecting to find the node between 42 & 43gr. Do you think I should narrow down the test range to 42 to 43 as you stated? My range time is very limited and it's an hour and a half round trip so any time saved in load testing would be great.

[hardnosestreetcop]

Tcoz: I haven't had the chance to shoot the Hornady factory 168 GR BTHP load as of yet, this load is based on using a 24 inch barrel and what is not known is which powder is used and how much is used in the Hornady factory loading. Your using a 20 inch barrel so with that 4 inches of less barrel your already behind the 8 ball as far as velocity goes, you can expect velocity around 2600 FPS +/-. One powder that has become well know and regarded with the 168 Gr BTHP is IMR-4895. From my Savage model 10FP with a 24 inch barrel I've gotten groups the size of a dime using IMR-4895