Reloading guides are just that, guides not the final word in your rifle with all the other variables introduced from a long fat test barrel with pressure and strain gauges. Started reloading at age 12 with supervision, before age 13 was loading unsupervised and a few months after 13th birthday snuck off in my Volkswagen Beetle to Atlanta. Returned with a Lee turret press, three extra turrets to go with the one included, four sets of dies, scale, powder measure, case tumbler, several bullet molds, lead dipper and Speer reloading manual. Also all the consumables a long hard hot summer of carrying construction materials from drop site to construction site on steep lake lots and working from toe plates to decking on a framing crew.
Stole a big cast iron pot from my mom for a lead pot, had free wheel weights from three tire shops and drove myself silly using the melted bullet wax in shallow pan with Lee cutter and punch style bullet sizer till bought my first Lubrisizer about six months later. By age 16 was reloading for eight calibers and feeding a Smith Model 19, Colt 380 acp, Colt Cobra 38 special, Ruger Blackhawk 44 mag, Colt 1911, Marlin 336 in 35 Remington, brothers in 30-30 Win, Remington 660 Mohawk in 350 Rem Mag and a passel of rimfire which even learned to reload for.
Had one manual, the youthful belief that immortality was possible and did things like push 88 grain 380 hollow points through my 350 Rem Mag so hard the jackets would shed off core a few feet from muzzle and core would start disentigrating quickly. Learned a 158 grain JHP was about lightest bullet could push from the 350 Rem Mag without bullet coming apart in flight and could snipe ground hogs out to 175 yards turning them to soup with the over driven pistol bullets. Shot cast gas check and loved ability to take one box of projectiles and at least try them in my 380, 38, 357 Mag, 35 Rem and 350 Rem Mag. Was no book loads, internet or even articles from Elmer Keith, Ross Syfried or other experimenters of the day on some goofy things I tried.
Didn't blow up a gun or even hurt one as my nephew deer hunts with the Marlin 336 in 35 Rem to this day any sure I shot over 10,000 rounds through it. From 88 to 250 grains I proved the 336 is a robust design and the microgroove rifling reasonably accurate and durable. Invented duplex and triplex loads where would load a 180 grain 357 IHMSA bullet turned backwards behind a 125 grain hollow point oriented forward in the 350 Rem Mag and actually shot a deer with that load which dropped a six point buck from 125 yards like flipped off a light switch. Shot another deer walking toward me with a 250 grain bullet between shoulder and chest which exited out its rear hip on opposite side and was last time used the big 350 on a deer as it liquified every internal organ, ruined entire shoulder, ribs and one rear quarter.
By age 18 had an early Colt SP1 AR 15 20" with duck bill flash hider and a CAR 15 with 16" barrel then by mid 1980's was fixing and upgrading Olympic Arms AR 15's as could find malfunctioning units cheap then build clones and riflespecially didn't feel bad if abused. All money earned went to new firearms, primers, powder, projectiles and upgrading reloading kit. To this day the best value item ever purchased was a set of Lee Powder Dippers. Choose right dipper, shake powder off level and as accurate as a powder measure or more so with some long grain powders the measure wanted to shear. By Feshman year of college had almost two dozen centerfire firearms, reloading for ten or so cartridges off that original Speer manual and never blew anything up or even damaged it except on purpose.
Loved to carry a 6" Smith Model 28 blue steel and electroless nickle Colt Trooper with 8 3/8" barrel in shoulder rig using 125 grain JHP's where dipped the case in a bowl of 2400, shook powder off level with top of case then mashed the bullet to crimp cannelure with heavy roll crimp so would not dislodge unfired bullets in other chambers under recoil. My winter load was 20 grains of 2400 under a 140 grain truncated cone semi-jacketed hollow point. DO NOT USE EITHER OF THESE LOADS AS WILL BLOW MOST 357 MAGNUMS TO PIECES & MAIM OR KILL OPERATOR!!!!!!!! Both of these big burly 357's had cylinders big enough to bore out to 44 mag as the Model 28 was nothing but a Model 29 44 mag with 357 holes bored rather than 429. Both pistols had counterbored cylinders to fully support has head and rim plus meticulously timed, tuned and worked up to these loads using a Ransom Rest and looong string to pull triggers in development.
Being young, dumb but always willing to duct tape a rifle or shotgun to a tire and pull trigger with string when worked up really hot loads knowing was potentially going to sacrifice a firearm in process. We used to love to buy $25 pawn shop RG's, put in rest with hot load and blow them to pieces to remove from the gene pool. If don't know what an RG handgun is its a good thing. Pot metal, mistimed, bombs intended to hurt shooter as much as person shooting at. Have a 44 special load using a hard cast gas check Keith Bullet that carry in five shot 44 special when mountaineering in grizzly and brown bear territory that chronograph at 44 magnum velocity. Elmer did it before the 44 mag was ever built and survived.
When have 90 pound plus rucksack a heavy gun probably won't use is not high on list of equipment. Always carry a spare speed loader of the magnum loads and one of factory defensive ammo. If have time will swap rounds for a human and my two five shot 44 specials use in bear country have both fired a cylinder full of these loads on a nice fall day, bitter cold winter day and near 100° summer day in Ransom Rest. If bear is trying to eat me gun blowing up in my face may be a bonus, at least first round will be hot but plan is to start shooting soon as realize it's aggressive and not stop till gun and hand are in its mouth hoping last round through roof of mouth will turn it off. Luckily every big bear have met was just as anxious to leave the area as I was.
So a man with care can build a stout load for any firearm but because it works in one 6.8 doesn't mean it won't blow another to pieces. Hot loads tailored for a rifle are for that rifle only unless tested in others while working it up. A fellow I know has killed two big elk with a 14.5" LWRC 6.8 using XM68GD's dropping both with a single shot. One took a single step and then slowly collapsed, other took two steps and both front legs buckled as collapsed in a heap. Have shot ground hogs past 300 yards and deer out to 200 yards with 90 grain Gold Dots and all just die and die immediately.
Have a 120 grain loading but am slowly shooting it up as my projectile of choice is a Nosler 110 grain Accubond. I see no need for a heavier bullet as prefer to keep my velocity up as long as possible to help bullet penetrate and expand at longer distance. If load up a heavy bullet but does not have the velocity needed to work on a hog or whatever at a longer range has the heavier bullet helped or hurt. I commonly go past book maximum on loads but they are stored in well marked boxes warning are above maximum load data and could possibly damage gun and shooter.
When I die it's going to be hell for the heirs. Have loads with 30-06 headstamps that are necked down and loaded for a single 25-06 with serial number of rifle those loads belong to. My heirs know to take my labeling seriously and if marked "use at own risk, over max" might be better to pull them and load a bit milder. If your rifle has a well made upper properly squared, good bolt properly heads paced to a barrel that's not an ultra skinny lightweight, choose good brass, prep properly, work up slowly using primers known to be on the hard side to reduce piercing or flowing can work a nice hot hog load. If only firing it when sighting in then killing a hog how many of the hot rod rounds will rifle see? Have two 6.8's with night vision which would be great hog rifles. One has a 16" ARP tube with LWRC bolt and ATN 3-14x X Sight II day/night vision digital scope with factory supplied I.R. illuminator and a second unit that burns through the darkness. Both used together mounter opposite sides reduce shadowed areas or ranges that are dim between muzzle and 225 yards. Other is an 18" Noveske build on matched billet upper and lower plus has an ATN 4x Gen 2+ WPT 51-64 lpi resolution that have never needed the illuminator except for testing.
One is sighted in for my hot 110 grain Accubond load with the other sighted in for Barnes 95 grain Tipped Triple-Shock X (TTSX) Bullets and their "dead right there" advertising is no lie. Have mine running at the top of the charts and shoot well in a variety of 6.8 rifles in the fleet. I don't generally shoot hotter loads in my 1:7 twist Bison barrels as tend to spin drift due to fast twist and high velocity. Have 5,000 130 grain bullets on bench now considering working up a mild load just to use for plinking and range to get them out of inventory. Am not a 270 Win fan as much prefer my 257's and 7mm's so it's either sell or burn the 130's so they are out of the way. Try at least three powders with at least three projectiles, load your ladders and look for a good node and work from that to get your load and kill some hogs. Am not near as aggressive as I was in my early teens so expect to survive handloading from here on out as have meticulous bench habits that have continued to refine over 43 years of reloading. Be careful and don't marry yourself to a heavy bullet. Try something a little lighter and test them in a good ballistics medium then see which performs best at varied ranges.
