Well,
I had been shooting 16.5 gr. of H110 behind a 158 gr. Remington SJHP Bullet. It is pretty **** hot! Well, I wanted to make it a little lighter. Hodgdon states that H110 loads should not be downloaded more than 3%. So, I made some loads w/ 16.0 Gr. w/ the same 158 gr. SJHP (16.5 gr. less 3% = 16.0).

BUT

When I took a second look on the Hodgdon website. The max load for a 158 Gr. Bullet is 16.7 gr.!! Which means less 3% = about 16.2 gr.!! :confused: :eek:

Will my 16.0 gr. loads be safe to shoot? Hodgdon says that too light a charge w/ H110 can cause inconsistant ignition!!

Ramses II

My data is old on H-110. It is a powder for high end loads and attention to detail! I would use data that is current for the vintage of powder you are using. You are well over a max charge in my books. You will find erratic velocities with reduced loads. It works good in some loads, and poorly in others.
Save the powder for another application.

I think you are too hot with your reduced load. I tend to err on the side of caution.
Cheezywan

So now they only list MAX loads? Well the old rule of thumb is reduce MAX load by 10% to get starting load!! So if you reduce your load to 15.7 you should be OK. Even with H110! I've used a ton of this in my 45LC/454 and yes it does get unstable with light loads, but I always use MAG pirimers with H110 which seems to lessen the poor ignition problems.

Here is what I have in my books. Older Hodgen.... starting grains of 14.0 and max of 14.5.

New Lyman 48th Edition.....starting grains of 16.3, and max of 16.7

New Sierra...Starting grains of 13.3, and a max of 16.3.

A lot of variance.

I really don't think that 0.2 of a grain will make much difference.

If you want lighter loads, use another powder.

Well, sorry I asked. Thought you guys would be more up to date. Please view H110/158 Gr. Data directly from Hodgdon's Website:
http://www.hodgdon.com/data/pistol/357mag.php

16.7 gr. is the max......

Please see Hodgdon instructions that state H110 is NOT to be reduced by more than 3%:
http://www.hodgdon.com/data/pistol/index.php

Ramses II

Well, sorry I asked. Thought you guys would be more up to date. Ramses IIWell, we're sorry we are not "more up to date" on your question. If you went to Hodgdon's website for their loading data, you went to the best source. Perhaps you should do this again the next time around.

When you solicit advice, you may not get what you want but you should realize that what you get is given with the best intentions.

Ramses II,
If you would like to dig $7.99 out of the piggy bank, Barnes & Noble bookstore will be glad to sell you Hodgdon's 2006 Annual Reloading Manual. The manual has more data on what you want to know.

Ramses II,

There shouldn't be anything wrong with the load you're trying to use as far as safety is concerned. The real concern is getting low enough on the load to where it doesn't ignite and leaves a bullet hung in your bore. What you are using doesn't approach that level of load.

As MikeG said, there are other powders that are much better suited for lower level loads, that don't have the problems H110/W296 have.

I don't use either powder, even though I have some H110. It doesn't develope the velocity I can get with lesser amounts of other powders and I don't have to worry about poor ignition.

The data on the Hodgdon page is taken out of a 10" barrel, so the real world velocity is probably much lower than what they post.