Barnes 145 LRX and 168 LRX 7mm Dakota

[Hawk in WY]

New Dakota rifle, new caliber.

Lilja barrel.

Found the Hornady load data and the very old Barnes X bullet data.

Willing to extrapolate, start low, and work up.

Someone with experience with these bullets and probably RL-22 or IMR 7828 could save me some time and materials.

Loading for Wyoming antelope and elk.

Thanks in advance.

 

[pods8]

I can't see much saved you're going to need to look for your max charge and then an accuracy node regardless.

Looking at the old X data on the 140s and 150s to try and find something for the 145s I'd likely load up one cartridge in .5gr increments starting at 72gr with one of those powders maybe to 76gr turf. Shoot them sequentially and cease on pressure signs or excess velocity. Back off from that and go sniffing for a charge/velocity node that works with your gun. Someone else's sweet spot load likely won't be yours.

Assuming the gun is agreeable with that bullet/powder you should be onto something within about 30rds. You can then refine the seating and keep testing from there.

 

[Hawk in WY]

Thank you for the response.

Barnes tells me to use the 150 grain X bullet data for the 145 LRX and the 175 data for the 168 LRX.

A bit more conservative than you, or I, might be, but a good place to start.

The rifle will tell me when to stop.

Fortunately it's a bit warmer now than when I will be shooting in the field.

COAL data seems around 3.29, albeit for a different bullet.

I will need to modify a case to find the lands.

Fortunately, Barnes bullets seem to like a bit of a jump.

Amazing how little data there is for what is sure to be a great round if I do my part.

 

[pods8]

Yeah they recommend using the heavier data to start with, you can keep in mind you can potentially exceed the max charge a bit keeping in mind what the gun/brass/velocity are giving you in terms of feedback. I shoot the 145gr in 7-08 and had to do the same thing.

I rarely use the factory COAL data (I load longer) and wouldn't tend to pay much attention to it unless my gun was requiring a shorter loading, then I'd tread more carefully near max charge. I use the dowel method to check the bullet on the lands: dowel with a bushing set against the muzzle with the dowel against the bolt face and then pull the bolt and push a bullet up against the lands with another dowel. Measure the distance between the muzzle and bushing to figure out the COAL for that specific bullet. (I do then use a comparator to measure the ogive position on the bullet and do it for a few bullets to check, sometimes the ogive to tip varies but the base to ogive is typically consistent.)

The barnes certainly can vary in sweet spot, in one of my guns it likes .12" off the lands, in another .05" works well. I'd tend to check the range between .02-.15" once you've dialed in a powder charge you like.