Load & Altitude?

[25 Otter]

Howdy all. Hey I drew a tag for Elk in S.W.Colorado. I've done all my load development here at 1,500 to 1,800 ft. If I'm working at the upper limits for preasure here,what is going to happen at 10,000 ft? Thanks a bunch,R.J.

 

[SBruce]

I've had some guys tell me that the loads they developed at 5000-6000 feet were too hot at 1000'.

Based on that logic alone, I'd say your pressures would go down. This is just me rationalizing, but the air is thinner up high, so In theory maybe the bullet will get down and out the barrel easier at higher elevations....??

 

[rscott5028]

As SBruce indicated, altitude (air density) will affect your velocity/trajectory.

However, temperature will have a far greater impact on chamber pressure and it will have a greater impact on some powders as compared to others.

Ultimately, I beleive that altitude alone should have negligible affect on chamber pressure. It's not even listed in QuickLoad as a variable from what I could tell. (I just downloaded the demo recently. But, perhaps someone has the full blown version.)

-- richard

 

[25 Otter]

Thanks guys. Makes sense to me. I just don't want to have a preasure spike that could have been avoided.