Just recently I purchased some 158gr semi jack hollow points. The closest bullet design I could find was a Rem,Win, and speer. Most load manuels that I have only show speer bullets like the ones I bought. Some have said that bullet weight is key and use that for starting to develope a load. I am trying to go buy design. Most loads shown are Hornady xtp's or gold dot. These have a full jacket on there hollow point. Would it be unsafe to use load data for these style bullets. I am not going to be loading max loads now, just some medium target loads. Maybe I am just over thinking it. Thank you all very, very much for your help.

In cases like this I take the max loads in my books or on the web for a bullet of the same wgt and similar geometery and the powder I want to use and average it. I use this as the new max load and reduce it 5% or more as starting place.
Watch for signs of pressure and don`t jump into the top load range right off and you should be fine.

quote:

Originally posted by Ol` Joe:
In cases like this I take the max loads in my books or on the web for a bullet of the same wgt and similar geometery and the powder I want to use and average it. I use this as the new max load and reduce it 5% or more as starting place.
Watch for signs of pressure and don`t jump into the top load range right off and you should be fine.

This is a good rule of thumb. DO NOT use Gold Dot data. Gold Dots are basically a heavy plated bullet & typ. have softer cores. You can use Hornady data, but work up.