Jacketed spire point (not soft point), boat tail.
I find lots of load data both online and in reloading books for a 140gr projectile, but none for 139gr, except for soft point or spire point flat base. Okay to use the 140gr spire point boat tail data for the 139gr spire point boat tail projectile?

Check the Hornady data, otherwise start at the bottom and work up

Yes.

Absolutely okay.

Usual rules apply re: working up.

yep.

the interlock in the 7mm is one of the best combo's out there, no matter which tail it has on it.

quote:

Originally posted by Alamo308:
Jacketed spire point (not soft point), boat tail.
I find lots of load data both online and in reloading books for a 140gr projectile, but none for 139gr, except for soft point or spire point flat base. Okay to use the 140gr spire point boat tail data for the 139gr spire point boat tail projectile?

Exactly what bullet are you requiring data for? The Hornady Spire Point bullets were older versions of the Soft Point Interlock bullets that have been on the market for many years now.

I loaded for both the 7mm-08 and 7x57 back in the early '80s using Hornady 139gr Spire Points which were flat based, boat-tail versions were not made then and were not listed in the 3rd edition of Hornady's Handbook of Cartridge Reloading that I had then and still have now. This handbook lists loads for the 7x57 with the 139gr Spire Point bullet.

As an aside, the first few packets of Remington factory ammunition I purchased for my 7mm-08 was loaded with the Hornady 139gr Spire Point as Remington apparently had not produced enough of their own 140gr Corelokt bullets to load for their new 7mm-08.
Believe it or not this early 7mm-08 ammunition chronographed at 2964fps from my Ruger M77 MK1 22" barrel, exactly 100fps faster than the Remington factory specification for their new cartridge.
This exceptional performance was confirmed by writer/hunter Bob Bell who double checked with another chronograph when he came across this high velocity in the early Remington ammunition while trialing the performance of the cartridge with different barrel lengths.

Interesting you ask that question. The older 139 grain spire soft point was one of the best 7mm bullets ever. I have a SAKO Mannlicher carbine that shoots them into tiny groups. They I built a Mannlicher action into a 7x57 Mauser using a good quality Shilen barrel. Well the 139 soft points didn't shoot well out if it, but when I switched to the 139 boatails it shot 1/4 inch groups. Then I tried the boatails in the SAKO and it didn't like them at all. Go figure.

One grain of bullet weight is far overshadowed by myriad other factors when it comes to hand loading ammo. That is one factor to ignore.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
One grain of bullet weight is far overshadowed by myriad other factors when it comes to hand loading ammo. That is one factor to ignore.

Agree on that statement, just call them 140gr and load accordingly.
Don't know why Hornady produces bullet weights that are not rounded up or down to simple 5's or 10's of grains i.e. why have 139gr, 154gr and 162 grain. Just about as bad as RWS 401gr bullets for the 404 Jeffery although that's at least explainable with the conversion of metric grams to imperial grains.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
One grain of bullet weight is far overshadowed by myriad other factors when it comes to hand loading ammo. That is one factor to ignore.

^^^^^^^
This

quote:

Originally posted by eagle27:

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
One grain of bullet weight is far overshadowed by myriad other factors when it comes to hand loading ammo. That is one factor to ignore.

Agree on that statement, just call them 140gr and load accordingly.
Don't know why Hornady produces bullet weights that are not rounded up or down to simple 5's or 10's of grains i.e. why have 139gr, 154gr and 162 grain. Just about as bad as RWS 401gr bullets for the 404 Jeffery although that's at least explainable with the conversion of metric grams to imperial grains.

I talked to one of the Hornady engineers and he told me that what they would do is design the jacket for the kind of expansion/performance that they wanted and then designed the shape for the best ballistics for that jacket. Then they just added the lead to fill it. So whatever amount if lead it took to fil that jacket was rounded to the next whole grain and became that bullet's weight.