I have had great luck with two old Remington rifles mounted on old two Chet Brown synesthetic stocks that I got from him back when he was trying different materials back in the early 80's.

Both rifles have been great with H4831 and Nosler Bullets over the years. Both used to shoot well under an inch group with 150 grain bullets. My worst day was when Nosler went to the plastic tips back when because before that Partations and spire points hit the same hole.

I have shot a lot of rounds thru both and the patterns seemed to have opened. I do not shoot like I used to but now with Nosler bullets available same loads and bullets seem to shoot 1/2 groups now have open patterns and flyers with same loads and powder. I still have a 7mm08 that shoots win 760 great so It is not me asaik.

160 Nolser partions and H4831 in the 7 mag now suck from all the years with 1/2 groups.

270 is the same with nosler partions though the Hornaday 150 sp seems to hold a 1" groups.

I started with H4831 and now h4831 SC.

At the range I noticed funny things that I checked the 270 rifle has with 150 rounds inc nosler 150 in general shot around 2830,2825 fps but the nolser 150 today were shooting 2974 and 2992. I have never had that velocity. I alternated the shots over the chrony just to check things and the readings are correct.. Why?? The 270 HOrnaday had little over a 1" group.

All three loads 270 nos part 270 , Rem 7 mag 150 np 2924fps and 160 np 2876,2958 fps seemed to have problems with flyers over 3-4 inches all used H4831 sc. The 270 Hornaday gave a 1" group. see 270 above.


I have cleaned the rifles regularly, checked screws, beddings and powder and every thing else that I can think of. Not sure on the throat with all the shooting.
Looked at changing the seating depths a while back.

Could it be the H4831 SC is a lot hotter or different than the other lots I have used over 40 plus years All the Nosler bullets were loaded with a new pound of 4831 and all have flyers and the strange vel that the 270 NP load shows since I have never see that hot of a load??

Any Ideas on what to check or do?

At 78 I really not ready to go buy new rifles if I can try to fix the problems no more than I hunt now.

Thanks, Jim

H4831/H4831SC powders are made in Australia and we here down-under know them as AR2213/AR2213SC.

SC stands for short-cut, a step taken to improve metering of long kernel powders. I imagine just cutting long kernel powder to produce short-cut would increase the burn rate as more surface area of the short-cut kernels is exposed to ignition. If this is so then I assume some change is made to the powder coatings which controls burn rate so short-cut powder remains within specification of the standard cut powder.

I don't know which 4831 powder you used to develop your loads. The original Hodgdon H4831 ex military powder was the slowest of the 4831 powders, this was the powder that Jack O'Connor, Elmer Keith and others of their ilk, developed the well known loads for the likes of the 270W etc.
I also used this powder when loading for the 270 and 7mm magnums. Once this original H4831 supply dried up, Bruce Hodgdon had a new H4831 supplied by a Scottish company, likely Nobels. I also used this powder and like others found it to be slightly hotter than the old H4831.
When Nobels stopped producing powder Hodgdon then obtained H4831 and then H4831SC from the Australian company ADI.
I have used AR2213SC (H4831SC) developing loads for the 6.5-06 and found it a little erratic in terms of pressure. I noted a comment from a seller of some AR2231SC on our auction site where he said it was a newly opened tin of powder which gave high pressure signs compared to the previous tin of the same powder he had used for the cartridges he was loading for. He wanted to get rid of the powder with a cautionary note.

Perhaps the powder is causing the issues you are experiencing now.

As Eagle says, the modern H4831 powders are not the same as the old. In fact each new batch of the same number may be slightly different to the last, so perhaps your old loads should be worked from scratch.

Assuming the throat has worn some, maybe if the magazines allow you could recheck the allowable COLs and seat your bullets out a little more.

If that doesn't help, how much accuracy do you really need? Rebarrelling is rarely cheap.