Prepping an old Mauser for a shoot on Sunday. Grabbed ammo I had loaded years ago and, as usual, I verified the load data to ensure it was loaded to acceptable levels. Just a little second check I like to do. Well, I must have only owned the Speer #14 loading manual at the time of loading. I now have the Lee 2nd edition loading manual to check against. I discovered quite a difference in the suggested "Start" loads and "Max" loads from these two manuals. The rifle is a 8mm JS Persian Mauser in good form/function manufactured in the 1930's. For a 150 gr. jacketed bullet, the two IMR4895 parameters are:
Start Max
SPEER 44 gr. 48 gr.
LEE 31.7 gr. 36 gr.
Quite a difference! Since I usually split the difference between the start and max, I had loaded the ammo with 46 gr. of IMR4895. Is the Lee manual this conservative across all calibers? Perhaps someone here uses the Lee manual and yet another loading manual and has noticed something similar.
Start Max
SPEER 44 gr. 48 gr.
LEE 31.7 gr. 36 gr.
Quite a difference! Since I usually split the difference between the start and max, I had loaded the ammo with 46 gr. of IMR4895. Is the Lee manual this conservative across all calibers? Perhaps someone here uses the Lee manual and yet another loading manual and has noticed something similar.

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