Reloading the 8mm Mauser

[Tommy T]

Getting back into reloading after many years. My old go to load for my 98K WW 2 surplus Mauser was 44 grains of IMR 3031 with a 150 grain Hornady bullet. About 2500fps and good accuracy. I have old manuals that list this as a moderate load. I still have 2 full one lb cans of 3031 about 20 year's old. A friend told me that if Ibuy new powder, the loads recommended in my old manuals are no longer safe because IMR powders today have major different characteristics than the old powder. Anyone know if this is a valid concern, or is it just been being overly cautious?

Thanks for any input.

[fats429]

Ive heard this also and believe its all horse hockey from the internet. If IMR changed the powder that much they would change the name of it because they had published loads for that powder before. Your load is right in the middle of published data from IMR and save to shoot

[Xringshooter]

"...A friend told me that if Ibuy new powder, the loads recommended in my old manuals are no longer safe because IMR powders today have major different characteristics than the old powder. Anyone know if this is a valid concern, or is it just been being overly cautious?"...

That's an old as the hills myth. As said, if there was that much change the powder company would give it a new name. I've been using IMR3031 forever for my Marlin 30A and my dads 94 Win in .30-30 (as well as a few other guns that I don't have any more) and have used 3031 that was well in excess of 10 years old and have never had a problem using new reloading info. That said, I have reloading manuals from when I started reloading in 1976 up to the newest. I update every 3 or 4 years and when I do I cross check loadings and have never seen any major changes or warnings. Very minor changes but that is probably because of new testing methods and testing equipment that gives better test data than what they used years ago. But never have seen a change of more than a couple tenths or maybe a bit lower of a max load but still never a lot.

[cephas]

Had the same thing with some IMR4350. My pet loads for a .280 Remington were over max, by a couple grains with the newer data.
Upon investigation the only thing I could find was over the years the filler changed from a natural cotton to something synthetic for cost savings.
Worked them up again with the newer batch and noticed no difference.
When I say work them up I mean chronographed, factory cases I pulled and loaded, then measured bases against factory rounds after firing....ect.
Had a chance to talk with one of the techs from IMR and he just shrugged his shoulders and said work them up and see.
YMMV but am satisfied with my loads.

[Tommy T]

Thanks for the feedback guys

Tommy