Hodgdon H4895 review

Hodgdon H4895 is a extruded stick powder that meters and looks similar to Hodgdon Varget. Its faster burning that Varget. Generally, not absolutely, it takes about 1-2 grains less of H4895 to get similar velocity and pressure of Varget. H4895 is what many people consider a top tier powder. Its accurate and its temperature IN-Sensitive. So all all Hodgdon "Extreme" powders. So that means in cold temperatures and hot temperatures, the velocity does not change much. It does change. So temperature insensitive powders are range from say .2 FPS per degree, to about .6 FPS per degree. Temperature sensitive powders, such as Reloader 15, or Accurate 2230, can fluctuate as much as 2 FPS per degree. So H4895 can perform well in any climate.

Hodgdon H4895

We threw in some other powders for direct velocity comparisons. These are variable 6 and 7 round strings, not 5 rounds. Most are 6 rounds. A few sight in and sight adjusted rounds on first shots, marked.

Good performance. This is 50 yards.

Faxon is using a Crimson Trace 1x8 LPVO. The dot is pretty large, so precision aiming at 50 yards, I would call not super easy, but good enough for about .2MOA deviation.

The WOA is using a Bushnell 24x scope, and can achieve more precise aiming point.

Human error for me is narrow, around .1MOA, as the shots and holds are very steady and secured.

Notice Hodgdon website says maximum using this type of bullet is 22.6 Compressed. As you can see, 23.3 is 2800+ FPS and super hot, probably beyond 60K PSI. My guess is that a little under 22.5 is probably near 55k psi range. Another popular youtube site tried to do Nato load clones and stopped at 22.8 whcih was for him, around 2770 FPS. So Hodgdon load data is reasonable, but maybe on hot side. I am testing 2 different lots to see if they are same, or different FPS.

I put the AA2230 in here for a reason, because I know the H4895 would be hot around 23 grains. Look how similar the FPS is between AA2230 and H4895 at same grain load of 22.5. Guess what is also going to be super close? Hodgdon Benchmark. So I really don't understand the point of Benchmark or H4895 since the load results are virtually the same in reality.

See Nosler 77 grain test for more comparison in FPS between H4895 and Benchmark and AA2230 HERE

The brass

The primers are Federal Gold Medal. They are soft. They flatten easier than CCI,. Right click the picture and do inspect, or see image, etc. To see it in full resolution.

The very right, going up and down, is the 23.3 of H4895. The rest are left to right, like the top row and 2nd row there is H4895 23.0.

Very bottom row, the 7 shots on left, those are the AA2230 22.5.

You can see ejector swipes on many pieces and a few of the primers, in the 24.0 grains of Precision Rifle show small cratering. I shot 25.0 grains of Precision Rifle, looked very similar.

You hear a lot of people saying things on the internet like "its cratering, or it has swipes, that is WAY WAY TOO LATE!! YOUR IN DANGER!!"

I am lucky to be alive....wow huh. I shoot these through dozens of AR15's day in day out, for years and years, never broke 1 piece (of AR) yet. Folks, pretty much, NATO loads looks like that after you shoot it. All the military shoots are higher pressure loads. The 77 grain military load is ~2750 FPS out of 20" barrel. That is high pressure.