Anybody doing it?
My American Marksman reloads clock at 2,650 FPS
My powder choices are WC 860 and WC 872

Since I started shooting 50's and listening to what others were loading, I worked up a load that works with everything I shoot. That and it still gave good brass life, didn't beat you up when you shot it...

That load has been 215grs of powder behind M33 to AMAX, this has worked for myself and others. As with any reloading, start at the low end and work up. Watch for pressure signs and when you hit it, back off a few grains.






Formerly known as 50_Shooter

I use 215 grains of WC 860 for my M8 API

I've used 215grs of a few different powders for 50 BMG, even in heavy bullets like AMAX, my loads haven't showed any signs of over pressure.

I talked to a guy before that used 244grs of H50BMG (which would be a MAX load) that said it worked fine in his gun. While it may have, that large of a load beats up you, your gun and brass. Pushing bullets to their limit doesn't mean that you'll get better accuracy.

What you can do is make up some loads in a ladder from 205grs to 230grs, watching for pressure signs and accuracy as you go. When you find the best accuracy, write down the load, from there you can try different tweaking it. Seat it longer, if your 50 is mag fed you're kind stuck seating for that and you'll probably need a light crimp. If not you can play with both to get better results, just like 1-2gr differences in powder charges.




Formerly known as 50_Shooter

Most of what i load is 200 gr of pulldown power (h50bmg)  and i drop down to 180 for the spotter tracer bullets. These work well enough for me.  most of my shooting is shot range. And it doesn’t beat me up to bad

M-8, M-33, M-20 and M-17 I load 212 grains.  For M-48 I back off to 180.  For M-2 I load 208 grains. I've tried to go higher as most others have been able to but I get a heavy bolt lift.

Powder = Virgin WC867 rejected by U.S. Military per sales info from dealer.  Powder seems too fast.  Powder is temp sensitive and very accurate....in the right conditions.  

Rifle = AR-50

Danny

What's happening brother?

You taking up the empty space in the case with something?  At 200 grains you are close to having a flashover/explosion risk with 650ish projos like M-33's and api's.