Reduced loads

[Coyotegunner]

Just wondering what large caliber rifles you are reloading for?Did I miss it?
A word of caution,I have experienced first hand.Larger calibers,like Ultra mags,if filled with less than 80% case capacity will show dangerous pressure signs in spikes.Like WTH spikes.A hang fire,sort of,once.
I use lighter bullets usually in these with a starting charge.
Try using something,like a PAST recoil pad on your shoulder.A muzzle brake helps a lot also.
When I shot my .458 Winchester a lot for practice,I used a min.starting charge and 350 gr bullets.The recoil felt like half of what a full charge 500gr felt like.

[J-cat]

Filled less than 80% with what?

[rbahri5206]

Just wondering what large caliber rifles you are reloading for?Did I miss it?
A word of caution,I have experienced first hand.Larger calibers,like Ultra mags,if filled with less than 80% case capacity will show dangerous pressure signs in spikes.Like WTH spikes.A hang fire,sort of,once.
I use lighter bullets usually in these with a starting charge.
Try using something,like a PAST recoil pad on your shoulder.A muzzle brake helps a lot also.
When I shot my .458 Winchester a lot for practice,I used a min.starting charge and 350 gr bullets.The recoil felt like half of what a full charge 500gr felt like.

I wanna load for my 30-06 and 308 for now just to see how the process works.

How exactly do you start working up a load with pistol powder when therr is no data to start with. Also what kind of pressure signs am i looking for?

[J-cat]

Exactly.

Get QuickLoad.

Or google seafire/b17g. He worked up loads in many different calibers.

[rm1911]

Trail boss is awesome for reduced rifles loads. My '06 shoots like a 223, if that. I've also used 10gr unique with cast bullets. Trail boss is fine with jacketed and cast. All I've read says only cast with unique.

As a side note, unique is an excellent versatile pistol powder but was originally developed for reduced rifle loads for military garrison use.

I had looked high and low for some blue dot recipes for rifles loads and couldn't find anything. Anyone got some good sources for blue dot rifle lad data?? I've got a couple of pounds of BD.

[rsrocket1]

great info guys, for the guys that recommend pistol powder can i use 700x?

Yes, 700X would be another good powder for a reduced load when used in the ~10g ballpark.

[rsrocket1]

I had a great deal of trouble with H4895 reduced loads being both very dirty and not-sealing the brass to the chamber. They were also wildly inconsistent in velocity.

This was in 8mm mauser. Other cases might have different burn patterns and might be ok in reduced H4895 but I don't recommend it.

If I were to guess, your loads were less than about 28-30 grains H4895. That would be low enough to generate insufficient pressure for a good clean burn.

Dirty burn with residual unburned powder, sooty cases and inconsistent velocity/poor accuracy is a clear symptom of too low pressure.

I'm glad the gun didn't blow up on you. One of the perils of too light a charge with slow powder is when the primer goes off and sticks the bullet into the rifling before the powder ignites. A delayed ignition of the powder then tries to drive the stuck bullet and the pressure goes through the roof. Some think this is a "secondary explosion effect" (SEE) or detonation of the powder, but other experienced gunsmiths claim they can replicate this pretty easily with a lower charge of slow rifle powder in a big case. Tilt the barrel forward first, then shoot the gun, kaboom.

This won't happen with a fast pistol powder, it ignites easily and generates full pressure quickly.

[LynnJr]

With trail boss and a 308 you can't put enough powder in the case to cause problems.
Start at 10 grains with a 180 grain bullet and go up until you run out of case capacity.
I tried it in a smaller case and only got 540 fps.

[Loiterer]

Pistol powder in rifle case. Odd question?
Pistol or rifle primers? Does it matter?

[CGT80]

I was shooting a 159 grain lead plain base boolit over 6.0 grains of red dot in a 30-30 and getting 1116 fps avg. I could hit a 14" steel gong at 165 yards with a short lever action rifle and open sights. My new load is a NOE 180 grain flat nose plain base over 9.6 grains of herco shotgun powder and 1300 fps. It has light recoil, mid level report, and it shoots well. I use a very similar load in my 1926 model 54 Winchester bolt action rifle.

13.0 grains and a 150 grain jacketed bullet are great in the 30-06, at least in terms of recoil. Trail boss is good too. Red dot got me in the 1400 fps range and 14 grains of trail boss gave me 1200-1300 fps. I like 30 grains of IMR 4895 and a 150 jacketed bullet, but it is a soft rifle load, not a bunny fart load.

I can cast my own boolits and load up 30-30 or 30-06 for under $10 per 100 rounds. I use standard large rifle primers. I have read that the depth of large rifle and large pistol vary, but small pistol and small rifle are the same.

Custom quality NOE mold. I only lube the bottom three grooves.



30-30 ammo. I used this ammo to shoot a lever action silouette match on Sunday. I managed 26/40 targets at 100 yards and less, along with two other people. Two people got 27/40 as well. I placed 5th out of 22. The hardest target was the chickens at 100 yards. Of course I hit them more often when practicing than I did in the match


30 carbine, RCBS 115 SP gas check cast boolits. 1668 fps and will easily hit a 14" plate at 165 yards with an early 40's carbine and non adjustable sights.

[stevec223]

Get the speer reloading book... Most rifle cals. are listed with reduced loads as a add-on ,,,with the normal loads... And the primers ,, cases and oal are the same as normal loads... With a rifle powder that gives good case capicity... I havent tried them out ,, but there are usually notes mentioned with them ... On my to do list !! Cheers..