reduced loads for rifles

[manny]

anyone wanting to save powder and bullets(boolits) should look into light loads for your bolt or lever action rifles.

I detail the how's and why's here using a pellet and tiny amounts of the right powder. Great to get the little ones started or for saving some supplies in a time of shortage.

heres how I load them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6XBP2qGVwA

and the test rounds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3nkM6X1FcI

[thenodnarb]

cool videos. Thanks for sharing.
Maybe I missed it, but why are you casting round ball instead of just a 38 bullet(boolit), or 30 cal bullet?

[Bastard]

I am using unique for my rifle 30-30 & 30-06 loads, with MBC plain base bullets & TrueShot gas checked... but if I were casting myself, I would just cast the 38 & 30cal bullets.

[rm1911]

.308 might be a little undersized for cast. you can shoot up to .311 in 30 cal with lead bullets. I have 154gr .311 hunter supply lead bullets that I shoot out of the 03A3 no problem. however they don't chamber in my son's marlin x7, so I've been thinking about getting a sizer die in .309 for him. a .309 to .310 would help the lead seal better than .308. I've been shooting lighter loads in the '06 with 10gr unique and 17gr trail boss. TB is very cool because it works with jacketed bullets as well.

either way, reduced load rifle rounds are a blast to shoot, especially for kids. and I know people get leery when you mention doing this, but pretty much any pistol powder will work with reduced loads for rifles. you can use bullseye, blue dot, power pistol, etc. rifle pressures are much higher than pistols, so there's pretty much no way that a lead bullet and 6-8 grains of bullseye will kaboom a solid bolt rifle. even a lighter load of bullseye will shoot fine. when you think about it, you can shoot powderless out of 22's, the colibri round. well, if a primer alone is enough to push a bullet out of a 22 barrel, a few grains of pistol powder will for sure push out a lead slug from a rifle. and we often forget that unique was designed first as a reduced velocity/garrison round powder. it's use in pistols turned out to be a very nice surprise.

the key though is to always use lead projectiles. I have lead casting equipment for fishing jigs. might have to get a round ball mold and do some cast bullets. that's a great idea.

[CSACANNONEER]

Using published loads in Lymans cast bullet load manual can be fun. I use 6.9gr red dot under a 150gr cast bullet as a fun little 30-30 plinking load. Of course, even though loads like this use less powder they are not "reduced loads" since, they are using a different powder with a faster burn rate.

[chknlyps2]

Google "Ed Harris, The Load" I have had fun with it in 8x56r for a couple of years.

[manny]

cool videos. Thanks for sharing.
Maybe I missed it, but why are you casting round ball instead of just a 38 bullet(boolit), or 30 cal bullet?

sometimes people (like myself) have round balls on hand and they will work, I like to think of itas having many options for a problem.

plus, your shooting airgun like velocities out of a 30 30, tons of fun!

[manny]

Some more light loads, as in 90gr lee TL mold with light charges of clays makes for cheap shooting! Made these and tumble lubed them. That lee mold is kick @ss in being economical.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIHNzPFb_Go

[bigedp51]

Speer makes some 100 and 110 grain plinkers for "lite" loads. Below I use 312 pistol bullets for lite loads and fire forming the .303 British with Trail Boss and similar.

[manny]

What charge are you loading with that? Or do you just fill the case to the base of the bullet?