powder for cast loads ?

[Harpman]

What would you gents say would be best powder for reduced cast loads ?
I'm loading for ...7.5 swiss, 7.62X54R, 444 Marlin and 8mm.
Unique seems good, looking for more opinions though.
Looking for one powder that might do good in all, just for fun though, plinking.

[Leftoverdj]

Unique will work. 13.0 grains of Red Dot will work in all those cases under a normal weight for caliber bullet. Blue Dot will work. 2400 will work.

The 7.62x54R and the 8x57 are notorious for having a wide range of groove diameters so you will need to slug those before buying bullets or moulds. I'd use gas checked bullets at least a thou over groove diameter across that whole range.

[Jim Watson]

Ed Harris developed The Load of 13 grains of Red Dot for cast bullet loads in a variety of standard military-big game cartridges. Not magic, he just had some Red Dot to burn up and 13 grains worked best. I have loaded some similar with 10 and 12 grains of 700X with cast bullets in .30-06.

He also recommended 16 grains of 2400, which I find more accurate with .30-06 cast than my neighbor's 20 grain load.

He pointed out that if you are below maximum, you can use the same powder charge in a variety of guns.

I know that with slower powders, work, and luck you can get over 2000 fps with cast bullets, but I don't see the need. I treat my .30-06s like .32-40s and am content.

[Quantrill]

4759 is great for cast bullet loads if you can find it. Quantrill

[Jim Watson]

4759 works well in cast bullet loads once you get it in the case. I find it coarse and hard to meter well; 5744 also. I think I can get comparable loads out of 2400 which is a finer granulation and meters much better. I don't want to have to weigh out plinking ammo.

[Desert Dog]

H4227 is also a very good powder for cast bullets in large cases.

[encore]

When it comes to cast bullet powders i always use h4227 because it works well with rifle and pistol cast bullets and you dont get the leading of the barrel as bad as other powders

[Paul B.]

Depends on what type of shooting you want to do. For a gallery load, try 5.0 gr. of Unique with a 100 to maybe 120 gr. bullet. Plain base is fine. Accurate to maybe 50 yards, low noise, little or no recoil. Good for small game.
For a mid range load, 17.0 gr. of Alliant #2400 works great in my .308 and 30-06. Should be OK in your rifles. In my .308, I get 1.5 MOA at 200 yards off the bench With 25.0 gr. of IMR-4895, again in the .308, I get 2.5 MOA at 300 yards. Bullet weight is about 185 gr. for the 2400 and 4895 loads. Recoil is quite mild in all the above loads. I cast my bullets basically from wheel weights and lube with either the NRA 50-50 formula (Alox and beeswax) or Lyman's magig Orange lube, depending on time of year. The hard lube in the summer and the NRA formula in the winter. Probably could just stay with the hard lube and be done with it, especially if you want a bit higher velocity.
Paul B.

[Desert Dog]

I just loaded some cast bullets in .303 British last night. The 175 GC's got 25 grains of IMR4895, and the 185 grain plain base bullets got 23 grains...

For reference, the full power load for this powder is 38 to 42 grains for 174gr. spitzer boat tails...

Now, to make time when the weather permits to go test some...

[Jbar4Ranch]

AA5744 or Alliant 2400 for reduced loads. If I had to pick just one powder for everything, it would probably be 2400. It's not the optimum powder for everything, but it will work sufficiently well in everything from .25acp to .30-06, and will also give decent mid-range performance in larger belted magnums.