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Old June 13, 2000, 12:27 AM   #1
Art Eatman
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Location: Terlingua, TX; Thomasville, GA
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Dunno if it's personal magnetism or my personal gravitational field, but I somehow keep winding up with more guns. I finally decided I oughta shoot some of the strays, but not as serious hunting critters. Plinkers. Reduced loads.

Looking through my reloading guides, there's little info on light loads. So, back to ancient history, and Phil Sharpe's "Complete Guide To Handloading".

.30-30; .30-40, and .38-55: Just as for my '06, 2400 is the answer. For 110-grain or lighter bullets in the .30s, 16 grains in the .30-30; 20 grains in the .30-40, and 22 grains in the '06 all make for a no-recoil load. For the .38-55, 15 grains of 2400 with a 250-grain bullet should work just fine.

The comment was made for the 1918-design .30 Newton (Max load with 180-grain bullet = 3,000 ft/sec) that the very-large capacity case does not do well with reduced loads. Sharpe did not specify if accuracy was the problem, or erratic ignition.

So, I thought about Hueco's load of 35 grains of 2400 in his .458, and Sharpe's 26.6 grains of 2400 in an '06 with a 180-grain bullet. I conclude that for somebody shooting something like a .300 Weatherby, following Hueco's advice about tilting the rifle upwards before shooting--or using some sort of wadding--that 25 to 30 grains of 2400 behind a 150-grain bullet would be a reasonable start.

For comparison, I have used 20 grains of 2400 in the '06 with a 169-grain lead gas-check. It's a very pleasant and quite accurate load.

Anybody else who's really checked out reduced loads, chime in!

Regards, Art
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Old June 13, 2000, 11:29 AM   #2
MADISON
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Join Date: January 1, 2000
Location: Roanoke, Virginia
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Get yourself a copy of the LEE loading manual. In the back they offer to sell you a
disk for $5.00 that gives you SQUIB LOADS with the powder(s) you would normally use.
You might hit
WWW.leeprecision.com

and see if it is still available.
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Old June 13, 2000, 04:36 PM   #3
CapeFear
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Join Date: April 8, 1999
Posts: 92
Art this load falls into the plinker toy range, but first the fine print:

Do not try this load with jacketed bullets!!!
Do not try this load if you are unwilling or unable to check the bore to make sure it is unobstructed between shots!!!
Do not go below this amount of powder it is the absolute minimum in my Remington 700!!!
Do not expect accuracy with this load until you have adjusted the OAL for your particular rifle.Enough warnings yet? Okay here goes.

30-06 Springfield
Lake City 1960's brass
Winchester large rifle primers
110 grain soft cast bullets sized to .310 and lubed
3.5 grains of Green Dot

The report of this round is somewhere between a 22 cb cap and a 22 LR.

The best accuracy I've gotten has been about .8 inches at 90 feet. I've never shot it farther than that.

Speed? I wouldn't get up and walk to the target too fast, you might shoot yourself in the back with this one!

What's this for? Shooting rats in the corn crib, snakes inside the chicken house, or European Starlings off the bird feeder!

Unlike the other side of reloading I would recommend that you work your way down to this one. Start with 5.5 grains of Green Dot and work down from there. Getting a bullet stuck in the barrel is a real possibility on the bottom end of these type loads.
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Old June 13, 2000, 05:02 PM   #4
Art Eatman
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Years ago I used 5 grains of some sort of shotgun powder, with a round lead ball. OO? OOO? About .32 or .33, anyhow. Good squirrel load.

I got to looking some more in "Sharpe", last night. The .300 Savage case is almost identical in capacity to the .308. 20 grains of 2400 works, all the way up to 190 grains of bullet!

So, I'm gonna just set the powder measure and crank away. A tin-can load for the thrifty! (And lazy.)

Thanks, MADISON, for the link; thanks, Cape Fear, for the load.

Art
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Old June 13, 2000, 05:44 PM   #5
Southla1
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Lymans 170 grain round nose cast gas check and 40 to 42 grains of 4895 in an 06. While not a "squib" load it is pleasant to shoot and my chrony shows in the high 2200 to low 2300 range.

------------------
Carlyle Hebert
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