Hello all,
    Well, I broke a few conventions today, but got some good results. I have heard people shy away from from using ball pistol powders in cast bullet rifle loads, but I know 2400 is a common powder to use, and so I figured that was close enough to a ball powder to set a precedent...
      So, I came up with a load of AA#5 that I predicted would give about 1400-1500fps with my 170gr cast bullets. I decided on 13 gr. I also used a large pistol primer because I have a lot of them on hand. Given all the info I could gather I felt that they would be okay with the pressures generated.
      Long story short, this turned out to be one of my better cast bullet loads, giving 1469fps with a SD of 5. Best of all my accuracy at 50 yds was outstanding, with several 3-shot one hole groups, and none that measured over .4 inches. It was windy, so the single 100 yd group I fired was 1.2" with horizontal dispersion. Primers were well rounded.
     Please, don't anybody try this load based on my say-so! It is not a published load and I have no way of pressure testing them. Indeed, the people who are leery of ball powder reduced loads may be much wiser than I!  Experiment at your OWN RISK!
     I just wanted to report on the amazing results I got with an unconventional combination..                         IDShooter

IDShooter,
Interesting article.  Did you use any wadding to keep the powder up against the flash hole?

IDShooter
 Congratulations.I've used AA#5 in my 3o-06 for quite some time. I used the loads from Lymann'sCastBullet Handbook for Unique or PB for my referance. You hit the nail right on the thumb on your 13 gr. For 12gr of unique, the Lyman book say that using the 31141bullet @ 170gr will produce1504 fps and 24000 psi
  DO you know how to Figure how much you have to cut down on a powder load to reduce the velocity?
Itis found in LEE'S Handbook of Modern Loading. This fomula is worth the price of the book. I think LEE'S book is one of the best on the market.
tbc

Thanks for the tip on the Lee book caster! *J Miller: No I didn't use any kind of filler and didn't handle the cartridges any special way such as tipping up the muzzle, etc. It seems that this powder is easy enough to ignite that it requires no special treatment! * * * * * * * *ID



<!--EDIT|IDShooter|May 23 2002,12:47-->

Just an update - I loaded 50 more rounds of this load and went to the range to get a more precise zero. Here is a pic of my 100 yard results. The larger group on the left measured .877, the one on the right measured .668. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;IDShooter

IDshooter
&nbsp;Man these almost make me want to go out and start shooting cast bullets out of my 30-06!! Great groups!!
Question do you use these for hunting! What do you hunt with it if you do? Seems the 170gr bullet would be good Deer/Antelope fodder out to about 175yds? &nbsp;I use cast bullets for most of my pistol shooting -just haven't made the jump to rifle yet.

Interesting stuff. Love the pic. I've got a 760 pump 30.06 that would probably love that fodder.

Hi,
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;I haven't hunted anything with this load yet, although I may try it on deer in either this or the 30-30. (I use the same bullet with a different powder charge) Before I do I'm going to try some penetration/wound channel testing to see just what they'll do. I have barely had time to shoot & post the last few weeks, I haven't had time for testing!
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;My initial loads were developed with the Lyman 31141 &nbsp;bullet cast by a friend and they were approx. Lyman #2 hardness. The most recent batch are the Laser-Cast bullets which a store over in Spokane carries. They appear to be from the same mold but are HARD. They shoot just as well but I don't know what the terminal ballistics will be like. So, we'll see. I do keep this rifle/load in the gun rack when I'm up in the hills just in case I see a coyote, but so far haven't seen any. &nbsp; &nbsp;ID