Pistol powder for plinking rifle loads?

[boxhitch]

How to choose which powder is suitable for some light loads with cast?
I see Unique suggested often but there are bulkier powders, wouldn't they be as good or better?

I understand pistol powders are not as position sensitive in a case so partial fill is okay
So why are certain powders favoured? that can be far apart on the burn rate chart

for starters its 38/55 with maybe 250 gr, and realizing start low
Fill it up to a desired velocity?

 

[Mr.Rigpig]

I like Unique, but good luck finding it, same with Trailboss

 

[bearhunter]

One suitable powder for your purposes, would be HS6, which doesn't get a lot of demand for some reason. Maybe because it's been around for decades?

It's one of the powders I see available at local gunshops and big box stores which carry reloading supplies.

I believe Higginson's and Western Metal still has it available in 1lb and 8lb jugs.

 

[homer76]

I would suggest going to Cast boolits forum and do some research there. My go to powder is H110 which I use for 300 Blackout; subsonic with 210 and 245 grain cast bullets and supersonic with 125 grain bullets. Another good resource is the reloading data center on the Hodgdon reloading website. Look for subsonic loads.

 

[4fifty8]

Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook works for me 3rd edition lists .38/55 Win data.

 

[Snider shooter]

Unique and 2400 are the powder most of my cast rifle shooting is done with. I have used red , green and blue dots. Multiple powders can be used depending on how powerful of a load you want.

 

[257hunter]

I have used red dot for cheap fireforming loads in the past. Not sure what’s there for comparable alternative options that are more available here.

 

[Andy]

Red Dot has been my main powder for light cast bullet loads for rifles.

 

[Snider shooter]

Red dot does work well in most reduced cast loads. I have had two rifles where it was just to fast and bullets not engraving the rifling. I recovered a couple. Almost any shotgun or pistol powder can be used at close range but when you go out to a 100 or more I found 2400 works well.

 

[Dogleg]

You have to be super careful when loading pistol powders in rifles. Double charges take guns apart, and its easy to do.

 

[Butcherbill]

Pretty sure Titegroup loads for some rifle calibers is listed on Hodgdon’s site, 8.0gr for .308 plinker loads. Titegroup is generally easy to find.

 

[Beeron]

I do not cast bullets!,
but I have been using titegroup with pretty cool results.
Higher SD's than I am used to in my precision loads but acceptable for plinking.
I can bring my AR500 steel range down to 50 yards with 223 loads that are around 1050-1100fps.
And its pretty frugal.
3 ish grains??

Also done this with 308. that's 8 grains.

Super fun.

 

[mephisto002]

I use Unique, 2400 and even Bullseye to load plinking loads in calibers like:

223
30-30 Win.
308 Win.
30-06
7.5 Swiss
45-70
303 British
and a few more

I also use large pistol magnum primers for these loads (not for 223 of course)

 

[m777]

I'm currently using American Select in 375 H+H 270 gr cast. The 8 lbs'er is going to last forever
I'm at about a min load of Red Dot. Lyman list start load of 6.0 Red Dot on the same cast bullet

 

[kjohn]

I have used mostly 700X, as well Unique for light rifle loads. I just started packing the empty space with 1 1/2 sheet of Kirkland toilet paper. I have never had any trouble with light loads over many years, except for a double charge! Not a good thing!

 

[boxhitch]

I have had two rifles where it was just to fast and bullets not engraving the rifling.

Odd, pressure should be good if they were fast. Were they leading the barrel, smearing ?
Too fast - you could just download til it works?

 

[boxhitch]

Good suggestions for powders thanks
Nothing that isn't found in reloading data, Unique is even in an old 1951 Ideal handbook, no wonder the name comes up
Interesting how the old book has more cast loads than jacketed lol
We have so many more powders to choose from than back then

Decided to give up on the 'why' and just continue testing

 

[Andy]

If the bullets are not engraving, I'd look at bullet "fit" to your bore and alloy hardness before declaring the charge as the cause.

 

[Snider shooter]

If the bullets are not engraving, I'd look at bullet "fit" to your bore and alloy hardness before declaring the charge as the cause.

So if I switched to unique and pushed them faster and they worked. Burn rate of the powder is too fast. Unique has a slower burn rate. Found the Lee manual later. Richard Lee had the same problem. 0.312 bullet in a 0.309 bore wasn’t the issue.
Red dot was an experiment as I had lots. The other rifle was a Marlin with micro groove rifling. Too fast again. Back the charge down and it worked but load wasn’t good at 100. Somewhere past 50 it opened up.
Some combinations just won’t work for what you want.

 

[boxhitch]

So if I switched to unique and pushed them faster and they worked. Burn rate of the powder is too fast. Unique has a slower burn rate. Richard Lee had the same problem. 0.312 bullet in a 0.309 bore wasn’t the issue.
Red dot was an experiment as I had lots. The other rifle was a Marlin with micro groove rifling. Too fast again. Back the charge down and it worked but load wasn’t good at 100. Somewhere past 50 it opened up.
Some combinations just won’t work for what you want.

Good topic for another thread maybe, would like to see this fleshed out more, it just doesn't equate to me
If a larger-than-bore bullet makes it down the barrel, how can it not have rifling engraving, no matter the speed

Found the Lee manual later. Richard Lee had the same problem