Minimum charge in a 742 Woodsman

[762Russian]

Needing some advice from those wiser; my brother wants me to reload for his Remington 742 in .308, and to do it at as least a cost as possible because he likes making pennies cry.

A solution that came to me would be loading the rounds the same as I do my .30-30; the rifles fire the same diameter bullet so I'm thinking loading up some of my 165-grain cast, along with a reduced charge so leading doesn't become an issue.

I know these rifles are happy to accept a hot load, but would they be able to handle a reduced? Their action seems fairly light and I'm putting in 16 grains of IMR 4198 with a grain worth of polyfill as wadding, which in my .30-30 is a grain below what is considered maximum velocity before leading starts becoming an issue.

Will a .308 semi be able to cycle this ammunition properly, do you think?

Cheers.

 

[Ganderite]

Probably not, but if it shoots accurately, you have a good straight bolt rifle.

 

[762Russian]

Probably not, but if it shoots accurately, you have a good straight bolt rifle.

Yeah, my brother wants a semi-auto; him being lazy as well as cheap.

 

[Andy]

Does accuracy matter, or just a "cheap and lazy load"? If the latter, a cast bullet with enough pressure to cycle the action is the way to go.

 

[762Russian]

Does accuracy matter, or just a "cheap and lazy load"? If the latter, a cast bullet with enough pressure to cycle the action is the way to go.

No; my brother is absolutely unreasonable. It has to be able to knock a fly's arse off at 100, or at least come close.

And he wants this being done for about $30 per 100 rounds. Out of a $350 semi-auto rifle, which included the scope.

Yeah.

I've loaded up two 16-grain rounds and will be taking it out to see what will happen.

 

[THE.KJK]

you are going to end up having to ladder test just to see what will cycle the action let alone for accuracy.

Good luck.

 

[Andy]

IMR4198 is an excellent powder all around, and is especially useful for cast bullet loads in rifle cartridges.

The 30/30 has quite a bit less case capacity than the 308, so requires more powder. With a 165gr cast bullet in the 308, 16.0 grs is far too little - you need to work in the 24.0 - 30.0 gr range, and employ a gas-checked bullet if you go much above the lower figure.