Handloader Magazine; bbl X velocity article

tokguy

tokguy

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If anyone recalls an article this summer in Handloader Magazine where Terry Wieland (I think I recall ) was cutting the barrels (1" at a time )on a p-14 and a 96 swede to see the effects on velocity...please refresh my memory!
It's driving me nuts! I can't find the article and I want to fab up a 303 br load for a M-H carbine. It's kind of hard to tweak up the power without the muzzle blast / recoil getting out of hand with the shorter barrel ( 19" Parker-Hale bbl)
I'm thinking about 180 grain bullets but which powder and amount is undecided so far.
 
tokguy said:
Powder type and bullet weight that will be most effective with minimal muzzle blast.
Click to expand...

Ok. I don't think that article would contribute to your question if I understand it correctly.

If you want to reduce recoil and/or muzzle blast (noise - as opposed to muzzle flash - light), both are functions of the volume of the gas being expended, and its pressure at the muzzle. Recoil can be reduced by the use of the lightest possible bullet and the least possible amount of powder, which obviously has a trade-off in bullet energy, but also by adding weight to the firearm and by good stock design ("felt" recoil). Muzzle blast (noise) can also be reduced by using longer barrels which will exhibit lower muzzle pressure than shorter barrels in pretty much a linear fashion, i.e. for a given load, a 24" will have approximately 2/3 rds the muzzle pressure of an 16" barrel. It's always true that the lower the pressure at the boltface, the lower the pressure at the muzzle, but it's complicated a bit by the fact that, a little bit of fast powder will produce less muzzle pressure than more of a slower powder, even though both could have the same peak pressure (measured near the boltface) - that's because less powder produces a lesser volume of gas. Quickload can be used to demonstrate all of these things, as it estimates peak and muzzle pressure for a vast number of powders of varying burn rates.

So decide what bullet you want to use, and what MV you require, and develop a load using the least amount of powder possible within safe pressure limits, i.e. 10 grs of Red Dot might give you the MV you want, but be over pressure, so you use 12 grs of Unique.

I hope I didn't confuse the issue...........
 
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is the muzzle blast painful? If so, you might have a fireball of burning powder that adds to the noise. I had a 18" 308 that was very painful with some powers.

To reduce the noise, experiment with various extruded powders. I would try 3031, 4895 and RL15, using heavier bullets.
 
I found the article!
Heavier bullets; in the neighborhood of 180 and a lighter charge of faster powder. Wieland suggested 3031.
Which we are already doing on a different level. My father pops the bullets out of Czech 7.62 X 39 and loads them in front of 42 gr of 3031. FMJ coyote medicine.
My Ross just makes a "Chow!" sound and Water's data should have to at around 3000 fps at the muzzle. Very nice to shoot.
I'll get some 180 gr bullets and see what the Martini likes.
Thanks for your input.
 
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