Need a little direction for .284 Win

leojlafrog

leojlafrog

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Hello fellow cgn'ers. I was looking for a little help/advice on handloading for my Dad's savage 99 in .284 Win.
I was trying to develop a load in the 140gr range. I was using some older hornady 139 soft points with a bullet length of 1.13" and a coal of 2.83" (the longest I can seat in the detach mag). I was noticing that when chambering a round that the feed ramp is taking a chunk of the soft point off the bullet. I figured I would try a poly tipped bullet. Without thinking too much of a Nosler or hornady, I grabbed a box of sst's. Opening the box, I found that the sst's are very long(1.275") and looking up load data with a coal of 2.915", the load data is obviously going to make my load more compressed with h4831 and possibly overpressured. With the old soft points, I was at 57.5gr with no problems/overpressure signs and groups still tightening.

Does anyone have an idea where to start as far as a safe zone with h4831 while seating the long sst's deeper @ 2.83"?

Thanks, Joel
 
leojlafrog said:
Hello fellow cgn'ers. I was looking for a little help/advice on handloading for my Dad's savage 99 in .284 Win.
I was trying to develop a load in the 140gr range. I was using some older hornady 139 soft points with a bullet length of 1.13" and a coal of 2.83" (the longest I can seat in the detach mag). I was noticing that when chambering a round that the feed ramp is taking a chunk of the soft point off the bullet. I figured I would try a poly tipped bullet. Without thinking too much of a Nosler or hornady, I grabbed a box of sst's. Opening the box, I found that the sst's are very long(1.275") and looking up load data with a coal of 2.915", the load data is obviously going to make my load more compressed with h4831 and possibly overpressured. With the old soft points, I was at 57.5gr with no problems/overpressure signs and groups still tightening.

Does anyone have an idea where to start as far as a safe zone with h4831 while seating the long sst's deeper @ 2.83"?

Thanks, Joel
Click to expand...


if you go to hogdon's / imr's website and look up the reloading info for what you have , with h4831 , starting load is 56 grains , max load is 60 grains ... 2.915 oal .....

now

goto the 145 grain bullet , loaded at 2.8 oal
with h 4831 , starting load is 55 grains , max load is 60 grains .....

a heavier bullet , with a slightly shorter oal and pretty much the same powder charge .

if it was my gun , i'd load up a couple at 56 grains , a couple at 57 grains , a couple at 58 grains ... and keep going up till you get to 60 .....

then fire them off till i got signs of pressure ......

you are more than likely fine at 57.5 grains with the new bullets ..... but you are holding a controlled , directional bomb in your hands
 
I handloaded a buddy's dad's 99 .284 and it thrived on H-414 with the 140gr bullet.Same as Win 760 if not available also great powders in the 7x57 same bullet weight......You will be a couple grains less from MAX in a 99...........Harold.PS the COL will be shorter than the manual says due to magazine length Sav 99 C I'm thinking.....SST's are long for thier weight
 
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Yes it's a 99c, I've made other loads and the longest I can seat them is 2.83" in the detachable mag. I had checked the hodgdon online data and saw the max was 60gr compressed and a oal of 2.915". My concern is if I start seating the bullet deeper and compressing the load even more, how much will this affect the cartridge pressures? Should I look into something like one of the 4350's so my case capacity is a little more forgiving with the requred space for the deeply set bullets? Forget about the sst's for this one and try a Nosler ballistic tip?

Thanks, Joel
 
4831 or 4350 sounds like the right powder but likely any of the slower stuff will work fine??
If I were in your place I'd get some Sierra Game Kings or Speer hot cores in 140-150 range. Those bullets have a much shorter "snout" per bullet weight & you will not have to seat the bullet so deep.
 
I was going to get gamekings as they work well in all the rifles I handload for, the reason I was trying for a poly-tip bullet is that the soft points take a beating in that 99c when chambering. Found the lengths for the nosler's/ct balistic tips, they seem to be just as long as the sst's. Maybe I'll try Nosler load data and start low. If that doesn't work, I'm going to try the gamekings.
 
These loads work well in my 99C but are both max loads in my rifle.
139gr SST Hornady 56gr H4350-2945fps c.o.l. 2.830"
162gr BTSP Hornady 52.5 IMR4350-2796fps c.o.l. 2.800"
 
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I wouldn't worry about the lead tips getting damaged.
I saw an expermint where a guy pretty much proved the tip damage is least important part of a bullet concerning accuracy, the base being the most important.
 
I own a Model 99 284.
I load Speer 145 Gr bt. 57 GR IMR 4350. I get 3240 FPS Croned. I Loaded a Dummy round so the Bullet was just snug not Tight, I then Marked the Bullet with a Felt marker. I then Levered it into the Chamber and then ejected the Round. I took noticed were the lands Marked the felt Marker. I then Backed Up the Bullet in the Casing so it will just fit inside the Clip. With this It will shot 1 in groups at 150 Yards. Last year I nailed a wolf in the back of the head Running away at 300 Yards( witnesses to prove it) . I call it my 2 step Gun. 1 Shot in the Vitals and they take 2 steps and Face plant. But i think I might try some 140 Gr TSX .
 
56gr of h4350 pushing the 139sst's. Thanks for that info, are you still having to compress the loads or is there still a fair amount of case space left? I'll start lower of course, but at that load do you have good case life or extraction problems? Have you tried it any hotter?

I'll have to talk to my dad yet to see what he's wanting. He still has 100 and some rounds of old Winchester 125 grainers that work very well with 55gr of imr4350 in his rifle. I was trying to get him this 140ish grain load so he doesn't use up all his 125 before I taylor him a new hunting load.

Thanks again, Joel
 
In my father-in-laws Model 88, I loaded 140 Partitions, with Win 760, WLRM primers. With H4831SC you will not be able to fill the case any more and still seat the bullet, and still will not see pressure signs in all likelyhood. Use H4350, RL17, or H4831SC. I used 760 cause that was what I had around. RL17 would be my first choice.
 
It has been a couple of years but if memory serves the 56gr load of H4350 was lightly compressed. My range notes show the 57gr load at 2995fps with extraction being slightly sticky. The 56gr load works well and case life hasn't been a problem.
 
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