Reduced/Silent loads

contaucreek

contaucreek

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Howdy. I am interested in developing some minimum loads in 30-30, 348 and 45-70. These will be used for light plinking/get what's scaring the Chickens type of thing. I am looking for quiet loads that let you hear the hammer drop and just make a light pop but I am wary of too light ( cause too much pressure ?) How does one go about this and is there a versatile powder that will accomodate the mentioned cartridges ? Thanks.
 
I use TrailBoss in my 30-30 and it is fairly quiet, but you'll have to try for yourself. It's quiet, but not so quiet that you won't raise some eyebrows if your neighbors are to close.
CB shorts work on little critters and I would say they are definately quieter than 7.0gr of Trailboss in a 30-30
 
I've had good results with Trail Boss as well.

Nothing is silent of course, but I have some loads for 30 cal rifles that have about the same amount of noise as a .22 short subsonic, except I'm pushing a 180gr bullet at about 800 fps, which is roughly equal to a .38 special +P loading.

I've found fuddling aroud with TB and quiet loads to be a fair bit of fun and definitely worth getting into.
 
Unique is an old standby for light loads in any rifle. Around 7 grains may be about right. Go as low as you want to, but 10 grains may give you about 1300 fps. Regardless what powder you use for very light loads, be SURE the bullet gets out the barrel, before you fire another one.
 
How do you know what charge to use ? Is 7 grs of TB a good load for the Ctgs I mentioned and is it safe to go down from there ? Are there any danger signs to look out for such as too high or too low pressure ? Is too high a pressure impossible when working loads DOWN ? Thanks.
 
Some combinations of slow to medium powder and big cases can be dangerous to load too light. You may run into a phenomenon called detonation.
Opting for a faster powder can help. Using a bulky powder such as Trail Boss can help a lot, provided you don't underload too much.
PP.
 
I was recently researching the same question with regards to producing subsonic cast and jacketed loads for several milsurp rifles and decided to order two pounds of Trail Boss. While it will be several weeks before I've loaded up and fired any cartridges, I'll probably try out the starting loads for Trail Boss and maybe work down a grain or so if required to get the velocity down to subsonic speeds. Though it's not an issue at the range I regularly shoot at, I'd like to have practice and small game loads that I can use in places where regularly shooting with full power centrefire loads might draw unwanted attention. The decreased wear on the rifle and savings on powder also play highly in my plans.

I recommend taking a look at the following links below which may tell you whether Trail Boss would satisfy your needs:

http://www.hodgdon.com/PDF/Trail-Boss-data.pdf

http://www.surplusrifle.com/articles2008/trailbosskiss/index.asp

Good luck!

Frank
 
I tried 3.7gr of Trail Boss with a 20gr V-Max in my 17 Rem Fire Ball and it's pretty quiet at an estimated 1900fps.
 
contaucreek said:
Howdy. I am interested in developing some minimum loads in 30-30, 348 and 45-70. These will be used for light plinking/get what's scaring the Chickens type of thing. I am looking for quiet loads that let you hear the hammer drop and just make a light pop but I am wary of too light ( cause too much pressure ?) How does one go about this and is there a versatile powder that will accomodate the mentioned cartridges ? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Hodgdon has an online lookup table for different calibers. h ttp://data.hodgdon.com/cartridge_load.asp.

For 30-30:
6.5 to 9gr of Trailboss (997 to 1195 ft/s with a 160gr lead bullet)

No recommended sub-sonic loads for the .348 Win.

As for 45-70:
14 to 16gr of Trailboss (1075 to 1142 ft/s with a 385gr lead bullet)
12 to 13gr of Trailboss (971 to 1007 ft/s with a 405gr lead bullet)
8 to 10gr of Trailboss (699 to 804 ft/s with a 485gr lead bullet)

I would venture to say the starting 485gr 45-70 load would be the quietest at 17100 CUP, but I don't know if it will be quiet enough to hear the hammer drop. If you test these loads let us know the results. :)
 
The lower the pressure, the quieter, and it needs to be subsonic right from the muzzle. Trail Boss and anything faster are excellent choices. Take extreme care to develop a load that causes the (lead) bullet to exit every time. Some 600 fps "ish" loads can vary from 0-600 fps.
 
I used to make 308 ammo for a rifle with a silencer. The powder of choice was 2400. Used around 7 gr.

Yes, you can work down. With 2400, is suggest you start at 11 gr and work down in 0.5 gr increments.

One trick for more uniform pressure is to seat the bullets out so far that they engage the rifling. You can't do that for a lever rifle, though.

Wrap some tape around your cleaning rod, near the tip, so it is wellc entered in the bore and take it to the range with you. You will probably need it.....
 
7 to 8 grains of Blue Dot with a patch works well under 165 cast bullets. I've run those loads out of both a 308 and 30-30 without a patch to hold the powder to the bottom of the case, but I've acquired the habit out of caution. Gives a pretty quiet report, but by no means silent... its as loud as a transonic 22 round (like Fed 714). Popped a few partridge with em and it knocks em flat.
 
I have never used, nor even seen Trail Boss powder. As near as I can figure out, it's only advantage is it's great bulk, taking up lots of space in the case, to lessen the danger of a double charge.
I have played around with very light loads in rifles, to where we were shooting the 30-06 in the basement, with no need for ear protection.
I would just use any fast powder I had. I mentioned Unique, because it is what I have probably used the most of.
Also, with the kind of loads we're talking about, the rifle case makes little difference. That is, a 30-30 would be loaded the same as a 30-06.
 
One explanation for an advantage of a bulky powder like trail boss is that by filling the case sufficiently, position of the powder in the cartridge has less influence. No idea if that's true though, but <10 grains of regular powder in a 30-06 case would sure leave a lot of room for variation in its position.
 
As I have said before, I have used 700X in my favorite plinking load. 5 or 6 gr. behind a Lee 93 gr WW in 30-30. As others have said, fast burning powder, Unique, 700X, 800X, etc will work fine. I bought a can of Trail Boss, but haven't got around to using any yet.

Jeez, I can just see H4831 cranking off rounds in his basement!!:p:sniper:
 
In the days of 35mm film cameras, I wanted to take a picture of a bullet in flight. I mounted the 44 Marlin in level position, close to the basement floor. I rigged a trigger in front of the barrel to set off a high speed strobe light, by the pressure beside the muzzle.
Somewhere I have notes, but going from memory, I think I was in the order of 2 grains of powder. Just enough, I thought, to get the bullet out the barrel. I set a block of wood up to catch the bullets.
I was amazed to see those big cast bullets burried their full length in solid wood!
And Kjohn, it didn't matter at that time if someone walked by and heard a shot. We used to shoot crows with the shotguns, as they flew over our house. Also, I could take my gun and dog, walk out our door and start hunting pheasants.
 
I have used round balls with light loads of 5744 in all 3 of the calibers you mention. 8 grains of that powder in a 348 Win. with .35 cal. round balls would consistently shoot into 3/4" at 25 yards. And they were quiet, much like a .22 short. Sight adjustment will be required from a normal load. I used once fired unsized cases unbelled. The case mouth will shave a slightly oversize pure lead ball to case neck diameter during seating. Seat ball to just below center line, clean off any shaved lead and apply just enough crimp to barely roll the case mouth over. The 348 and 45-70 usually have little to no throat and work well with this type of load. The 30 cal rifles I tried were not as accurate although still adequate for most small game and I attribute that to the longer throats but that is a supposition.
 
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