Black Powder for reduced 30-06 loads.

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5744, 4198, 3031 and 4227 are all powders used for small charge, lower velocity smokeless loads in rifle cartridges among those shooting things like old trapdoors and rolling block single shot rifles. So these would be options as well.

I've also seen more than one saying that they use 2400 for this same application.
 
300 blk - I would hate to read of someone in Ludington meeting their Lord before their time. :)
 
Another problem is that black powder produces from 40% to 60% (depending on composition) solid products. And that's what causes all the fouling. One reason black powder rifles have such large bores is that smaller bores foul so badly as to be virtually useless.

A .30 barrel would be a good example of a case where only a small load of black powder would be practical.
 
Go to the left side of this page and click on 170 gr. bullet under the 30-06. It will give you several dozen reduced loads for your gun.

http://www.gmdr.com/lever/lowveldata.htm

7 grs. of Green Dot or Red Dot has always served me well under 173 gr. cast bullets. Do the math, you get almost a thousand loads per pound of powder. (yes I can do the math, it's 1,000 exactly, but some always gets spilled) At $30 per pound, that's about 3 cents per load.

black powder is a bad idea from the standpoint of lack of posted data and the cleanup. Shooting blackpowder is too much like work for me.
 
I am trying to find some trail boss online. I just cannot find any place that has any in stock.
Please don't shoot any more 777 loads with less than a full case, especially with as much air space you are creating. You're lucky you used a BP substitute because I'm sure by now you would have kboomed already with real black powder.

Do you have any H4895? If so you can make a safe reduced load using it.
http://www.hodgdon.com/PDF/H4895 Reduced Rifle Loads.pdf
 
Thanks for the input guys. I have not shot any more loads with triple seven. I do find it hard to believe that 7 grains of powder would even have enough energy to blow up a rem 700. I know some engineers did the math and found that a 2.8 grain load of some smokeless pistol powder was not enough energy to blow up the pistol it was being used in. And I know my 700 is a lot stronger than a pistol.
 
If you know a skeet/trap shooter and they will condencend to associating with a metallic cartridge shooter (they look down on us as ruffians and rustics) beg or borrow half a pound of pistol/shotgun powder and buy some cast .309 or .310 diameter cast bullets from pennbullets.com or missouribullets.com. Load 7 or 8 grs. of Red Dot, 700X, Clays, whatever. Refer to the link at post 31 above to give you confidence in the data. At these levels of pressure you have a reliable 100 yard target round and will extend the life of your barrel by about 20,000 rounds.
 
....I do find it hard to believe that 7 grains of powder would even have enough energy to blow up a rem 700.....

It might well be that with that casing and the 700 barrel that there is no combination that will burst the barrel. But consider that the higher spiking peak pressures generated by the loose charge in such a gap is not achieving the linear variation in powder to pressure that you're looking for. It's quite possible that the bullets from a lower and loose charge due to this issue with the BP replacements could be coming out faster on a lower charge then they would with a full case of correctly compressed powder.

The fix for using reduced charges of black powder or substitutes is the fillers mentioned already. If you load them that way then you'll find that the muzzle velocity and recoil will vary correctly and consistently with the changes in charge weight or charge volume lit it should.
 
That makes sense. I do not have a chronograph, but I will be getting one very soon. I think I will hold off on developing reduced loads until I get one.
 
To my mind monkeying around with anything but smokeless powder in your 700 is a waste. Corrosion sets in fast, and worms it way down to other places you might not get to, such as the trigger and magazine areas. I would never buy any 700 if I knew a previous owner did that.
 
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