Ammo reloading

[Sunshineer]

Make my own black powder and boy is it hot stuff when I use my homemade 190 proof to make it with. It's so hot I can use it for blasting hard rock at my gold mine.

[Sunshineer]

For those that might be interested & before this thread vanishes into obscurity, I thought I’d mention the lost art of hand loading ‘ultralight ammunition’. I didn’t sit down and construct this today; the following is copy/pasted from a blog.

The only kind of factory or commercial ammunition available for high powered hunting rifles is maxim power / high velocity ammunition. This expensive ammunition can be hard on the rifle and in larger calibers can even become unpleasant to shoot.

In the past reloading publications contained more information dedicated to what are properly called “light” loads, which are much more pleasant and economical to shoot in a high powered rifle. Light loads typically involve using hardened cast lead bullets which are usually swaged and lubricated with alox and perhaps stamped with a brass or copper gas check on the base.
Light loads are driven at lower velocities to prevent deforming the bullet or the smearing lead along the sides of the barrel.

Ultralight loads are even lower in velocity than light loads and you won’t find [this] reloading information in any modern handbook. The cost for this recreational ammunition is trifling.

ult4r.jpg

This WILL KILL YOU DO NOT ATTEMPT TO MAKE THESE
Above is an image of a .30 caliber cartridge loaded with a #1 Buck shot (7.62mm / .30 cal) lead ball. Just a tiny bit (1 to 3 grains) of fast pistol powder is used as propellant in the freshly primed case. The ball is seated into the case mouth by hand pressure alone, excess metal being easily sheared off by the brass case mouth. A little cotton or other fluff can be inserted over the top of the powder to keep it down close to the primer in such a large casing. Since repetitively measuring such a small amount of powder is impractical a home made powder scoop can be made from a spent .22 rim fire case. A .22 short powder scoop with a piece of wire or paper clip soldered on as a handle, will throw about 2.2 grains of “Bullseye” powder. A similar scoop made with a .22 long rifle case would throw about 3.0 grains of Bullseye. Slower burning pistol/shotgun combination powders like “Unique” and “Hi-Skor 700x” will also produce fine ultralight loads.

Ultralight loads can be produced for any pistol or rifle caliber. Their purpose is to act as pleasurable short range, low danger and low noise “plinking” ammunition. The whole point of ultralight loads is lost if too much propellant is applied, because accuracy will fail. Modern rifles have barrels with high rates of rifling twist, which is needed to stabilize jacketed bullets at very high velocities. The old flintlock rifles used two centuries ago had a very slow rate of rifling twist (something like 1 turn in 66 inches) which was needed to properly stabilize or impart spin to a patched round ball. Because a round ball makes so little surface contact with the rifling, the velocities of ultralight loads in modern rifles need to be kept very low. Ultralight cartridge loads are much less lethal than regular ammunition but they are not “toy” loads and should be treated with respect.

traj.jpg

A scoped deer rifle can perform fairly accurately with ultralight ammunition at a distance between 50 feet and 80 yards. The line of sight from a gun site or scope is a very different path from the flight path or trajectory that a bullet takes. The bullet actually crosses the line of sight twice; once at a close distance and then again downrange depending upon the elevation of the sights. For a typical high-powered and scoped hunting rifle that is ‘dialed in’ for accuracy at 300 yards, a normal projectile might first cross the line of sight at 100 feet.

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In the buckshot image above, #1 buckshot is .30 caliber size and will produce ultralight rounds in .30 cal firearms, including: 30-30 Win, 30 M1 Carbine, 300 Savage, 308 Win, 308 Norma, 7.5 Swiss, 7.62 Russian, 30-40 Krag, 30-06, 300 H&H, 300 Win Mag and 300 Weatherby Mag, not to mention several antique pistols chambered in .30 cal. The British 303, Jap 7.7 and Russian 7.62 x 39 cartridges have a bit larger .311 bore diameter so if the # 1 buck does not satisfy then the #0 buckshot will accommodate a tighter fit. Size F, FF and #2 round lead ball moulds are rare or do not exist, so the only common rifle or pistol calibers not matched to a popular buckshot caliber are the “22’s” and the .270 Win and .270 Weatherby cartridges.

1 to 5 grains ill gause a squib. this info is false

[contrahead]

1 to 5 grains ill gause a squib. this info is false

Whatever makes you happy dude. I've personally shot at least a hundred of these ultralight loads in my 30-06 and each one functioned perfectly. I was just trying to be helpful three years ago when I offered this information but now I don't give a rat's ass.

Its obvious that neither you or that reloading-champeen 'frodo' ever had the personal objectivity to build or test fire such a simple little cartridge. If you had then you would know the truth and would not be spouting off erroneous, declarative statements. You two must believe that the earth is flat, the moon landings were faked and that linotype and soft lead are really the same thing. I'm surprised that either of you have figured out which end of a gun to hold...