Shotgun and cereal (powdered bran only) fillers

[Maven]

A previous thread mentioned the use of shotgun fillers, e.g., Grex and its clones, in small bottle-necked cases. Btw, it works in larger bottle-necked cases as well. It's usually used to boost the pressure and thus burning efficiency with slow-burning milsurp powders such as IMR 5010 and something River Valley Ord. once sold as "Surplus .30-06" (a ball powder). I've tried it with WC 860, but stopped after discovering it had no beneficial effect. There are certain precautions you must take when using either Grex or powdered bran. First, loading density should be such that ~80% of the case is filled with your favorite propellant. Second, surprisingly small amounts of either filler can have rather pronounced effects, so start small. The idea is to use only enough to allow compression of the powder charge. I've never used more than 1.3cc Grex and often less (1cc, .7cc). Lee Dippers are great for this. Third, since fillers boost pressure and efficiency, drop your powder charge by 2gr. in larger cartridges, e.g., the .30-06, and perhaps 1-2gr. in the samller ones. Fourth, store the loaded rounds with the primers up so that the filler doesn't migrate downward into the powder charge. As for powdered bran (Run it through a coffee mill.), although it's cheaper than Grex and easy to find in your supermarket, it does raise pressure to a greater degree than does Grex, so be careful with it. Both work well if used correctly and the results may be worth the extra effort needed to add it to your cartridges.

[Buckshot]

.............Maven, I suppose I really should try that sometime! You're for sure right that it's cheaper then the Grex type ground poly fillers!

As an aside, I found it interesting that Coyote, on the British Militaria board, and several others there will mix black powder with bran as the filler in reduced loads. To clarify, a reduced main charge is poured and then the Bran mixed with BP is added on top. I don't know what it's supposed to do, but I guess it works well.

..............Buckshot

[fiberoptik]

Coming from a total noob, what about grits or cornmeal or cream of wheat? They're cheap, and I wouldn't think they'd burn. Wouldn't they work?
Fiber thinking again.....Add more Fiber!!

[Bass Ackward]

Coming from a total noob, what about grits or cornmeal or cream of wheat? They're cheap, and I wouldn't think they'd burn. Wouldn't they work?
Fiber thinking again.....Add more Fiber!!


Fiber,

Some guys use them. But the two things that need to be avoided in anything but straight case designs is wadding up and moisture accumulation. That was why I went the route of the buffer. Now Bob says it binds up too while in storage. So it's not a perfect world.

But how it is used by me is no problem because pressure is going to bind it up anyway at some point. It does seem to do several things that are a benifit to cast. Compression was what I was after. I still haven't produced superior accuracy with it at high velocities. But results clearly merit continued testing. At least in warm weather.

[Maven]

E. H. Harrison of the NRA, and more recently, Ken Mollohan of the Cast Bullet Assoc., have discussed cereal fillers, namely Cream of Wheat. Harrison found it raised pressure, but had no effect on or degraded accuracy. Mollohan found Cream of Wheat (His article was "COW Loads.") definitely raised pressure. Although I've only tried powdered bran, I concur: As litttle as 3/10 cc in the 8 x 57mm Mau. raises the pressure and improves the burning rate of IMR 5010 with CB's of 195gr. or better. In the 7.5 x55mm Swiss, 7/10cc has the same effect (same powder and 170-180gr. CBs), while 1cc works in the .30-06 (>165gr. CB's). Accuracy in all 3 improved somewhat, mostly because the extreme [velocity] spreads and standard deviations were essentially cut in half.

[felix]

I use grits on occassion, but only on straight wall cases. Moisture is the culprit when using any thing like this. All food stuffs contain a salt of some sort, if not sodium, then surely potassium, magnesium, and/or calcium. These elements are the positive component of a salt. Luckily, the salt "negative" component is seldom a chloride which causes rapid water accumulation/retention, but more often a sulfate which is more or less neutral in ph and slow in water accumulation. Oven dry all foodstuffs before loading, and shoot the rounds within a month or two. No compression, though, but just a touch before and aft. ... felix

[KCSO]

I have found that cow filler will make a big improvment in accuracy when bullet fit is a little off. I had a 303 British that had a 2 groove bbl that ran 317, but was as bright as new. I was having real trouble getting the gun to shoot and when I went with COW filler I could shoot a 315 bullet into 2 1/2 " at 100 yards. Without filler the load keyholed.

[carpetman]

Maybe you need to figure out what batter you like on the game. I use flour on chicken fried steaks,so guess for deer hunting would use flour. Problem is,I use corn meal on the liver so would need to duplex load. Fish I use corn meal. So if out hunting with a flour load and a flock of fish fly over(they have flying fish you know)would have to reload real fast. COW will work,but BULL wont--you can't make a BS load that will shoot without splattering. Anybody ever figure out how to do that will get rich. Felix mentions the salt. Well for me,I have to add more salt. I shoot em at such long range I need the salt to prevent spoilage before I get to them. (notice the splatter?). I heard that over half the women in the US are battered---guess the other guys eat em plain.

[Slick Pilot]

Carpetman,

There are a lot of guys snickering over that last post.

Well done!

(Though I prefer mine rare.)