IMR 4831...Share Your Successful and Unsuccessful Experiences With Boolits

[Southern Shooter]

I found a couple pounds of IMR 4831. I am wanting to know about folks experiences with this powder and boolits. What have ya'll used it with and what was the outcome? What worked? What did not work? Observations?

Thanks

[selmerfan]

Good luck - that's a pretty slow one for boolits. I have not ventured into that burn rate area with cast boolits, though I'm sure others have tried.

[triggerhappy243]

it may be way too slow for cast bullets. it is normally used in large capacity rifle rounds like 7MM, mag, 300 mag and the like shooting jacketed bullets.

[Southern Shooter]

I was thinking along the lines of a .30-06 bolt action rifle.

[tomme boy]

Works real well in 308 win. One of the ways to make cast shoot really fast is to start off the boolit really slow and make it burn all the way down the barrel. Others on here are way more experienced shooting fast than I am, but it does work and works well.

[Love Life]

I was thinking the same thing with a "Softer" launch than a fast powder. Hmmmm. Slow powders and a gain twist with cast bullets? I wonder, I wonder...

[dancingbear41]

I have a couple of pounds of this. I have used it in .308 but found I had other powders better suited. I have been putting 55 grains in my Browning 1886 .45/70 with the Lyman 457122 "Gould" HP. It goes where I point it so I can ask for little more. It is also not too unpleasant to shoot.

Simon.

[crazy mark]

I use it in 7-30 waters, 7.5 french, 30-30, 308, 30-06, and a few other rounds. I can get 2000-2200 FPS with cast boolits in some guns,

[triggerhappy243]

I have seen data for cast bullets with reduced load powders somewhere. need to look that one up.... now I am curious. I have an 06 too.

[Southern Shooter]

Keep talking...Ya'll have my attention.

[BruceB]

The slower end of the powder "spectrum" holds a lot of promise for cast-bullet shooters.

This is my MAJOR complaint with the Lyman Cast Bullet Manuals; they IGNORE the slower powders. One of the Manuals lists loads for the .378 Weatherby, and the SLOWEST powder they tested was (I think)...WW-630!!!! In the cavernous .378?!?!? The .416 Rigby is essentially the same case as the .378, and my .416 dotes on slower powders with cast bullets.

I no longer use the Lyman manuals for much beyond basic handgun loads. They are badly out-dated when it comes to cast-bullet RIFLE loads. I have all the editions, but they aren't referred-to very much at all.

I found IMR 4350 to be my best powder so far in .32 Special....that powder is about half a skosh quicker than IMR 4831, which I have yet to test in the.32 Special.

H4831 in turn is half a skosh SLOWER than IMR 4831, andH4831 turned in my BEST group in the .308 M1A development... and it also functioned the rifle correctly during that exercise. H4831 also performs BEAUTIFULLY in the M1 Garand with heavy bullets, yielding match-winning accuracy out to hundreds of yards in good rifles. Do a search for "BobS load".

I have yet to test IMR 4831 in the Garand, but I'm pretty safe in saying that it will work well both in functioning the M1 rifle and in accuracy as well. I'll use the 311284 bullet (over 200 grains) and fully anticipate great success. Bolt action .30'06? If it works in the Garand, it will also shoot well in a bolt gun... I'll have to try that, too. The BobS load was around 42 grains of H4831 with the 311284 bullet. I'd start at 40 grains of IMR4831 and expect good things.

If a handloader doesn't give the slower powders a try in most of our rifle cartridges, he is missing a boat which could bring him great success in his search for accuracy and performance. The cast-bullet manuals do handloaders a great disservice in not testing the slower powders.

[runfiverun]

it does work in the 308, it comes down the line about number 3-4 after case/boolit [static and mechanical fit], concentricity and some other stuff.

4831 works very well in the 30-30 too, all but fill the case and seat the boolit on top with a slight amount of compression. [34-36 grs]

[Bjornb]

The FIRST Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook (1958) goes into great detail with the slower rifle powders. As an example, the manual lists loads for .308 Win and the 311299 with the following (current production)powders: 2400, 4227, 4759, 4198, 4895, 4064, 4320 and 4350. Same for just about all the most common cast boolit calibers. The best part? The book is available in re-print from Cornell Publications for 20 bucks. Full color print. cornellpubs.com. They also sell the second edition (1973), but by then they had started to publish mostly fast powder loads like Bruce B. was talking about. The first edition also contains some very handy charts listing top punches for many obsolete boolit designs.

[L Ross]

Prior to our November deer season I did some testing with H-4831 in a Springfield sporter in 30-06 shooting an ACWW 311284 sized to .311" 221 gr. lubed and checked. Chronographed at 15' from the muzzle.

40 grains=1,465 fps. 42 grains=1487 fps. 46 grains=1,597 fps. 51 grains=1,900 fps. No filler used.

Forty and forty two grains resulted in sooty case necks, but accuracy was encouraging. Actually all of the loads exhibited decent accuracy of 1 1/2 " at 80 yards from a casual rest with an El Paso K-3 with a post.

[WALLNUTT]

I have used surplus 4831 in a 30-40 and RCBS 180sp with good success. It needs some compression to burn well,about 47g if I remember correct. I used to use IMR4831 in a 30-30 Ackley Improved SSK Contender that would group1&1/4 in with the same bullet.

[bobthenailer]

4831 was the most accurate and consistant smokless powder in my Browning BPCR in 45/70
I tried 5744, R-7 , 4759, unique, 3031, 4227, varget and a few others that i cant recall.

[selmerfan]

Wow - BruceB -you confirmed virtually all of my suspicions about the Lyman Cast Bullet handbook (current version) and even most of the cast boolit loads in Lyman #48! I've been trying to figure out why in the heck the slow-burning powders are ignored. My theory was that if I put 50-55 gr. of 4831 (.30-06) or 30-40 gr. of 4350 (.30-40 Krag) that the slow-burning powders and larger amount of powder would increase risk of flame-cutting or base deformation due to the larger flame and heat. Lyman #48 does give some data with slower burning powders, IIRC I have a great load for my Krag with 32 gr. of Varget and the 311299 that runs over 2000 fps and gives MOA or better accuracy out to at least 200 yds. I'm just in the middle of experimenting with all of the slower burning PISTOL powders I have on the shelf - Accurate #9, Blue Dot, Accurate 1680, 4227, Rx7 to figure out what works as well (or better in some cases, I have discovered) than 2400, my favorite. This isn't even touching the 4350s, 4831s, H380, Rx15, etc. that I have for jacketed loading...oy - don't open that can of worms on me! :grin:

[Southern Shooter]

This is encouraging. I only have .30-06 and .30-30 rifles and was worried that I had wasted money on these 2 lbs of IMR 4831.