300 weatherby and IMR 4831

[Gunload Master]

What a beautiful day at the range today! About 3 inches of snow and around 30 degrees...... Well.. maybe not the best day to go shoot, but what the heck.

Today was the first day I shot cast from my .300 weatherby. Special thanks to David R. and Kenjuudo for suppling me with boolits to shoot.

Powder of choice was IMR 4831 and I started at 40 grains, and worked up to 50 grains. 4 lots, a 40 grain, 45 grain, 47 grain, and 50 grain. Shooting a boolit around 180 grain (311291).

It's a scoped rifle which is setup for shooting roughly 3,200 FPS and I knew I wouldnt be anywhere near this, so I thought I would fire these off at 50 yards and see where they go. I'll give a conclusion after the pics.
http://gunloads.com/images/personal/40grain.gif
40 grain was somewhat speratic. I only chronyed one that came out at 1,703 FPS.


http://gunloads.com/images/personal/45grain.gif
45 grain I think is where i'm going to work around, split a couple holes there, chronyed two at 1929 FPS and 1844 FPS.


http://gunloads.com/images/personal/47grain.gif
47 grain did alright Chronyed 4 at 2001 FPS, 1909 FPS, 1889 FPS, and 1922 FPS


http://gunloads.com/images/personal/50grain.gif
50 grain.. not too great. Chronyed 5 at 2,096 FPS 2033 FPS 2050 FPS 2100FPS and 2043 FPS.


Overall it shot much better then I expected. I've never shot cast out of a rifle so this was really new to me and it seemed to do really good. I'm going to work around 45 grains and see if I can lower the grouping more.

I'm also going to heat things up a bit with these bad boys. I've heard pushing cast at 2,700 FPS is around max? So I'm going to be loading up some higher grain rounds and see if I can get around that barrier :twisted: ...

Enjoy.

[David R]

NICE and welcome to the hobby. I think like most of my 30 cal 2,000 is the speed limit for lead. Some can go faster, but......

My 22-250 shoots 2684 fps, but that is a 22.

Good looking groups. How does it feel to shoot a 300 win mag and not get the crap beat out of you? Pennies a shot too.

I hope you get hooked.
David

[Gunload Master]

Yea, I'd like to push them faster and see what happens to the boolits and groupings.

It was certainly a different feel shooting that gun with half the kick to it. After about 15 rounds my shoulder didn't hurt. :)

BTW, just for info purposes. My OAL was slightly over 3.27. The boolit had to be seated pretty far down to fit comfortably.

[Gunload Master]

Just FYI as well.
This picture is of the 45grain. Showing the 1 1/2 inch group.

http://gunloads.com/images/personal/45graininch.gif

[Gunload Master]

Why would I be getting such a wide FPS range? Some boolits with the same powder shot over 100FPS difference..

[felix]

Willy, the powder is too slow for what you are doing in that large case. You are getting differences in ignition which can be eliminated with a filler. At least, hold up the gun to vertical and lower very gently before each shot. That will provide some insight before actually employing a filler. Try 4895 later on and see if things improve. ... felix

[Bucks Owin]

Just a thought, but I think you'd do better with something like SR 4759 than you will with 4831. And it's been shown repeatedly that 4831 does NOT like to be loaded light. Cases of detonation wrecking guns are numerous.....Be careful!

4831 in a rifle is like H-110 in a handgun. For "full tilt" type loads....

Dennis