18 gr unique for 30-06 / 155 gr bullet

[LAKEMASTER]

It seems no one loads unique past 16 grains.

My lyman CBH #4 shows this as a starting load...

I made up 20 of these for the range tomorrow, so I'll report back soon with my findings.

In the mean while, does anyone else load unique around 18/20 grains for bottle neck rounds?

[Yodogsandman]

The Lyman CBH#3 says for 30-06 with a 151gr boolit, start at 12.5gr up to 17.0gr max load with Unique. With a 311291 at 170 gr start at 12,5 up to 16.5gr max load of Unique. Both the #3 and #4 only list the 311672 as starting at 18.0gr Unique.

You might want to start lower and work up slowly with that Unique. Good catch!

[Wally]

Been shooting .30-06 with Cast bullets in the 150~180 grain range... 16.0 is the maximum. Once I used 16.5 with military brass and the fired cases became difficult to extract---had to punch out one with a cleaning rod. Have found that 13.0 or Red Dot is even better than Unique...just be careful not to double charge.

[wiljen]

Realistically 16 is not the max when you are talking the pressure ceiling of the 30-06 cartridge. SAAMI lists the 30-06 at 60000 PSI and a 16gr load of unique behind a 155gr bullet is only going to produce roughly 29000-32000 depending on bullet type and seating depth. The safe limit so not to exceed SAAMI pressures is close to 24gr again depending on seating depth and other factors.

The reason most load books cut off at 16gr is that it produces a velocity of about 1800fps and without using gas checks and really focusing on lube quality, bullet fit, and alloy, things start to fall apart as you go above that mark. Rather than discourage users or suggest that casting and reloading is a complicated process, most manuals try and dumb it down so as the recipes work with a minimal amount of fuss and effort. A lot of cast manuals list a single load rather than a range for the same reason.

[runfiverun]

with a bullet you'll do alright.
with a boolit probably not so much.

one of my first deer was taken with a speer 200gr spitzer and unique [16gr? something like that] in the 8mauser it was clocking along about 2-K fps.

[Outpost75]

The reason load manuals stop at 16 grains of Unique, is that while a double charge would approximate proof pressure, and for sure blow primers, it "usually" won't take apart a sound, modern rifle, [as long as the case doesn't let go in the k, l, or m regions] but a "double" of a heavier charge would MUCH be more exciting!

Truth be told, most published "reduced" load data developed using the faster pistol and shotgun powders is limited by testing against those design limits. Advantage of Kistler conformal transducer and test barrel in Universal Receiver, you can do that in relative safety.

2(Chg.) <or= PE

Pmax = maximum sample average pressure X-bar
MAP = X-bar + 3 Sigma = maximum statistical individual pressure
PE = 1,30 MAP = mean proof pressure

[LAKEMASTER]

Never made it to the range today.

I have the press set to make up some 16 gr rounds. I still have plenty 10 grain unique loads for playing around