To fill, or not to fill...

[Mr_Flintstone]

I’ve been loading some light .30-30 with about 10-12 grains of Unique and about 15 grains of IMR 4227. They haven’t caused any problems, but I’ve been concerned about a less-than-half case fill of powder. Should I consider some type of filler, or do those powders have a low enough position sensitivity to be OK? Just want to stay safe.

[Larry Gibson]

I would not use a filler with the Unique load. With the 4227 if the bullet is of medium to heavy weight (160 - 200 gr) I would use a dacron filler.

[ReloaderEd]

I agree with Larry 100%.

[Mr_Flintstone]

Thank you guys. By dacron filler, do you mean the white fluffy quilt and pillow batting like at Wal Mart? I’ve never used any filler before, and could use a little advice.

[Wally]

Try shooting your loads, without a filler, by first raising the rifle barrel and slowly lowering, then shoot. If you have a Chronogragh you can determine the extreme spread.

[Wayne Smith]

Larry did not elaborate because he has so many times before. Unique is not position sensitive. 4227 is more so and a filler can help consistency.

[bedbugbilly]

I have used Unique but not the other powder for loading reduced load 30-30s. Out of the rifles I had at the time, I found Red Dot worked better for me and I used cast weighing anywhere from 90 grain up to 150 grains in weight - my best boolit were several different 115 - 120 isn grains. Anyway, my charge of Red Dot varied from use under 5 grains to a bit under 7 grains depending not he boolit weight. They all shot just fine - never had an issue with powder position in the case and never felt the need to use a filler. I also shoot reduced 8 X 57 Mauser loads in my 1907 Danzig GEW98 - 122 grain is my normal boolit for plinking - I settled on Red Dot for that as well as it gave me the best accuracy with that particular rifle - I was limited to 50 yards and if I remember correctly (my reloading notes for that are back in MI) I was using around 8 grains of Red Dot. Of course the 8mm case is larger than the 30-30 but I never had any issues with that amount of powder in the larger case as far as position and ignition - they shot just fine. I was using standard CCI rifle primers in both cartridges.

I don't have a chrony but at fifty yards with open sights, both the 30-30 and the 8mm shot decent groups (if I did my part) and I also dispatched some critters on the farm (woodchucks and raccoons) with the same loads and they never knew the difference.

[Outpost75]

For inert filler I buy quilt batting from the craft section at Walmart. A one-inch square of 1/4" thick quilt batting weighs one grain and is about right for most .30 cal. cartridges. Just poke it loosely into the case neck before seating the bullet. DO NOT push it down against the powder!

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[Ozark mike]

Do not use filler i have first hand experience with overpressuring a 45-70 with unique it needs a little room to expand

[gwpercle]

Try shooting your loads, without a filler, by first raising the rifle barrel and slowly lowering, then shoot. If you have a Chronogragh you can determine the extreme spread.

LIKE !
This is how I do it , raising the barrel before each shot and no fillers .
Seems to work .
Cast boolit rifle loads with Red Dot do not need a filler either.
Gary

[John McCorkle]

For inert filler I buy quilt batting from the craft section at Walmart. A one-inch square of 1/4" thick quilt batting weighs one grain and is about right for most .30 cal. cartridges. Just poke it loosely into the case neck before seating the bullet. DO NOT push it down against the powder!

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Why no touchy touch against the powder?

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[Shiloh]

Unique burns pretty fast. I'd say no.
I was a man shoot .222 loads last week. 8 loads, 8 chrono readings befor it rained.
Not a 30-30, but no fillers with light loads. 7 1/2gr. Power Pistol gave a golfball sized group.

Shiloh

[rintinglen]

Why no touchy touch against the powder?

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Compacting the filler can turn the fluff into a wad, which can jug a chamber, by plugging the neck momentarily and driving pressures up. Proper use of a filler is to put a fluffy piece of material, traditionally Kapok, but I use bamboo, in front of the powder to hold it loosely in place. This will reduce extreme velocity spreads in cases where the powder fills 50 % or less of the cartridge.
I found about a 25 % improvement in my 2400 30-30 loads.

To be clear, you need only a pinch, a half Grain to a grain, and you want it to retain its loft, so try not to squish it needlessly.

[Dimner]

In all my 30cal loads (30wcf, 30-06 and 303savage) unique has done just fine without any fillers. But for even better accuracy, most of the time I end up using trailboss.

I always start my load dev for low velocity plinking loads with test rounds of both Unique and Trailboss. For some reason in the 30 cals, TB does better. For my 22cal loads? Unique seems to do better about 75% of the time.

[charlie b]

http://www.gmdr.com/lever/lowveldata.htm

Here are a bunch of low level loads for the .30-30. I used Blue Dot in mine and it did great. I also used the Hogdon reduced load chart for H4895 and it worked great. No filler in either.

Some powders do well with filler, others not so much. If you look for quilt batting make sure you find the polyester stuff, not the cotton stuff (cotton packs up too easily). When I use the poly I fluff the bit, then use a dowel to push it just past the neck. The charges I use now for cast loads do better without filler.