A 7.7 Jap plinking load?

[3006guns]

I was sitting quietly watching T.V. this afternoon when an idea began to creep into my bored mind. I have a box of 115 grain boolits that I picked up for my 32-20 some time ago. They measure right at .312 and would make a dandy little plinking/small game boolit for my type 99 Arisaka, but I can't seem to think of a good starting point. I have the following powders readily available:

Trail Boss
Unique
2400
Bullseye

I have several rifle powders also, but these seem more appropriate due to their burn rate.

The thought that sparked this was some 30-06 plinkers using .32 pistol boolits from years ago. A friend loaded them and they were accurate with the service sights on my '03 Springfield, but of course I neglected to jot down the data for future use.

Edit: I just noticed the thread on reduced .303 loads.......sounds like about 7 grains of Unique would be a good starting point. Am I correct on this?

[bruce drake]

Yep. I use 6gr of Red Dot over some Lyman (311410) 130gr Plain base boolits to plink with my 7.7 Jap and 31-06 (7.7 rechambers to 30-06).

Bruce

[Freightman]

10gr Unique!

[3006guns]

Thanks guys........I'll load five of each from, 7 to 10 grains. Hopefully I'll find a nice comfortable load that will shoot to the issue sights. Easier on me, easier on the gun!

[dualsport]

Bullseye is very good for this type of load.

[3006guns]

dualsport.......I know Bull can be used for quick fire forming (done that before) but I consider it a "hot" powder, i.e.... a little goes a long way and I'm pretty careful with it. O.K. ......having said that, is there a reasonable starting load you can recommend for these 115 grainers?

[dualsport]

I've used Bullseye in a bunch of rifle cartridges for light loads. The BIG THING about Bullseye is the tiny charges have a lot of potential for double charging, so require extreme attention to what's going on. That said, it's a good and economical powder to use. I got on the B.E. bandwagon after reading a lot of Ed Harris material on the CBA website. He's a big fan of BE loads, because they work and are economical. Go there and search a bit, he has a formula for calculating a BE charge for when data is not available. One of my favorite .30 light load boolits is the old Lyman 311359. My ancient SC mold drops them at .312 and I tumble lube 'em and shoot as cast in different guns for plinkers, from the 30-30 to the big Russian and everything in between. The little Lee 113 gr. soup can is also good for this purpose and it's an easy cheap mold to get. I recently shot a batch in my MN 91/30 with surprising accuracy using the Lyman 311359 and 6.6 gr. of Bullseye for an est. 900 fps. At 50 yds. the load would hold about 1 1/2" if I controlled the launch pad, which aint easy. I haven't tried it in my T99 so can't say, but if you search that Ed Harris work you will find a wealth of info on Bullseye rifle loads. I can say I shoot my guns dirt cheap, that's for sure, maybe three/four cents a shot. I should point out the 311359 is a pointy sucker and would not be a good choice for loading up a tube magazine, I use a 30-30 single shot.

[3006guns]

Well, last night I loaded about 15 rounds with that little 115 grain bullet. I used a carefully weighed 5 grains of Bullseye and a 1/4 sheet of t.p. tamped down on each charge before seating. I won't have a chance to shoot them until our weather clears up a bit though......then the fun can begin!

[MtGun44]

10 unique.

Bill

[Jim Sheldon]

I was sitting quietly watching T.V. this afternoon when an idea began to creep into my bored mind. I have a box of 115 grain boolits that I picked up for my 32-20 some time ago. They measure right at .312 and would make a dandy little plinking/small game boolit for my type 99 Arisaka, but I can't seem to think of a good starting point. I have the following powders readily available:

Trail Boss
Unique
2400
Bullseye

On reading the thread, I noticed that no one mentioned loads using IMR Trail Boss which you list as one of your available powders.

I've been experimenting with TB in both the 7.62X54R and 8 X 57 Mauser with absolutely fantastic results.

Hodgdon's website has a PDF file available giving a neat formula for using trail boss. Wild powder to play with as it's the only smokeless powder that you can safely come up with your own data for without worrying about blowing up your gun.

Formula they state (works for any cartridge/caliber from little handgun up through magnum rifle and any weight bullet appropriate for the caliber, either Cast or jacketed)- fill the case to the point where the base of a seated bullet would be (don't compress it), weigh that powder and call it your max load. Multiply that weight by .70 which is the 70% point and call that your starting load. Start working up from that starting load to the 100 percent point and somewhere in between 70 and 100 percent you should find a good accuracy load for whatever weight bullet you are using. It's not position sensitive, and actually it's so bulky that you'll wind up with better than half full cases even with the starting load.

I've gotten sub MOA accuracy at 50 yards out of 205 grain cast boolits in the 8 X 57 (8mm Mauser) using 11.5 grains of Trail Boss and using 180 grain cast boolits in the 7.62 X 54R out of a Mosin 91/30 pretty much the same accuracy again at 50 yards using 13.5 grains of Trail Boss. TB is usually much less expensive than any of the other powders too, so it's a lot cheaper to experiment with. Besides that, it has almost no recoil and the noise produced is about like that of a .22 LR handgun on an indoor range. Great for introducing kids and wives to shooting the old military bang-sticks without causing sore shoulders.

I've even tested it using some 198 grain FMJ BT pulled from 1955 Yugoslavian surplus ammo in the 98K Mauser. I just pulled the bullets, dumped the original powder, reloaded it with 10.5 grains of TB and re-seated the original bullets. First 3 shots were in the same hole at 25 yards (iron sights) and I never thought that kind of accuracy would be possible with a "wimp" load in an old battle rifle. Gave me a lot more respect for Trail Boss and I've been fooling around with it ever since. That experiment will be ongoing for quite some time. If it worked that well with the 8 X 57, the 7.7 Japanese ought to respond as well. If the rifle is accurate, you can find a decent accuracy load for it with CB & Trail Boss I'd bet.

[3006guns]

I've played with TB ever since I saw the write up on the Milsurp website and their recommended 9 grain load. I haven't tried the "70 percent" formula yet, but did put 10 grains behind a plain base 214 grain 8 x 57 Mauser and the rifle shot to the point of aim with the service sights. This was an old Lyman mold with the worst machining I'd ever seen, so I stuck it in the lathe an made a plain base out of it. Very pleasant recoil. That became "the load" for that rifle. I'll admit I was trying to find fun loads without the expense of a gas check.

I wasn't sure how TB would work with such a light boolit, even though I included it in my list of powders. I will give it a try however!

[AviatorTroy]

5 Grains Bullseye.
10 Grains Unique.
14 Grains 2400.

In that order.

[doug strong]

I am in the market for the same light plinking load for my Arisaka. I am using the Lee mould C312-185-1r with a gas check. I have the follwoing powders
IMR 4895
IMR 4064
2400
Bullseye
What would you recommend?

[Mk42gunner]

3006Guns and doug strong,

Read the third sticky from the top in this forum: Cast bullet loads for military rifles.

3006- I know this isn't one of the powders you listed, but I am using a 122 grain plainbased boolit (the group buy 314-120) with 6.0 grains of W231 with a large pistol primer for my 308's. It does okay, but isn't as accurate as the Lee 312-185 with 16 grains of 2400.

Doug-I use that same boolit with 16 Grains of 2400. I just bought a pound of Reddot to try, so I can decide which powder I want to stock up on.

Good Luck Guys,

Robert

[doug strong]

I'll give 2400 a try. It has worked well in several other cartriges for me.

[excavman]

With the 115 grn boolit I use either 9/TB, 10/uni or 14/2400.This gives you a nice little plinker with a vel of 1200-1400fps, no recoil and very little noise. One welcome side effect tho, it's pretty accurate.

Larry

[djoiner]

don't know about Unique or Bullseye, but Trail Boss and A2400 both will produce accurate, no kick, low noise loads.

[fortrenokid]

I have used the Lee 155gr pointed .314 gas check mould for 7.62X39, 7.62X54R, and 303 Brit and get excellent results for all of them. I use gas-checked lino for higher velocities and plain-base ww/range lead mixture for light loads.
A buddy has a 7.7 Jap and wondered how they'd shoot in his rifle. I gave him a few of the gas-checked lino bullets and they worked great in his rifle. He wound up borrowing the mould and casting a mess of 'em.

[doug strong]

2400 is new new favorite powder. About 15 grains seems to work well in everything I throw at it.

[Larry Gibson]

I shoot thousands of 90 and 105 and 115 gr SWCs out of all my .30/.31s. In cases with a capactiy larger than 30-30 I use 3.2 gr of Bullseye. It gives 800 - 900 fps depending on case and barrel length. These laods are not "position sensitive" unless shooting straight up or down. Accuracy is excellent (if the bullets are commercial with a hard wax lube I TL them in LLA) out to 100+ yards. Recoil is non existant and the noise is much less than a .22LR out of a long barreled milsurp rifle.

Larry Gibson