Who uses H4895 with cast boolits ?

[Sonnypie]

i have 115 grain boolits what would be a good load to start off with in my 303 brit i have h 4895

Bighoss,
I've been shooting 4895 all of my life. It took 15 years to get Dad interested in something besides mule kick loads in 30-06's. Heavier was better to him.
The 1934 ammo (Military) is all loaded with the fore runner, IMR1185. But it all had mercuric primers, so you had to boil out the bores after shooting. So Dad and I started pulling the bullets and reloading with modern primers, and soft point hunting bullets. And somebody told dad to try 4831. 57 grains, behind a 180g spire point.
Holy Moly! Almost as bad as shootin the 1934 loads in the 1903A3 National Match rifles with the steel butt plates. Started shooting those when I was 11 or 12, with a sweater folded into a pad.
Flash forward to 1977 and living up in Wyoming. Dad decided to give my BIL's and I rifle's for Christmas. He managed to buy the Model 70 I had hunted with in 1965, borrowed from a shootin buddy. Love that rifle!
When they came to visit in May, Dad brought it, and near 1000 rounds of ammo.
He had been working on a pet load and figured he had it pretty good. He'd load up some boxes and take them to Uncle's house to test.
I was really surprised. 110g Sierra bullets, pushed by 47.5 grains of IMR4895.
Still hugely powerful, but flat shootin! I kept meat in the freezer all the years I lived in Wyoming with that rifle and those loads.

I'm currently developing a load for it with 120 cast GC boolits, W/ LLA as the loob. I've shot from 15 grains to 35 grains of powder. To date I think the 30 and the 32.5 have been my most accurate.
I have a Chronograph now, and have been gathering data on the loads, but only have one session in with the Chronograph. The 32.5g loads developed a 1898 FPS average vel, and are very nice to shoot.

BTW, the 15 grain loads were downright comical to shoot. More like a BLOOP! and they would drop about 3 to 4 feet at 100 yards. Only 20 rounds, but I was LMAO.
Then 20 grains went bang. But far from good.
But the 30g loads banged away at the 125 yard steel right along.
I have a batch of 35 grain loads to try out, next time I can get to the range. I was supposed to go today, but the wife came down with the creeping crud that is going around here. So I'm doing the Grandpa Chauffeur thang. Screwed again.
In fact, I have a ton of ammo I want to play across my new Chronograph with. Probably best, my other items are on the way to tie it in to my laptop. Then I don't have to feel weird about stepping over the firing line to change strings.

I like light bullets. And I'm working on my light BOOLITS loads.

Here is some history about powders.
And IMR 4895
And some info about IMR4895 VS: H4895. H4895 is a tad more bang to it.

IMR1185, 1934.

Edit in:
Oh, and yeah, I have that PDF file bookmarked and the literature saved. It is what got me interested in down loading to try and encourage my Grand Son to try High Power shooting.
Unlike myself who darn near rolled backwards off the bench with each shot. But I loved it then, and still love it today.

[Blammer]

50+ grains of it in my 35 whelen and a 170gr HPGC boolit are a thing to behold when thrust upon a ground hog at 50 yds.

[Sonnypie]

50+ grains of it in my 35 whelen and a 170gr HPGC boolit are a thing to behold when thrust upon a ground hog at 50 yds.

Lyrics of an older song comes to mind (When your inside out, and your outside in,)
Can't recall the singer. But I can hear it in my head...

[caseyboy]

As I continue to persue a good High Power (Reduced Course) Silhouette load for my 7-08. I have come up to the threshold with A2400 (about 1700fps). I am confident these will take down the chicken, pigs and turkeys. The Rams are heavier and at 305meters on our reduded course. If I need a bit more umph, I will work up a load with 4895. Was thinking initially 4198, but the responses have been overwhelming for 4895.

[bighoss]

i have looked and looked and some ppl say that the h4895 will work and some say it wont if i go about 25 - 30 grains of the h4895 that should be enough to cover the flash hole and not enough to melt the boolit they are not full let they got tin and something else in them it starts with a a

[Sonnypie]

Lead, Tin, and Antimony, bighoss.

[bighoss]

ok so would the 25 - 30 grains work and to cover the flash hole and not melt the boolit

[frkelly74]

I got some Accurate XMR 2495 as a replacement for 4895. I have not opened it yet but have read that it is comparable. Anyone have any experience with it?

[bighoss]

so would that work

[Blammer]

bighoss, I think you'll get more and better answers to your question if you post it on the milsurp section. There are lots there who will be very willing to give some suggestions.

[Larry Gibson]

i have looked and looked and some ppl say that the h4895 will work and some say it wont if i go about 25 - 30 grains of the h4895 that should be enough to cover the flash hole and not enough to melt the boolit they are not full let they got tin and something else in them it starts with a a

4895 is a very good powder with cast bullets in most rifle cartridges and I do love it and use a lot of it. However, it will not be a good powder for such a light weight bullet as the 115 gr in a .303. The burning rate of any powder must be such that it will burn efficiently at the low end pressures used in most cast bullet loads. The 115 gr bullet is not heavy enough to allow efficient burning of 4895 while keeping the velocity low enough for good accuracy.

I sugest you look into powders with a burning rate between Bullseye and Unique for use with the 115 gr cast bullet in the .303. I use 3.2 -5 gr of Bullseye under 90 - 118 gr cast bullets in the .303 for very pleasant, low recoil, low noise and good accuracy. Suggest you try 4.5 & 5 gr with your 115 gr bullet.

Larry Gibson

[bighoss]

4895 is a very good powder with cast bullets in most rifle cartridges and I do love it and use a lot of it. However, it will not be a good powder for such a light weight bullet as the 115 gr in a .303. The burning rate of any powder must be such that it will burn efficiently at the low end pressures used in most cast bullet loads. The 115 gr bullet is not heavy enough to allow efficient burning of 4895 while keeping the velocity low enough for good accuracy.

I sugest you look into powders with a burning rate between Bullseye and Unique for use with the 115 gr cast bullet in the .303. I use 3.2 -5 gr of Bullseye under 90 - 118 gr cast bullets in the .303 for very pleasant, low recoil, low noise and good accuracy. Suggest you try 4.5 & 5 gr with your 115 gr bullet.

Larry Gibson

ok so what kind of filler do you use to fill the rest of the case

[mpmarty]

ok so what kind of filler do you use to fill the rest of the case

I use a mixture of 80% Nitrogen and about 15% Oxygen commonly known as "air" at a pressure of one atmosphere.

[Larry Gibson]

No filler or wad is needed with Bullseye in such loads.

Larry Gibson

[bighoss]

ok so with those loads it dont matter if it covers the flash hole

[pdawg_shooter]

I got some Accurate XMR 2495 as a replacement for 4895. I have not opened it yet but have read that it is comparable. Anyone have any experience with it?

I burn a lot of AA2495. Lets see, .223, .243, 25-06, 30.30, .308, 30.06, 300RUM, 303Brit, 45-70, and .458Mag. Works for me anyway.

[JDL]

Surplus 4895 pushing a 165 grain boolit is great in the 7.62x39, although it's not a reduced load.
JDL

[Larry Gibson]

I burn a lot of AA2495. Lets see, .223, .243, 25-06, 30.30, .308, 30.06, 300RUM, 303Brit, 45-70, and .458Mag. Works for me anyway.

Bet it doesn't work so good with 115 gr cast bullets that bighoss asked about. No criticism of pdawgs post...just making a clarification is all.

4895 is indeed an excellent cast bullet powder as I've mentioned. However it take a certain weight of bullet in a given cartridge to give uniform ignition, even with a dacron filler, while keeping velocities down so the PB'd cast bullet shoots accurately. The faster burning powders are better suited to lighter weight PB'd cast bullets. Note Sonnypie is using a GC'd 120 gr bullet and finds a higher end load is needed to attain accuracy and burning efficiency. Ods are a 115 gr PB'd cast bullet at 1900+ fps is not going to be very accurate.

Larry Gibson

[stana]

Surplus 4895 $1 per pound, in '67. The first powder I used, bought at the local "war surplus store". They weighted it there and I took it home in a brown paper sack! I've used it in 30-30, 30-06 and 444 with good to great results. All with medium to heavy cast boolits. Stan

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

i use it in my reduce 30-30 , with cast i have gone form 15 gr on up till accuracy suffered around 21 with no gas check , i will try more with checks later . down around 15gr it burned a bit dirty but was very accurate i settled at a nice 18.5 gr load that shoots nice

today i am loading up 50gr v-max 223 with it , and another day in the future i will be loading 30-06

that's about all i need to load for so IT IS my rifle powder , all my pistols load with power pistol some day i am sure i will try more powders but for a beginning re loader those 2 versatile powders keep the costs of start up supplies down.

boy do i wish i could have purchased it at 1 dollar a pound , my current can says 27.95 +5.5% for the tax man