surplus wc860

[legend]

hi i shot some wc860 the other day in my 308 dpms.WOW! DONT! it is filthy with unburned powder(yeah you all told me it would be).
my question is could i get a better burn with a magnum primer,i used fed 210,and it was pretty sad.thanks for your thoughts,legend

[Ricochet]

It'll burn slightly better with a magnum primer. You'll still have lots of trash. I only use it in sure-enough magnum loads with heavy jacketed bullets. Burns cleanly, but still can't reach the velocities attainable with other powders due to its slow burning in some Magnum case/bullet combinations.

[Maven]

legend, As Ricochet advised, a mag. primer helps. Then too, you'll get less unburned powder if you use heavier CB's, e.g., ~ as heavy as Ly. #311291, and at least enough powder to fill the case to the neck-shoulder junction depending on the velocity you wish to achieve. Mild compression of WC 860 is OK, but not much more. You should dry patch the bore from the breach every 5-10 shots to prevent the unburned powder from denting your cases and working its way into the action. Lastly, a poly- filler (Grex, Spherical Shot Buffer, et al.) may also clean things up: It did in my Arg. Mau, but not in my .30-06 or 7.62 x 54R. PM me if you want more info.

[454PB]

I've only seen clean and complete burning in my 7mm Rem. magnum using 175 grain jacketed bullets. However, using WC860 in my .308 Win. has produced some excellent groups with 180 gr. cast. You just have to live with the "dirty".

[legend]

thanks for the help.i may have to live with the dirt,but,it wont be in this gun.i have 30-06,30-30,and 303 british i can try it in also.
thanks for the help,legend

[wiljen]

some people have used 2-4gr of IMR 4198 under wc860 as well to help it along - might be worth a shot.

[Ricochet]

I've only seen clean and complete burning in my 7mm Rem. magnum using 175 grain jacketed bullets.
That's the only combination I have that I can actually load up a bit too hot with WC860. A full load (that was listed as maximum for H870 in my old Hornady manual) ran a bit higher velocity than factory specs in near-freezing weather, shooting well. In hot summer weather, the bolt was sticky.

I suspect that the duplex loads with faster burning powder over the primer work by blowing the unburned WC860 out of the muzzle.

[legend]

thank you all for the tips and your insight ! legend

[Buckshot]

..............If you have either a 7x57 or a 6.5x55 (or similar) a full caseload of WC860 in either will produce full military ballistics with military weight bullets. That would be 172/175gr in the 7mm and 139/142gr in the 6.5. Velocities run 2450 and 2700 fps repectively. They're accurate and burns as clean as anything.

Cast lead at full power in the 6.5 with a caseload of WC860 is a waste of time. However 34.0grs is a nice accurate 6.5 cast load. Not the cleanest but the accuracy makes up for the kinda dirty burn. In the 7mm, 42.0grs gives a 170gr boolit 1750 fps and burns much cleaner.

A friend was using it in his 35 Whelen with the Ly 358009, 280gr slug and getting about 1700 fps. Lefta few unburned grains in the bore and case but the accuracy ran 1.5/2" at 100 yards for 5 rounds. He duplexed 3.0grs of H4198 in the case and his velocity went to 1900+ fps, it cleaned every thing up and his accuracy remained unchanged.

.................Buckshot

[MarkK]

Ditto on the case full of WC860 in 6.5 Swede - clean burn with 140 gr Hornady JSP. Wonderful for that caliber would hope to try in others at some point.

[mark h]

Ok, Ive loaded some with 860, even in 6.5 swede, but when you say "full case" how many grains are you talking? When you say "full" what do you mean? Fill her up and stuff in the bullet?

I'm just looking for a little more concrete info.

[Buckshot]

Ok, Ive loaded some with 860, even in 6.5 swede, but when you say "full case" how many grains are you talking? When you say "full" what do you mean? Fill her up and stuff in the bullet?

I'm just looking for a little more concrete info.

............Yup full, as scoop it through a dish of powder, strike of the top and cram in a bullet :-). I'm at work and my load data is at home. Just checked Castpics and the data is there. It was WC872 not WC860, and 872 is supposed to be slower. However my lot of WC872 is a tad faster (~50 fps) load for load then the 860 I have on hand.

The load shows 60.0gr in neck sized brass. I fired it in my M38 and the velocity was 2770 fps. If you're not using 'real' 6.5 brass (.480" casehead) or it's not fully expanded and necksized only you may not get that much in there.

The 7x57 was also 60.0grs of WC872 and a Win PSP for 2450 fps.

..............Buckshot

[9.3X62AL]

Buckshot's info above might answer a question his results have posed for me.

My 6.5 x 55 is a Ruger 77 with 22" barrel. This year, I tried the "full case of WC-860" with Hornady #2630's (140 grain spitzer), and got excellent accuracy--no bore trash--and about 2475 FPS. This is a little lower than Buckshot's velocity result, and I assigned it to variance between rifles and a shorter barrel.

NOW I see that he used 60.0 grains of powder, and full to the top of neck. I was using 55.0 grains of the stuff, with neck portion unfilled.

Back to the drawing board--and with the "full case" definition clarified in the bargain.

[Ricochet]

Just a note of caution about scooping cases full to the mouth and seating bullets: It's easy to crush case necks that way. I've ruined several. Boat tail bullets are especially likely to ruin cases, by trapping powder grains between the bullet and case neck, dragging the neck down with the bullet. It'd help to use a powder compressor die, like the BP cartridge shooters use.