IMR 4350 curiousity

[bigted]

loaded some of my 375 Ruger cases with a fairly lite load of the IMR 4350 powder and had a curious thing take place;

load is ...

hornaday 300 grain round nose [I know ... not cast].
58 grains of the 4350.
cci 200 large rifle prime.
hornaday cases.
neck size only.
no crimp.
3.330 OAL.

I know these are pretty weak loads and not very much powder in such a large case but I have shot these in the past many times with no such happening.

the first shot "hung" sorta ... she went snapboom. there after I had 2 more of these do the same thing. then the last shell just went "snap" with the firing pin ... no shot at all.

I have heard of using some 4227 under the main charge of such slow powder but have not tried such a thing as yet. being such a lite load I do not know how to load it where the 4227 would stay under the 4350 powder.

another thought is maybe using some faster powder for my slow loads. maybe even doing a filler of some sort. I am going to cast some Lyman 330 grain round nose boolits to give another try but have not done so yet.

I do know that the 70 grain IMR 4064 load under the same bullet gets rite up and carry's the mail.

[TXGunNut]

Sounds a little spooky to me, don't think I'd try that again. All my IMR or H 4350 loads are 95% or better load density and best loads are 98 or more. Not a fan of or familiar with fillers.

[HollandNut]

you are waay under the STARTING load for that powder ...

[AlaskanGuy]

I had the exact thing happen to me when working with 4350 to develop a 375 h&h load, same cci 200 large rifle primer... I thought that it was a primer issue... The problem went away when I switched to a magnum large rifle primer.... But it did kinda weird me out some.... Happened several times... About the same charge... And was using dacron to keep the powder on the primer... I think that you just gotta use a mag primer when working with that much space in a case..... Thought I was shooting a flinty for a while there. One time i pulled the trigger it was almost a full 2 seconds before the round fired.. Long enough for me to remove my cheek from the gun and start looking down at the rifle... Scared the crapola outta me... That was the last time I used a LR primer.... Not a problem sense....

AG

[bigted]

maybe that was the thing I did before. I had thought about the mag primers but elected to use the regular primers ... may be just exactly what happened. I shot the crud outta this load when I first got the rifle a few years ago and like a fool ... did not write down all the info ... just the powder, charge, bullet. I do know that at the time I was loading a bunch of 338 whinny's and a 7mm mag and a 375 H&H for others so the likely hood of me using mag primers is very large.

I do not mind the occasional shoulder numbing number ... but for most animules ... the 1800 to 2200 fps loads are sufficient for the style hunting I do.

I dearly like the heavy boolits in the larger calibers however I find that the magnum velocity and crazy power are unfounded in necessity and for most of us the accuracy suffers and the huge shots are not hitting in the rite places anyway.

[Nobade]

If you have to use 4350 for those light loads, then taking up the empty space with polyester fluff will likely make them work a lot better. A faster gunpowder would be better by far.

-Nobade

[bmortell]

i had a 300 win mag with 4350 issue once pulled trigger no boom.i just set it on the bench incase i got curious later. so now that you mentioned it i just pulled it found primer did fire, front half of powder looked new, rear portion was kinda clumped togather and brown in color. load was 66 gr with 150gr jacketed projectile same primer which is a grain or two under starting load. so lesson learned minimum loads sometimes mean what they say

[swheeler]

I always consider a click/boom as a warning sign, precursor to kaboom;)

[lylejb]

another thought is maybe using some faster powder for my slow loads

The best idea.

I do like IMR4350. I have a 30-06 load that my rifle just loves with that powder, but it's 100% full case.

4350 is a slow powder, not intended for much reduction. The hangfires your getting are a warning.

4895 is a faster rifle powder that can be loaded down to 60% of max, might try that.

[bigted]

so went and tried some more loads adjusted this time ... I loaded 70 grains IMR 4350 under the 300 grain boolit + mag cci primers and my what a fairly nice load ... haven't benched it yet but it seems like it shoots where the cross hairs are setting.

the other load that do very well is a IMR 4064 load of 66 grains under a 220 grain ... this skips along well and seems to shoot to point of aim well ... no bench on this one either but think I agree with all ...

slower loads will need some faster powder for the puff loads I want to practice with in the off season.

lesson learned ... no IMR 4350 with plain large rifle primers + no under book loads anymore with the slower powders + get going with cast in this rifle and stop messin round with these jacketed thingy's!

[Gunnut 45/454]

Funny never had any problems with my cast load for my '06 Rem 7400! And it's under book at 50 gr with the Lee 312-155gr sized .309". That load gives me full function and about 2350 fps ! Which is pushing those cast boolits pretty hard. Your problems probably are caused with using such a large case-75 gr Min load!!!! Christ what a waste of powder! Anyway you load that case your going to have to waste a bunch of powder!:veryconfu

[bigted]

I do not take exception to your "Christ what a waste of powder" thing but with a word of caution ... just in case you didn't see where I live ... miles NORTH of Fairbanks Alaska ... where just over the hill I see on a regular basis the largest and meanest grizzly's found. they are hungry all the time and angry when they cant get a meal for a couple days at a time.

this is generally the WHY of the WASTE of powder and the power that it gives. I shoot boolits at least 3 times heavier then your 06 and id never put stock in a auto loader up here in the grime and crud that is called the TUNDRA.

when I bought the rifle it was always loaded with full steam loads for as much shock to a bear's system as I could get. NOW however I am moving Back to America where the critters are way less angry and smaller in bone and muscle as I have shared real estate with up here.

at any rate wanted to try to explain that there is a reason why some one would want a horse power rifle for the critters that you share the air with. I have seen 416's up here hit a moose just rite and the bull that weigh's 1200+ pounds just wonder off as if he did not feel a thing. the bears WILL react ... only EVERY time ... and if lucky they will charge the other way ... unless you have an unmolested grizz that is just snoozing and not all charged up then I really think a 22 would kill him if hit rite ... however ... who wants to chance that?

just sayin ...