Q's on red dot for reduced loads.

[Von Gruff]

Untill now my aproach to my CB loads has been to aim for the highest velocity and best performance and have achieved this in a most satisfatory manner.

Now I want to get some volume shooting at somewhere in the 1200 - 1500fps region and have a couple of questions.. These relate to a 160gn Lyman for a 7x57 and a 350 gn Hoch for my 404 Jeffery.

For the 7x57 I have read numerous sources giving 16gn 2400 as being the load that universally works and is position insensetive in that it works better without an over powder wad, either dacron or JeffinNZ's TCBK wool wad. Have just been through posts (on another forum) on Red Dot and from what I read about 7 or 8 gn would be about right, Would this need to used with an over powder wad. I like the sound of the Red Dot simply because of the number of rounds per LB. I would assume I could try the Lyman GC bullet without the GC if cast in 50/50 ww/pb. I have also read warnings about the case shortening because of this low velocity loading and solutions either of spraying the loaded round with silicon or drilling out the flash hole and comments on this would be welcomed.

For the 404 I found it easy to get from 1800 through to 2450fps with my 350gn GC bullet with the slower powders as in H4350 but can find nothing for reduced loads with the fast powders. The same imformation I am seeking for the 7x57 I would also like for the 404J with the same Red dot, especially anything about case shortening as these are rather expensive to replace, I have a couple k mag primers and would want to get through a few of these if suitable.

Thanks in advance Gentlemen.



Von Gruff.

[helice]

Von G,

C.E. Harris put together a great article on Red Dot loads for cases 30 cal and larger (7mm does not apply) case had to be larger than the 300 Savage or 35 Rem. Had to be shot in modern gun with normal range bullet weight using no filler.

The load was 13 grains of Red Dot. :drinks:

He used it for practice with '06, 30-40, 303 Brit, 308 Win 8x57 Mauser and 45-70. (Trapdoors took 12 gr. with 400 grain slug) I used it in the 308 Win and 444 Marlin with stellar results. I'm not good at listing the place to find that on line so I leave that to those who know. You might find the article by googling "The Load". It seems to be pretty well known. Karl

[helice]

I'm not too sure how much help this will be but here are my results in the 444 Marlin:

300 grain LBT WFN GC ACWW 1333'/s
280 grain LBT LFN PB ACWW 1303'/s
429244 Lyman GC ACWW 1362'/s
166 grain LBT OWC BB ACWW 1635'/s

I'm not at all familiar with the Jefferies but I think it should have a lotof fun with this load.

[Von Gruff]

I have downloaded a copy of that write-up but the 404 Jeffery can have loads of up to 90+gn of some powder and I wondered if the case volume, being so much higher than the listed cartridges had a bearing on what would be a safe starting load for Red Dot, and whether a wad may be required with so much air space. The second main querry related to the shortening of the case with such a reduced load. I have no trouble drilling out the flash hole for the 7x57, in fact I have just bought 100 8x57 cases to neck down and drill out to make sure there is no mixing them with full power loads. It is the 404 case that I wanted to find out about the shortening potential, and whether mag primers could be usedbecause I have so many of them.

Von Gruff.

[runfiverun]

that 13 gr load of red dot makes 40k worth of pressure.
i'd compare the case volumn of the jeffery to others like the 45-70,45-90 or whatever and corresponding boolit weights and basically work up from those.