reduce H4198

[jce]

Hello I have been shooting a 444 marlin in a 15 inch encore pistol and use 36grs. of h4198 with a 265 gr hornady. I was wondering if I can reduce this powder to shoot a 240 gr. lee TL boolit If so whats the starting point. THANKS Craig

[gray wolf]

If there are no loads in your loading books I would give Hodgons a call. They are very nice folks and I am sure they would help you.

[45-70 Chevroner]

I personally would not be afraid to try the same load behind the 240gr. There is only 15 grains difference in the weight of the two boolits. If it were the other way around ie. going to a heavier bullet I would have some concerns. The only problem you might encounter is some unburned powder left in the barrel. How much space is there between the heavier boolit and the powder? You might have to seat the lighter bullet a little deeper. Although that might cause some accurracy problems. I dought that you will gain any FPS. because there is not as much drag with a cast bullet. Reducing the 4198 powder charge may not be a good idea. If you want to shoot lighter loads and lighter boolits I would go to a pistol powder like Unique. My Lyman book lists 17grs. of Unique for a 245gr. cast boolit at 1620fps.. With a 15" bbl you can expect about 50 to 75' FPS less. I would use a starting load of 10% less about 15.5grs. of Unique and work up from there.

[jtaylor1960]

If you have any H-4895 or RL-7 powders they both work very well in straight cases and can be reduced.

[NHlever]

The newest Hornady manual lists 34.6 grains of H-4198 as a starting load, and 47.9 grains of H-4198 as a max load behind their 240 grain bullets in a T/C Encore with a 15" barrel for 1700, and 2200 fps. respectively. That is what the manual says, but of course your gun may respond differently.

[AZ-Stew]

We normally recommend that you get your data from published sources. It's tested, safe and relieves the members here from potential liability. You should own three different handloading manuals so you can compare the data and judge for yourself where the safe loads lie for your gun.

Take a look at the Hodgdon Powder web site: http://data.hodgdon.com/main_menu.asp

You can find data here for your cartridge. Look in the "Pistol" section. Though the loads are for J-word bullets, you can safely begin with the starting loads listed when using cast and work up from there.

We're here to provide information on boolit casting, not as a load data center. As I said, please use published data for your own safety and that of those around you when shooting.

Welcome aboard!

Regards,

Stew

[45-70 Chevroner]

AZ-Stew is correct. My post was more to get you interested in trying something new and the use of a reloading manual is very important. My suggested load was verbatum from the lyman manual but you should allways check for your self. I have been using some loads, using the same grs. of powder and the same boolit for years, but I never just start loading without checking my manual first.

[jce]

I talked to hodgton and was told that I might stick a boolit but they could see no other danger but to work down slow. Just left me wondering if anybody else tried this . THANKS for the help craig