Assistance on using AA8700

[sleeper1428]

Several years back I bought a 7mm Rem Mag from a young fella and since he wouldn't be loading for that rifle again, he tossed in a nearly full 8lb jug of AA8700. It works fine with Nosler Jword 175gr projectiles but since I much prefer shooting cast boolits, does anyone have info on other uses for this powder? Specifically, would it be appropriate for use in the 30-06, 308 Win and especially in the 45-70, one of my favorite calibers? I'd appreciate any help anyone can offer since it's highly unlikely that I'll ever shoot enough of those Jword Noslers to use up even a small portion of that 8lb jug of powder.

sleeper1428

[Nobade]

A compressed load of it in a 45-70 will do about 850 fps with a 400 gr. bullet. If you are familiar with duplex loading smokeless powder it can be made to work quite well, giving blackpowder ballistics in that case and good accuracy. Same thing for the other calibers. By itself it works fairly well in the 6.5X55, 243, and of course the 7mm mag. Using inert fillers to keep the speed down it can be run in the 7 mag with cast boolits.

[sleeper1428]

A compressed load of it in a 45-70 will do about 850 fps with a 400 gr. bullet. If you are familiar with duplex loading smokeless powder it can be made to work quite well, giving blackpowder ballistics in that case and good accuracy. Same thing for the other calibers. By itself it works fairly well in the 6.5X55, 243, and of course the 7mm mag. Using inert fillers to keep the speed down it can be run in the 7 mag with cast boolits.

Thanks for the reply. Do you happen to have any suggestions as to starting loads for the 7mm Mag with cast boolits - I have the both RCBS and SAECO 7mm molds - in the 145gr range? Also, any suggestions as to starting loads for both the 30-06 and 308 Win with cast boolits in the 165gr to 180gr range would be very helpful. As far as duplex loads are concerned, while I haven't actually loaded any myself, I'm familiar with the concept - using a small charge of a faster burning powder such as Unique placed under the main charge of slower powder, the idea being for the faster powder to aid in the complete - or near complete - ignition of the slower powder. Any assistance or suggestions you might be willing to offer would be greatly appreciated.

sleeper1428

[Nobade]

I'd start at about 40gr. in the 7mm, and fill the rest with cream 'o' wheat. Work up from there. For the 30's I won't suggest any duplex loads but something like Unique will light it off. Use a heavily compressed load. Don't use much of the starter powder, work up, be careful. In those cases the 8700 is more like "filler with attitude".