making up a powder order

[singleshotbuff]

Gentlemen,

I live about 15 minutes from Pat's reloading and I think it's time I buy some surplus powders while they're still available & cheap. I plan to buy about 40 lbs or so.

Pat's currently has in stock;

WC-872
WC-860
IMR-5010
IMR-7383

I was wondering whick I should buy? I currently load for the following, in order of importance;

8X57mm
7.62X54R
308 Win
30-30 Win

I'll also soon be reloading for;

303 Brit
7.5X55
7.7 Jap
and others.

Which, if any, of these powders would be suitable for my needs? I use mostly Jword bullets at the moment, but will be using real boolits in most cartridges soon. Velocity is not terribly important to me, I mostly punch paper between 50 and 200 yards. Any deer I do shoot are so close that they'll never know the difference between 1500 f.p.s. and 3000 f.p.s.

I'd prefer actual tested data for the powders you can suggest, or at least a "similar to" starting point.

Thanks

SSB

[RayinNH]

SSB, don't overlook WC820 either. If you shoot mag handguns this is a very good powder, very similar in burn rate to Accurate #9. When you get around to shooting true projectiles in your milsurp rifles do a search in some of the past posts and look for Mavens work. He has given load data for several of those calibers...Ray

[ron brooks]

Well, it won't take care of all of them, but I would recommend the WC 860 for the larger case capacity cartridges, the 308, 7.62, 7 X 57. I believe it is cases with a capacity of over eiher 60 or 65 grains do well with WC 860, especially for the price. Do a search for WC 860 and you should get a lot of good information on it.

Ron

[Ricochet]

IMR 7383 is my main powder in all medium calibers similar to the ones you mentioned. Works for everything from mild cast boolit plinking loads at ~1800 FPs up to full hunting loads with J-bullets. Won't reach the maximum velocity that can be reached with faster burning, denser powders like 4895, though. Usually can't be loaded to a "maximum load" before running out of case space.

WC860 and WC872 are much slower. I save it for maximum loads in magnum cartridges, and usually run out of case space before reaching a "maximum load" with them.

[singleshotbuff]

Ricochet,

Sounds like what I am looking for. Can you recommend loads for 8X57mm with 185-200gr Jword bullets and 7.62X54R with 180gr bullets?

Thanks

SSB

[Maven]

SSB, Given the capacity of the 8 x 57mm case, you'd be hard put to fill it with enough IMR 7383 & j-word bullets to make it worth your while. I.e., 7383 is less dense than 4064 or 4350 and thus takes up more room in the case. IMR 4064 is a much better choice for that application.