outa 2400 what to use in 54R

[RU shooter]

I'm plum outa 2400 and just casted some 185 Lee 312 boolits for my M39 .I am hoping to shoot these at 100 possibly 200 yds. at our clubs informal CMP matchesI see alot of you guys use 16-20 gr of 2400 but what else would work good with the following powders I have on hand:

W 231
Unique
SR4759
3031
AA2015
HS-6
AA#5
and some pulled down 54R powder which is similar to fast lot of 4895
H335

Would any of these yield good results and how much for a starting and Max load?
I have used the Unique and 231 in light loads and had good results but for 50 yds. my rear sight was already at 450 Meters dont think I have enough elevation for 200 with those loads! TIA ..........................RU

[sundog]

H108/WC820/AA9 at just about the same charge ar 2400. Check 303 dot com.

[Phil]

Mine just loves 21 grains of SR4759. If you have any IMR4198 try 24 grains of that. Both are universal charges FOR MY RIFLES. I use them in all '06's-308's-303's-8x57's-7.5 Swiss- and the like.

Cheers,

Phil

[Larry Gibson]

Concur with Phils 21 gr 4759, my Finn M38 shoots the Lee bullet well with it also. My best accuracy with the Lee bullet comes with 28.5 gr of H4895 with a dacron filler. I'm not sure the pulldown 54R pwder would work in 4895 place here as I've not tried it.

Larry Gibson

[texas tenring]

I agree SR4759 works good for me also. But I like the metering of 2400 a little better.

Good Luck!

[BudRow]

SR 4759 is in my top 3 choices for the old military veterans in the 1600 - 1800 fps range.

[RU shooter]

Thanks again gentlemen, Sounds like 4759 gets the nod ! Has anyone bought and tried the 4759 "clone from Bartletts ? How did it work Better or worse than canister grade?

[Shiloh]

It meters better than the canister grade. Around 20% less bulk than cannister, but a LOT less money.

Shiloh

[Uncle Jaque]

4759 was my late Father's favorite powder for cast bullets in rifles, and I've still got a couple of pounds of it that he left me.

Recently found a cigar box with a couple hundred or so 185 gr. .311" GC Spitzers which I thought to try over 21 gr. of 4759 - a load I'd extrapolated from 7.7 Jap data in an old IDEAL book.

When crimping in the crimp groove, they come out just a little shorter than milsurp Bulgarian LB:

.....

They are very pleasant to shoot in the M-44 carbine, although I had to crank the rear sight up to "600" (is that in yards or "Arshans" on the M-44?) in order to get it on target at 50 yards.

Didn't put 'em over the chrony, but would guess that they were not pushing much over 1K FPs.

Accuracy, although not stellar, shows some potential.


(The group marked in pink crayon was from an 8mm Mauser that I was fooling with during the same session.)

There seems to be a "central tendancy" cluster with outlying fliers.

Extension of the bayonet makes a marked difference both in group size and POI on this carbine, as it does on many others.

......

Have read where the Spitzers have to be driven pretty fast in order to stabilize, so I might need to throttle up a little with these (?). It might also help to seat them out a little further.

Have yet to slug this old battle-axe, but have known them to run .314" or larger, so a fatter bullet might be called for. Might have to lap out a sizing die I suppose.

The M-44 is so much easier on the shoulder with cast boolits that we will definitely be doing more research in this direction.

I suspect that this is not the ideal bullet for the Mosin Nagant for some reason.
But for starts it's not all that bad.

[Ricochet]

Any idea what mould those spitzers came from? They're pretty.

Saw one on the Bay a few days ago that looked remarkably like the HBC boolit, but it was an old Lyman/Ideal mould, a two-cavity.

I've used the Lee TL312-160-2R with fairly encouraging results in the Mosin, but I was pushing them pretty hard (probably too much so) with 7383 and didn't get as good accuracy as I do with the NuJudge or original Fat 30 group buy boolits. Haven't really worked on developing a load. Haven't done a lot of rifle shooting since last fall.

[Pathfinder1cav]

RU,
Actually, I just shot a 200 yd. Military bolt action position match today in Vale, OR with my M-39 & that 185 Lee. I was the only one shooting cast & scored in the top third 177 of 200 (using a 5V target)- cost myself 5 points by not getting the last shot off in rapid fire sitting- just my second High power match & haven't gotten it figured out yet!.
I was using 16.5- 2400, but I get very similar groups with 20 gr- 5744..... The M-39 just feels better than my 03A3 & will shoot within 1/2 Moa of it.. FWIW

[Bob S]

Any idea what mould those spitzers came from? They're pretty.

It looks like a Lyman/Ideal 311329, which was advertised as 185 grains.

Resp'y,
Bob S.

[Ricochet]

Thanks!

[Tracy]

The 54R pulldown powder and the 3031 are probably close in burning rate. Both would probably be good for the application, with a starting load of 28-30 grains.

[RU shooter]

WOW almost a year and a half and still getting responses ! I have to say I have learned ALOT of valuable info from the fine folks on this site! Thanks again! and BTW 10 grs of Unique, 21 grs of 5744 and 30 grs of Albanian 54R powder(burns like 4895 in the bigger cases and faster as the case gets smaller??? Those crazy Albanians) have all proven very accurate.