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Posted: 8/18/2010 7:59:58 AM EDT
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Yesterday I hit the range to fire off some older 7mm Rem Mag reloads that I made using older/less useful components. The load is 139gr Hornady FP (yes,flat points-they were $6 per box in a clearance bin and I failed reading comprehension and forgot about the existence of the 7x30 Waters) over about 82grs of pulldown WC872 powder (burns just slightly slower than old Hodgdon 870) and CCI large rifle magnum primers.
These were loaded in part as an experiment in compression, as I used a vibratory tumbler to get the powder to settle in very densely. The load shows signs of very low pressure. They're actually harder to load (only set the shoulder back slightly) than they are to extract. Primer signs are nill, no ejector marks, the cases are actually very cool,etc. The odd part is the amount of soot kicking out of the bore. I'm getting a visible smoke cloud from these shots along with a nice flame. It's not Mosin Nagant M44 huge,but it is quite visible. It's almost like the soot you get from Unique. What says arfcom- powder going bad,or possibly insufficient ignition due to excessive compression and a very slow powder? For reference,the powder remaining in the keg smells a bit acrid,but not excessively so. It's no worse than any of the other .mil pulldown powders, and there's no discoloration at all. My next step is to run these over the chronograph. |
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The funny thing is, the case neck seals almost perfectly. It's not like the typical light, low pressure Unique load in a .38. that has a soot mark down the side where the case failed to seal quickly enough against the chamber wall.These are some of the cleanest cases that I've had. They're also very cool,while the barrel seems hotter than normal.
Accuracy is actually pretty respectable for such a strange load. It's about 1.5" at 100yds,and I haven't even tuned the BOSS yet. |
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Quoted:
Yesterday I hit the range to fire off some older 7mm Rem Mag reloads that I made using older/less useful components. The load is 139gr Hornady FP (yes,flat points-they were $6 per box in a clearance bin and I failed reading comprehension and forgot about the existence of the 7x30 Waters) over about 82grs of pulldown WC872 powder (burns just slightly slower than old Hodgdon 870) and CCI large rifle magnum primers. These were loaded in part as an experiment in compression, as I used a vibratory tumbler to get the powder to settle in very densely. The load shows signs of very low pressure. They're actually harder to load (only set the shoulder back slightly) than they are to extract. Primer signs are nill, no ejector marks, the cases are actually very cool,etc. The odd part is the amount of soot kicking out of the bore. I'm getting a visible smoke cloud from these shots along with a nice flame. It's not Mosin Nagant M44 huge,but it is quite visible. It's almost like the soot you get from Unique. What says arfcom- powder going bad,or possibly insufficient ignition due to excessive compression and a very slow powder? For reference,the powder remaining in the keg smells a bit acrid,but not excessively so. It's no worse than any of the other .mil pulldown powders, and there's no discoloration at all. My next step is to run these over the chronograph. I am going with this. |
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Quoted:
Yesterday I hit the range to fire off some older 7mm Rem Mag reloads that I made using older/less useful components. The load is 139gr Hornady FP (yes,flat points-they were $6 per box in a clearance bin and I failed reading comprehension and forgot about the existence of the 7x30 Waters) over about 82grs of pulldown WC872 powder (burns just slightly slower than old Hodgdon 870) and CCI large rifle magnum primers. These were loaded in part as an experiment in compression, as I used a vibratory tumbler to get the powder to settle in very densely. The load shows signs of very low pressure. They're actually harder to load (only set the shoulder back slightly) than they are to extract. Primer signs are nill, no ejector marks, the cases are actually very cool,etc. The odd part is the amount of soot kicking out of the bore. I'm getting a visible smoke cloud from these shots along with a nice flame. It's not Mosin Nagant M44 huge,but it is quite visible. It's almost like the soot you get from Unique. What says arfcom- powder going bad,or possibly insufficient ignition due to excessive compression and a very slow powder? For reference,the powder remaining in the keg smells a bit acrid,but not excessively so. It's no worse than any of the other .mil pulldown powders, and there's no discoloration at all. My next step is to run these over the chronograph. Don't confuse acrid with the smell of ether or solvent. The bad powder I've smelled was more like something rotten 'Borg |
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I ran some more of them today. At some point,I apparently got 84grs in,by seating just a big higher.
Anyway, the heavier load actually shot a bit cleaner. So given that,and the comments about smell of the powder,I guess I'm going with the pressure issue. FWIW, they run about 3000- 3050 fps from the Abolt (26" bbl). |
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Quoted:
And don't even think about using that load on deer, that bullet will vaporize on entrance  I'm curious what it would do to a groundhog. Likely something like this: 
It's a really useless load for anything but short range paper or some varmint that draws my ire. |
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