Recently acquired Remington Enfield P-17

ltcdoty

Anyone have a favorite recipe for 30 06 reload? I have just acquired a Remington P-17 Enfield that I want to shoot in a local club's military rifle match.

Tailgunner1954

To pick a Nit or 2
1) It's NOT a Enfield (Enfields are strictly a British built rifle)
2) It's NOT a P-

It's a Remington made "US Model 1917" or a "Model 17" if you prefer. [:)]

charliemeyer007

First I would have it checked for head space to see just how far out of spec it is.

Measure your factory round carefully. Fire it and compare. Any lumps? If it is more or less round I would just neck size the cases. I have shot many 1000's of rounds of -06. 165 to 190 boattails would be my choice. Price is consideration. I loaded H-4831 by the case full lightly compressing it. I like Hornady then Sierra or Speer but that was most of the choice back in the 70's.

Cast bullet Lyman 311413 or heavier. 311284 looks good to me. Unique is a good place to start but other powder's will likely work better.

26 cents a bullet. I would consider other powders under it too.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1165395943/hornady-match-bullets-30-caliber-308-diameter-168-grain-hollow-point-boat-tail
My Lyman book best load says IMR4064 produces 100 more fps using 10 grains less powder than h-4831 using 165 grain data. The 168 grain data says IMR-4895 produces about 100 fps less using 13 grains less than H-4831.

bpost

My GO-TO load for a 30-06 is 46 grains of H or IMR 4895 pushing a 150- 174 grain bullet.

Ambrose

50 gr. of IMR4895 with a 150 FMJ and a standard primer shoots about as good as anything in my Remington 1917. I use Privi-Partisan bullets when I can find them because they're cheap and shoot just fine. The 26" barrels on those old war horses are pretty fast.

ltcdoty

Thanks everybody for the info[:)]

bigjershooter

I have a US model of 1917.which was made by eddystone.Early model with no pakerized finish.All blued with a barrel date of Nov.1917.I have been loading a 168gr Sierra HPBT in front of 57grs of IMR-4350.It is a fine load for the bolt action 30-06 caliber,and have been very happy with the group size,s.give it a try in yours.[:p]

nononsense

ltcdoty,

Most of the loads listed above don't even make the list for minimum loads for most reloading websites for manufacturers. You will find contrary to the above that most accurate loads usually come at the upper end of the pressure curve not at the lower end.

Here is a decent article regarding the history of the military loads for the .30-06 Springfield. It's starts about 1/3 of the way down and encompasses this chart below the link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.30-06_Springfield



Note that this chart concentrates on the chronograph data which eliminates the variables of powder lots and OAL.

Note also that one of the two most accurate loads that I've developed for this cartridge consists of a nearly full case of Accurate 4064 with a Berger 175gr. VLD Match bullet seated on top. This runs below the maximum pressure recommendation but yields a very respectable velocity of 2730 fps.

The other is the 208 gr. AMAX seated over a full case of Ramshot Hunter running just a pinch short of 2600 fps. and again just below maximum pressure.

As an anecdotal point of wonder, 2 of us were scrounging a local gun show and stumbled onto an M98 Mauser but with square threads instead of the standard v-thread. Most of us have a sizeable collection of odds and ends parts and being no different we located a new M1903-A3, 2-groove barrel in .30-06 Springfield. This 2-groove barrel screwed directly into the action but needed a small adjustment for headspace. The barreled action is pending a new synthetic stock suitable for testing.

Best.