Reduced loads with Ball Powder

tomon

In Modern Reloading, Second Edition, by Richard Lee, Ball powders are included in the Powder chart that they supply with the Cast Bullet reduced load formula. The way I read it, midrange ball powders should be able to be loaded down to 50% of max. Am I reading it right???[?]

Rocky Raab

Spherical powders for rifle are quite different from handgun sphericals. Some handgun sphericals have been shown to be quirky indeed if reduced even small amounts.

Rifle powders may not be so quirky, but I personally won't use them in reduced loads. They may work fine, but with so many extruded powders specifically intended for reduced loads, why take the risk?

As a side note, do be aware that Lee does not have a ballistic lab, and they do NOT test any loads whatever. ALL their data is merely copied from other sources (including original typos). Richard Lee's Reduced Load formula, therefore, is an untested hypothesis. I have never seen a report where it was verified by a testing lab.

jonk

Depends on the powder too. Most reductions beyond 10% I use a ballistic filler with (Pufflon is best as it doesn't do weird things to pressures). In so doing drastic reductions are safely possible as it eliminates the danger of secondary explosion effect. However, how well such reductions work in terms of accuracy is suspect. You know you are too low if you start sooting the case necks.

tomon

I inherited 25+ pounds of AA SRB118. Western Powder Company tech told me to use AA2520 load data. I am loading 30-30, 308, 30-06, and 45-70 for Cast Bullet Benchrest. Would be nice if I could burn some up!

The reason I posted the question was that in the book, Hodgdon ran reduced load testing with their powder for Lee, but not other brands.