For the same reasons as mentioned by Pete, Alf and the other S'africans, and Saeed, I also load duplex.
I have been doing it for years.
Not by choice, but out of neccessity.
I wish we had USA's choice of powder, we don't!

Pecos45,

Not guilty, I only started doing this 5 months ago and have never discussed it on the boards.

Cheers

pete

No problem, Pete. It was a RSA shooter who was doing this in, I believe a .375, and apparently with improved results.

I've never denied it CANNOT be done. I've done it and lived...but the results sucked. The whole point being that with the more than adequate range of powders available to American reloaders, only an idiot would go down this road IN AMERICA. It is an excellent way to blow up a gun or worse. IMHO.

Yes, there must be 100's of South Africans loading duplex loads, but for those access to the range of US powders it makes no sense.

And yes, Somchem, manufacturer of all South African powders has tested the procedure. What I dont see mentioned by my fellow Duplex'ers are that extruded and ball powder, or ball powder and ball powder should never be duplexed.

Only extruded with extruded!!!

Further each charge should be weighed seperately - dont mix in bulk.

If you do it, start low.

Perhaps, leave it to South Africans who do it out of necessity! Yspen, see you at the "Toetsbaan".

Regards

Here is a 375 H&H duplex load with a 270 grain hornady spitzer that we pushed to just go over 2700 fps out of a 24" barrel on a K98 action.

S335 and S365

with a CCI 250 primer in a winchester Case.

First of all the slow powder first 30 grains of S365 then on top of that 40 grains of S335.

Be carefull start with a lower charge and work up this is the maximum we stopped at the primer showed some pressure signs.

Another thing as well S365 also work excellent for the 375 even though the Somchem data doesn't show it. 75 grains of S365 with a 270 grain hornady spitzer and a CCI 250 primer and Norma case gives me 2630 fps with no pressure sign at all. The case is full but not compacted this is why we tried to experiment with duplex loads as we wanted to see if we could break the 2700 fps mark.

Hope this helps for all the South Africans out there

[ 11-15-2002, 16:58: Message edited by: Safari-Hunt ]

Just like anything I guess in life, mixing powders is ok if you know what your doing. Like in a lab with a test barrel building up slowly doing Copper crush tests, and of course have the knowledge of explosives and smokless powder to predict an outcome. But for the regular dude, saying "Hey I wonder what would happen if I tried this". Bad idea.

Speaking of ranges, I'll be in Simonstown, 10th - 23rd Dec on hols. Where can a bloke get some range time? is Milnerton range still available?

Pete

Yes i've seen this done in an AR 15. It blew the mag out slamed the bolt back the case wedged into the chamber and the primer had found its way into the trigger. The rifle ws sent back to the factory to be repaired but it was never right.

Guys,
There seems to be a little confusion about Mixing powder, and Duplex or triplex loading. DU/tri-plex loads are by necessity compressed charges to keep the powders from mixing. Mixing the way The S/A fellows are doing is acceptable, each individual powder charge at a time, however mixing a pound of powder #1, & a pound of #2,, could be disasterous especially using An extremely fast powder and A much slower one.
Front ignition(burn tube) has a completely different aplication, not necessarily required by duplex loads, for example liquid propellant(sealing primer is most difficult and critical problem)! THINK ABOUT IT!

Pete Millan

Milnerton is still active , but I know of people shooting at the old miliatry range in Simonstown . I do not know who you can contact to find out where to book or who to contact for info . ( could call City Guns - Terry Harrison may know )

The other option is Durbanville but that my be too far from S/Town .

Safari-Hunt

I found S365 to work well im my 375 espesially for heavy bullets . Cannot understand why Somchem doesn't list it as a option in their manual.

MY FINDINGS : R-P Brass, Fed 215 primers
250 gr Sierra GK : 81 gr S365 2754 fps
270 gr Horn RN : 80 gr S365 2542 fps (must be retested - chrony played up )
300gr PMP RN : 81 gr S365 2584 fps

All above loads tested on colder winter days - may give have to be redused for use in summer or in the North .

I stopped using duplex loads for the 375 H&H - just too much hassle . S335 works good for the lighter bullets and S365 is good for the heavier bullets . S341 wasn't too bad either but the other two mentioned gave better results .

I would start with Pete's load and work my way up.

Ben

Ben

[ 11-17-2002, 21:53: Message edited by: Yspen ]

Pete,
Contact Ludi Starke, chairman of Milnerton. I shot a match there 2 weeks back and they are due to lose the range - housing encroachment. One sign I saw mentioned beginning of Dec '02.
Contact on eagle@xsinet.co.za.
I will PM you his telephone number.

Sorry you guys in SA can't get decent powder. Wish I could help. We have an influx of SA military .308ammo here that will not function in my M1A due to the lack of the pressure of the load. I have topull the bullets and load with W748 or Mil Surp. W846 to make it work. Guess it has some of your slow burning power. Wish I could help. To the guy using W748 in his AR15, are you trying to gain max vel. 748 and 335 are both made by primex in florida. Don't worry about max. vel. enjoy shooting the bullet down the barrel. I still enjoy shooting my 8x57js handloaded with 50gr of N150/Nosler 180gr BT's/in Winchester brass chrono'd at 2560 fps. Mild but accurate. Sorry I can't send you guys about 50 lbs of IMR4064 but that's the way it is. Wish you luck in the future.