I have need of further data on low sound signature loads. I'm interested in 30-06, .308, 30-30,.45-70, .458 win.,22K hornet, .44 Mag, 8mm x 57. Have lost some of the links I had. Also forgot to print some of the data. All pertinent information will be appreciated. Thanks PAK

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Member NRA, Life NMLRA

Marlin 45-70 with micro grooved barrel. 300gr. cast bullet with 2.8 grains of Unique. This load would penetrate pine at 40 yards but 2.7gr. would stick the bullet in the barrel.

Use red dot or bullseye, and load til they just come out of the barrel. Use pure lead cast bullets, and short/light for caliber. The only one I did much work on was the 35 whelen, used a 150 gr cast over less then 1 gr universal clays. Also cut down a lymann postal bullet in the 458 lott. Try a 22 long rifle, and 22 short case as a dipper, and see how those loads work. Use a small wad of cotton to hold the powder over the primer.

For the 45-70 try a round ball, for the 22 hornet, you can drive pellets with primer power alone. The longer the barrel, the quiter the load. Pretty tough to make a quiet revolver if that is what the 44 is.

45-70....use a muzzle leader "Poly Patch", a round ball and a little shotgun powder.

22 hornet....air rifle pellets. Make a size die to reduce the skirts a bit.

I'm interested in this subject, too. I've been trying to cook up a quiet .45-70 load, but I haven't had any luck. I've worked down to 2 gr. of Bullseye, and my 500 gr. bullets are down to 215 fps. But they still aren't very quiet. They're quieter than a .22, but still make your ears ring.

I don't cast my own bullets, and have been using Mid-Kansas Cast Bullet "Cowboy action" bullets, as they are soft cast. But they aren't pure lead.

Anyone got any suggestions? Lighter bullets? A source for pure-lead bullets? How about cutting the cases down (way down) to reduce the initial volume? I'd love a known-to-work formula for the non-bullet caster.

Pertinax

I haven't done much playing with this lately, as I sold my 458 lott, and am waiting for my 500 Jeffrey, as well as a replacement 458 lott to get back to the experimenting.

The ideal bullet will be heavy, and have minimal bearing surface, but, none of the commercial molds fit the bill. If one has a lathe, then pope style cast bullets can have all but the front and rear driving bands turned off.

I think about the best one can hope for is cap gun report loads, unless you have a long ~30" barrel.

I have been considering using an old mauser to make a single shot 45 acp with a long barrel to further experiment with these loads, but that's a future project.

Wow!
What a novel idea.I own 7x57 caliber rifle,and would like to re-load from loaded rounds for sub-sonic velocities.
The idea is to pull the 175gr bullet out of loaded cartridge and reduce the weight of powder or replace it with small quantity of pistol/shotgun powder,seat that 175gr bullet back and enjoy sub-sonic velocities.
The problem is that I don't know much about rifle reloading.I know it can be done since such loads are available to military to match with silencers.
What I don't know is the type of powder and its weight! I definitely don't want lead bullets or jacketed bullet expention.
Can anyone help me through this....

Rao, which powders are available to you out there? Around here, we use between 6 and 8 grains of Red Dot, which is just about the fastest shot gun powder offered. Though fun to shoot, the are NOT "quiet". Still louder than a .22, IMHO. FWIW, Dutch.

Dutch,
We do not have the liberty of the powders available seprately,what we have is loaded in the cartridges.So the economy factor of reloading is gone!
We have loaded rifle and pistol cartridges available here made by top companies like Federal,Sellior&Ballot,Winchester etc.In shotgun,we have cartridges loaded right here with olive colored,almost squere,flake type powder.
I don't know the name of any of these powders loaded in cartridges.
I think that shotgun powder is loaded in many countries and it might be possible to us this.

[ 07-16-2002, 11:42: Message edited by: RAO ]

RAO, wow, it sounds like you want to "boldly go where no man has gone before"! I suppose if that was the only option.....

Take a look at Paco's low velocity loads at sixgunner.com. HTH, Dutch.

The rec.guns faq has an article:
http://www.recguns.com/Sources/VIIE7.html

I have been pursuing this subject for years.

The reason 22 inch barrel 22s make so much noise with CB longs and 24 inch barrels are as quiet as pellet guns is that one has enough pressure for supersonic gas when the bullet comes out.

There are a bunch of tricks that come together when I shoot a 32acp cartridge in a 30 cal barreled rifle with an Alex adapter
http://alexcartridge.com/
as the post above says, 1/2 gr to 1 gr of Bullseye or Red Dot with a soft lead ball.

I can carry one of these in my pocket, and quickly turn my deer rifle into a pellet gun sounding grouse killer.

Do a google search on "Cat's Sneeze"..you will find links to a sit in Sweden, I believe, that discusses this in detail...Besides cat's sneeze, they have another category calle "silent without a silencer, which is a little different....Interesting stuff