My votes are Ray and Seafire 1st equal.

Clark

I would say Major Caliber

Me Me. My favorite WinMag load is a case packed (like you do with brown sugar) full of Blue Dot. In order to seat the 220gr Partition I have to pack down the powder with a custom dowel at 1/3, 2/3 and again when the case is full. Usually then the press has enough leverage to get the bullet to an OAL of 3.34.



My goal in all loads is to hear no rattling powder in the case. I could ship a few loads to anyone with a chrony because I'm not sure what velocity I'm getting. Just send me a PM with the details.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EDITED because apparently the Lowest Common Denominator can't seem to find rock bottom.



The "load" above is NOT safe for a variety of reasons. DO NOT attempt this with any powder in any cartridge. Always follow the data found in manuals, or other reputable sources.



One might as well run the powder through a coffee grinder first to get a few more grains into the case.



WAIT WAIT < !--color-->, don�t do that either, you'll certainly blow your rifle and yourself to tiny pieces. If you plan to try these INSANE practices anyway, please call the good people at �The Darwin Awards� first. They�ll happily document the experiment on film and add you to their growing list of recipients.



And finally, to everyone who just cancelled plans to see how much BlueDot will fit into a case because of this addition, please say a silent �thank you� to jeffeosso, without whom you�d be on your way to an ugly end. I hereby thank jeffeosso, because I wouldn�t want to be responsible, even for those who don�t belong in the gene pool.

now THAT'S a disclaimer!!!!

jeffe

1894,

thanks for the honorable mention!!

I'd still have to say I take a back seat to Clark. I just see the parameters. Clark likes to see how far it takes to bend steel.

Clark gets my vote.

Cheers and good shooting
Seafire....... KABOOM, LoL

I dunno, who's missing the most fingers?

Is that another way of asking who is the biggest idiot?

DJ;

Guess that means you might think I am the biggest idiot, since i was nominated???

Oh well, must be in the water . Don't know where exactly Base of the Blue Ridge is, but if you are in Virginia, particularly SW Virginia or SE WVa, I am born and family raised in your neighborhood.

So thanks for the compliment Cuz.

If we are "idiots" to learn the parameters or our rifles, instead of just reading some lawyer approved book, then I am guilty.

Of course not comparing myself with the likes of their caliber, but I am glad guys like Parker Ackley, Townsend Whelan, Charles Newton and a few others were 'idiots' and also experimented.

I am sure you were not aiming the comment at anyone in particular, but think outside the 'lawyer approved" box some.

I like to use the example of people who told me I was a nut for loading 50 grains of H 380 in a 243 case with a 60 grain Sierra Hollow Point. It was 5 to 6 grains over what was listed in manuals.

Then Nosler comes out with their number 5 manual and lists a load of 53 grains with a 55 grain Ballistic tip,.... 3 grains over my load with a bullet that has 5 grains more weight, and 8 to 9 grains over what had ever been previously listed!

Point is some of us lead and some of us follow. Nothing wrong with either. That is why the smart guy works up, regardless of what a manual says is max.
And just because some of load up to see what is max, or the upper limits of the parameters, doesn't mean we hunt with that load.

My typical deer load is loaded to about 2600 fps., in either a 6.5 x 55, or a 7 x 57., or 2800 fps with a 243 or 6mm Rem.

Cheers and Good shooting.
( Respectfully )
Seafire

For hunting ammo, I load as hot as I can go consistent with accuracy and a ten-reload case life! Any load that wears out cases faster than that gets cut back.

For plinking and target practice, all I ask is that the bullet go fast enough to arrive in the vicinity of the target!

LB404. I think that some pieces of his 257 Ackley improved are still orbiting planet earth.........DJ

Probably me.

I once loaded a 45-70 full to the brim with the fastest pistol powder I had on the shelf. I stuffed a 500 g Hornady FMJ 458 Win Mag bullet on top of it, which required some serious work to compress all that powder. I had to severely crimp that one to hold the bullet in place.

I had an old worn out single shot that was so loose, you could move the barrel back and forth in the action a good 1/16" or so. It was junk and unshootable, so I figured it was a good sacrifical rifle for the good of the shooting community.

I tied the SS to an old tree, stepped back about 100 feet, and pulled a string tied to the trigger.

I don't know the pressure, but I had pieces of rifle, action, stock, barrel, and tree scattered over a 50 foot circle. It blew a real nice chunk out of that tree, too. A very impressive hole, I must say.

I then picked up all the pieces, put them in a small box, and took them to the local city hall where the mayor had a much adverstised big dollar gun buy back program. I got a hundred bucks for the junk rifle, which I put down on a very nice Ruger # 1 in 45-70 caliber. That #1 cuts one ragged hole at 100 yards, too.

Next time, I will tell you about the 11 foot long trout I caught fly fishing on the Russian River, which is far more true than this story.



RobertD

Seafire, you misread me. (Not your fault since I have a penchant for pithy over full explanations.) I ain't a recipe follower or much interested in legal cautions. I am a long time shooter of wildcats, very odd military junk, and surplus powders. Done a lot of shooting where there was no book and some shooting way over book where the book is clearly ridiculous. (Older data for 7X57 and 8x57, for example)

Reached the conclusion long ago that that last 100 fps offered no great benefits and very real risks. I like to leave me a little safety margin and urge that others do the same.

RobertD,

Fantastic. My little scenario was 100% BS of course. I can't think of a more thoroughly win-win-win situation than your story. It's not often you get to make $100 by destroying something. To do it so completely and learn from personal experience just caps it off perfectly.

Congratulations to you, I think of all the rifle destruction experiments you get my vote for most productive.

DJ;
My apologies, and I agree with you 1000 %. The last 100 fps is not worth the effort in my book either. The loadings I do, are to find those parameters, both high and low. For my particular rifles. As we all know what might be hot, in one, is not in another. And more importantly,, what might not be hot in the books are anywhere else, can be in a particular rifle.

I have a Rem VLS in 223, that the chamber is so tight, that any factory ammo closes the bolt with a very noticable resistance. I make sure my handloads are below specs in that rifle.

Too many guys concentrate on velocity and then never look at the trajectory charts. So for an extra 100 fps, you get another 5,000 PSI and shortened brass life ( big time) and gain a 1/4 of an inch lack of drop at 300 yds. The wise handloader reads more than the chronograph, or just the load data in their manuals.

Cheers and Good shooting
Seafire

Hot Core:

No, not new math, I re read it and it reads fine to me. Five grains more 55 vs 60, but I can see where it can be read the other way. So I need to edit my writing a little better the next time.

As far as the government and taxes, haven't you heard their new tax plan to simplify the confusion? Just send in every penny you made last year. If that is not enough, they will just bill you, with the appropriate penalties and interest, of course.

Of course you have the option of quit working and contributing to society, and just sit around and goof off. Then instead of taking from you, the government ( especially the Democrats) will make you a receipiant of the money instead.

Remember a good democrat is someone who knows socialism has never worked in society, but that is only because it has not been run by the right people yet.

Cheers and Good shooting
Seafire

Guys,

I'm glad this fostered some posting. To tell the truth I'd had a few beers which removed the autoedit facility.

Being a cautious reloader I will say that some of the loads I see on these forums give me the heeby jeebies. Have you seen the picture of the face of the bloke who blew the R93? Looks pretty grim.