Four different bullets were loaded for the .308. All were loaded with 40 gr.of 7383 which filled the case to the junction of the shoulder and neck. Cases--Fed. match, CCI mag primers. ALL AT 50yds. The range was flooded And you needed a canoe to go to 100.

1.150 gr. FMJBT Golden West 3 shot 1/2" group, mild,a lot of unburned powder.

2.168gr.FMJBT. Golden West 4 shot 3/4" group, mild, unburned powder,

3. 149gr psp Rem. selected by weight, a lot of unburned powder, mild, just great accuracy.

4. Now this was a surprise!!! 175gr. fp Win 30/30 bullet crimped and powder compressed. mild, some unburned powder. 3 shot 1/4" group, 4 shot 1/2" group, 8 shots all touch. This is a standard 30/30 bullet. Fantastic.

It was too windy to put my Oehler up but these loads were slow and the recoil just a little greater than a .257 Roberts varmint rifle.The chronograph has blown down twice since Christmas and once each leg of the tripod had 4# of lead attached. My next approach is tent pegs to hold down the legs unless someone knows of something better. roger

SO, what is it going to take to ignite and burn this powder?

I have a feeling that it has great potential, but am not sure what it will take to reveal the full potential of this powder!

Guess I am still uphappy that I missed the last of the 4759 and no chance of any again!

Roger, Good report! Any chance of testing 40gr. 7383 against 40gr. 4350...with the .30-30 FP bullets of course? Incidentally, I just returned from Tampa/St. Pete where it was colder (and windier) yesterday than it was here in upstate N.Y. Our range is currently a mixture of mud, snow and ice so shooting beyond 50 yds. is a chore. Btw, the Ruger #1 will be shipped back to the factory for a repair/replacement of the breech block and a reblue on Mon. or Tues. Then comes the joy of refitting the front end (needs a piece of plastic on the foreend hanger for max. accuracy) and remounting the 'scope. Fortunately I have enough HP rounds loaded to re-zero the thing. ...Maven

Mavin, Nice to hear your #1 is coming along. I will load some of those 175fp in the .308 with aa4350 and let you know what they do.

Louis B. I don't know what the answer is. I'm going to go over all the data and information I've collected so far and see if anything surfaces. One concern that I have is that with a full load in some large capacity case You get the mild pressure and unburned powder with say medium weight bullets. Keeping that same load you start shooting heavier and heavier bullets getting a reduced amount of unburned powder each time you increase the weight of the bullet.With the very next increase in bullet weight you achieve a high enough pressure and temperature to perpetuate great burning and voila you find you have an overload. As I say it is a concern, reason being that's what happened when I was trying to get good ignition of 5020.It cost me a new bolt and the rifle shows distinct signs of set back into the receiver. The experiment with the .308 I would not try with perhaps a .300 Weatherby. I would definitly approach the loading diferently. I'll let you know what I find. roger

Louis, it's not a matter of getting the powder ignited. The problem is that it's a slow burning powder for these medium capacity cases and its low bulk density won't allow loading enough in the case for an efficient burn. In the .30-06 you start getting complete burning but the velocity's still low. ("Low" being like .303 British equivalent.) Load an equivalent weight of 4350 in and you'll get similar ballistics, but with the 4350 the case will hold more so you can load it right on up to full pressures. Get into the big magnum cases where a max load of 4350 won't fill the case, and I believe you'll be able to reach maximum pressures and velocites with 7383. But I haven't gone there and don't plan to anytime soon. I'm happy with it as a medium load with full cases in .22-250 and .30-06.

The last post is right on - it's too slow a powder for the .308, if you want a clean burn and full power. However, it works great in my 300 Win mag. There's no way to use a case full of powder, you run into pressure limits before running out of capacity. What I have found, at least with the batch I have, is 88% of the weight of IMR 4350 will give identical speed. The volume is about the same, but the weight is lighter. By doing this I have been able to predict very accurately what will happen with various loads when I pull the trigger. BTW, the best Win Mag load I have found for it uses the 175gr. government match bullets at 2950 fps for .6 inch groups out of my Savage 112 BVSS. Good cheap shooting!

OK. When I saw the burning rate listed and the price at the milsurp companies I was interested, but the only large capacity case I load for is 338 Mag and I load it down to 33 Winchester velocities for use around here!
Please keep us posted.

Louis B'
I went over information and other data as promised.
1. 22-250 33.5 gr.(full case) 7383.
with 2 different 55 gr. bullets and speer 52gr. hpbt all powder burned* but was sooty.* didn't find any unburned.

2.In the .243 Eight different full loads only 2 were really sooty.

3.6.5X55 39.5gr. 7383 2 different 140 gr. bullets Just a little dirty.

4.7X57 39.5 gr. 7383 150 gr., 154gr., 160gr., and 175gr. bullets. all accurate did not see any unburned powder.

5. The .308 you know.

6.30-06 51.3 gr. 7383 WLR primers, 110gr bullet unburned powder. 125gr. bullet unburned powder. 150gr. a little unburned powder.168gr. clean. 151gr sorted sooty.
52gr. 7383 Win mag primers 168gr. fmjbt 2550ft./sec. accurate.clean. 150gr. fmjbt clean.

7. .358X.404 82.5gr. 7383 CCImag. primers, 180gr. accurate and clean. 200gr. spw/c RN accurate and clean. neither was near max.
This tends to co-oberate what Ricochet is saying and Nobade shows in his 300 Win. results.

Nobade , how much 7383 powder will the 300 hold? ( neck shoulder junction ).
Mavin The a4350 40gr. is loaded. Might get out Fri.
I'm going to work with the .358X.404 and some heavier bullets and see if I can come close to a full load (with caution).This is a nice co-op type thread. roger