Gentlemen,

I have had a few requests to develop reduced loads for some of the big bores.

I started today on the 416 Rigby. The rifle we have is a Dakota 76 factory rifle. It originally had a Leupold 3-9 X scope on it, in Leupold mounts.

Somehow, both the scope and mounts seem to have walked away!!

I installed Talley bases on it, and then discovered that withese I cannot fit any of our Leupold scopes on it.

The Talley mounts distance between rings is too far for those scopes.

I finally found a B&L Model 4200 3.5-10 scope and installed it.

And as usually the case here, any time we have to do some guess works - as what powder we should use, and what velocity we should start with. We get an extraordinary number of suggestions.

One idea was to start with ONE grain of powder and go up from there!!??

No guessing who had this incredible suggestion!

Anyway, I thought we would aim for about 1100 fps as a starting point.

We started with 20 grains of Green Dot. That gave us around 1000 fps. So I increased the charge to 23 grains, which gave us 1178 fps.

I will post the results when I finish.

Saeed,
Try XMR 5744 w/ cast bullet. Works great for me.

Given the case capacity ... I pretty much thought the standard loads were already "reduced". With a new CZ 416Rigby here, I'll certainly be interested in your results.
Cheers...
Con

quote:

Originally posted by Con:
Given the case capacity ... I pretty much thought the standard loads were already "reduced". With a new CZ 416Rigby here, I'll certainly be interested in your results.
Cheers...
Con

With my CZ .416 Rigby, I am using 125 grains of AA8700 with a RCBS 350-grain cast-gascheck flatnose, Brinell 20, .417" diameter, with Fed 215 primers in Jameson cases. MV is 2100 FPS, accuracy is outstanding, and this is a very mild load. But not as mild as you seem to be seeking.

However, I believe this would be a good load for deer and black bear out to around 200 yards.

Gentlemen,

So far I have fired the following loads, all with Green Dot. Bullet used is our own Walterhog solid, 380 grains.

23.0 - 1178 - 1.896
24.5 - 1229 - 1.035
26.0 - 1318 - 1.355
27.5 - 1367 - 0.544
29.0 - 1402 - 0.332
30.5 - 1483 - 0.591

We used the RWS 5341 primer, which is relatively weak in comparison to others such as the Federal 210. We also added about 2-3 grains of kapok to keep the powder down.

3shot groups at 100 yards.

How (and by how much) did the POI change?
Thanks, Peter,

Peter,

With all the above loads, the POI did not change more than an inch.

In the past, I have found that the point of impact changes markedly in some rifles, and not much in others.

Thanks Saeed. I found with my double, that POI changed significantly. This could be because I was using cast lead bullets instead of the same bullet as you seem to be. I have not tried reduced loads in my 416 Rigby. Your Green Dot data sounds interesting. Have you tried any other powders?
Peter.

I have loaded about three hundred reduced loads for a friend that wanted to get accustomed to his rifle without excessive recoil. This is what I loaded based on an article from an African Journal magazine article.

In the 416 Rigby 25-28 grains of Unique with the Dacron filler is roughly 1350 fps-1450 fps depending on the bullet used. I used 300-350 grain Barnes X bullets. The recoil is very close to a 410 shotgun and is great for practise getting accustomed to a new rifle and allows for great plinking without heavy recoil.


Focus on the leading edge!

quote:

Originally posted by Peter:
Thanks Saeed. I found with my double, that POI changed significantly. This could be because I was using cast lead bullets instead of the same bullet as you seem to be. I have not tried reduced loads in my 416 Rigby. Your Green Dot data sounds interesting. Have you tried any other powders?
Peter.

You can try any powder and I suspect it will work to a certain extent.

I just used Green Dot because I had it on the loading bench.

I thought I will try some of the relatively fast rifle powders to get the velocity to around 2000 fps.

I tried Winchester's 748, and got hang fire, despite using a filler. This mioght be due to the weak RWS primer I am using.

H322 seems to work, so I will shot a few loads with this one to conclude my load development.

Gentlemen,

Here is an update.

Green Dot, RWS 5341 large rifle primers, Norma brass, Walterhog 380 solid.

23.0 - 1178 - 1.896
24.5 - 1229 - 1.035
26.0 - 1318 - 1.355
27.5 - 1367 - 0.544
29.0 - 1402 - 0.332
30.5 - 1483 - 0.591
32.0 - 1547 - 1.170
33.5 - 1624 - 0.659
35.0 - 1659 - 0.234
36.5 - 1736 - 1.170
38.0 - 1805 - 0.840
39.5 - 1844 - 0.532

H322

50.0 - 1620 - 0.442
51.5 - 1671 - 0.624
53.0 - 1682 - 0.928
54.5 - 1725 - 0.521

quote:

H322

50.0 - 1620 - 0.442
51.5 - 1671 - 0.624
53.0 - 1682 - 0.928
54.5 - 1725 - 0.521

Saeed,

Did you use filler with these loads?
I had hang fires with squib 450 AK loads, very disconcerting!!
You can't ask for more with 1600/1700 heavies at 1/2 moa.

Roger QSL

Gentlemen,

To recap.

Dakota 76 factory rifle in 416 Rigby, B&L 3.5-10X scope in Talley mounts.
Norma brass
RWS large rifle primers 5431
Walterhog 380 grain solid bullets, over all length 3.585

Green Dot, and about 2-3 grains of kapok filler.
All groups are 3 shot at 100 yards.


23.0 - 1178 - 1.896
24.5 - 1229 - 1.035
26.0 - 1318 - 1.355
27.5 - 1367 - 0.544
29.0 - 1402 - 0.332
30.5 - 1483 - 0.591
32.0 - 1547 - 1.170
33.5 - 1624 - 0.659
35.0 - 1659 - 0.234
36.5 - 1736 - 1.170
38.0 - 1805 - 0.840
39.5 - 1844 - 0.532

H322

50.0 - 1620 - 0.442
51.5 - 1671 - 0.624
53.0 - 1682 - 0.928
54.5 - 1725 - 0.521
56.0 - 1789 - 1.221
57.5 - 1802 - 0.473
59.0 - 1873 - 0.640
60.5 - 1964 - 0.683
62.0 - 2002 - 0.931

I am going to develop some reduced loads for the 404 Jeffery next.

Thanks! What a coincidence: Guidance for my squirrel loads for the .395 Tatanka using 400-grain cast lead bullets. The first game to fall to the .395 Tatanka may well be an August 2007 Kentucky squirrel.