Tuesday, July 04, 2017

Very Light Loads

Jerry the Greek cautions in comments:
Reference the reloading pages of M.D. Smith, specifically warnings that light powder loads in large capacity cases may cause ... problems.
http://www.reloadammo.com/liteload.htm
Well, yeah. I'm not advocating that anyone use any reloading component in any way that is not a published load.  But some of us are experimenters and go down rabbit holes that are not in the published data.  Some of it is very satisfying, and some of it is not.  There is a lot of trial and error, and for every load I've found that works, I've found ten that, for one reason or another, didn't.

There is a difference between the reduced loads I referenced earlier, and very light loads I've experimented with.  For example, the .30-30 load I published that uses H4895 is safe, effective, and comes right off the Hodgdon reloading pages.

Very light loads are entirely different.  I don't publish my very light loads because I can't control what someone else might do.  Many handloaders don't want to go there.  For good reason.  Many of us do go there.  I don't recommend it, but it is smoothing that some of us do.

Handloading ammunition is a safe and effective way to reduce your ammo costs, have good quality ammo, and enjoy the craftsmanship that goes with producing quality ammo.  Use loads from well respected sources and pay attention to detail.  

All the standard disclaimers apply.

1 comment:

Miguel GFZ said...

Well said. You can tailor your load on your own starting from within the specification given by manuals and you get to be responsible for you screw ups.