Using up odds and ends and a pleasant surprise
I have a number of original containers that hold very small amounts of powder I no longer use, small quantities of boolits cast many years ago, and a few types of primers that were part of some reloading experiment that I no longer remember. I'm trying to make some space in the reloading area of my workshop so getting rid of some of this stuff is a project I started this past winter. Last fall, I bought a Tikka T3x in 6.5X55 and it has renewed my interest in reloading cast boolits in this caliber and in shooting my M96 and M38 Swedes which have not been out of the safe much in the last 20 years. I have a few hundred boolits cast long ago from 3 molds in 6.5. They are the Lyman 266 645 which weigh about 157 grains lubed and checked, one of the original the Lee special order Old Feller 170 grain Cruise Missile weighing 170 grains ready to load, and the Buckshot 6.5 Kurtz Loverin which weighs 137 grains also ready to load. I had a 6 pound jug of surplus SR 4759 purchased from GI Brass that contains about a quarter pound and a few CCI 250 magnum primers so I decided to put them together. I primed some cases with the remaining CCI mag primers and charged them with 17.0 grains of the SR 4759 and loaded 10 each with the OF and Buckshot boolits and 15 with the Lyman boolits. Last week, I went to the range, primarily to do some load testing with the Tikka and Sierra 140 grain bullets and took my scoped M38 and those cast boolit loads I cobbled together. After my session with the Tikka, I turned to the Swede and the cast boolits. I had the chronograph set up and decided to start with the Lyman 268 645 loads and just as I was starting to shoot I felt a few raindrops, so I fired only one 5 shot string then packed up everything. While I wasn't shooting with any real care, I noticed I had shot a pretty nice group at 55 yards, but the real surprise was when I reviewed the shot string on the chronograph. Velocity readings were 1654, 1640, 1645, 1643, 1642 for an SD of 4 and an ES of14! These charges were thrown, not individually weighed and SR 4759 is a pretty coarse powder and doesn't meter very well. I am anxious to see if the other rounds shoot as good and will report back when I finish this experiment. I used this powder in so many different milsurp calibers with so-so to great results but I always used standard primers and any of the loads I chronographed were not nearly as consistent as this one in the Swede. I have used up the CCI 250s but have a good supply of Winchester LR mag primers and will use them to burn up the rest of the SR 4759. After I fire the rest of the 6.5 loads and record the results, Ill decide if I'll stick with doing it in the Swede or experiment in another caliber.
