A pound of powder... How much shooting?

[Guy Miner]

Many of us are more concerned now than ever about getting the most bang for our bucks, literally. A pound of powder is 7,000 grains. Odd measurement to be sure, but true.

No real surprise here, but take a look at what can be done with a pound of powder:

Pistol cartridge, 5 grain charge = 1,400 cartridges loaded

Small rifle cartridge, 25 grain charge = 280 cartridges loaded

Medium rifle cartridge, 50 grain charge = 140 cartridges loaded

Big rifle cartridge, 100 grain charge = 70 cartridges loaded

Makes the .38 Special & .45 ACP look pretty inviting, and the .300 RUM look like a powder hog. I've gained a new appreciation for my .204 Ruger & .223 Remington which burn nice tidy little charges of around 25 grains.

I remember one of the reasons I sold my .300 RUM, which was gobbling Retumbo at 95 grains a shot!

The .308 isn't bad either, at about 45 grains of Varget at every shot, similar to many "normal" hunting rifles.

The .30-30 is another one that can be shot a lot. In fact, with a little ingenuity, I can use a pistol powder, at only 10 grains, and cast lead bullets in the .30-30, and keep shooting it for about forever on that 8# jug... Let's see: 10 grains of powder per charge, is 700 rounds of .30-30 per pound, and it's an 8# jug with about 7 pounds remaining... Looks like I'm good for almost 5000 rounds of .30-30 rifle ammo from that can of powder! Cool.

It's interesting what can be done with a pound of powder. A few BIG cartridges, or a whole mess of smaller cartridges.

Worth a thought.

Guy

 

[FOTIS]

416 WBY 120 gr----- 58 rounds :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[Guy Miner]

The FUN factor of the big cartridges must be acknowledged! :grin:

 

[FOTIS]

True True! :lol:

 

[velvetant]

that is why I stopped shooting my 300 Win mag and shoot my 6.5 Creedmoor and 25-284 a lot more.
Now i just need to find some more H4350 and I'll be all set

 

[SJB358]

Yeah, I like the medium burners a little more often. Even cases like the 338 Win Mag seem like big powder cartridges when times are tough. Luckily, I don't shoot it a ton.

Really though, it makes me wish I had a smaller 22 centerfire to shoot though.. The boys 243 Win is that rifle for now...

 

[dlove]

9mm and .380 with titegroup. 3.9gr and a 115 fmj is 1100fps in my glock 34.

 

[Guy Miner]

Yes, some of the smaller capacity pistol cartridges do great with just a tiny bit of gunpowder.

I was thinking of some of the .38 special wadcutter target loads I used to build, very accurate, easy shooting and only 2.5 - 3.0 grains of Bullseye per cartridge. Amazingly light on powder consumption. I might have to build some of those again!

Guy

 

[wisconsinteacher]

This is one of the reasons I have a 6.5 Grendel and am building a 6mmBR. Small rounds so I can get the most bang for my buck.

 

[JD338]

416 WBY 120 gr----- 58 rounds :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Yup, I concur.
But oh man, it is a ton of fun to shoot.
I put 10 rounds through mine last Saturday and I am still grinning.
3 bullets in one hole at 50 yards is impressive.

JD338

 

[Bruce Mc]

JD, what is more impressive is the 6" three bruise group on your shoulder and the stress fractures on your cheek bone.

Guy, I was gonna sit down and figure out how many .223s I could reload with 2lbs of H335. You answered that one for me. The load I was going to use was 25.0grs. That is if I don't spill any on the floor.

 

[FOTIS]

JD, what is more impressive is the 6" three bruise group on your shoulder and the stress fractures on your cheek bone.

.

Nope feels like a big shove. Nothing else

 

[JD338]

JD, what is more impressive is the 6" three bruise group on your shoulder and the stress fractures on your cheek bone.

.

Nope feels like a big shove. Nothing else

I actually shot the 416 Wby with out the brake from the bench a couple weeks ago.
The recoil was not as bad as I thought it would be. With the brake, its a big shove, less than my 45-70 loads.

JD338

 

[HTDUCK]

Yeah the 264 and the 7STW are spending more time in the safe now.
Still economical with 78 grs or 90 grs of WC872 though when you can buy 8 lbs for $49.00.
Buy 6 jugs and Weidner's will pay the hazmat fee.

Have to say though, the 22-250 and the 308 have been getting shot more lately.

 

[gerry]

A 223 Rem was probably the cheapest round to reload for because of cheap brass but I wonder if something like the 17 Hornet would be better now since it uses les than half the powder. Would be a fun round to shoot at the range, the only other real option where I live would be using it for head shooting grouse longer ranges which would be fun indeed.

 

[russ808]

Guy,
300 blackout with 14 grains of AA-1680 behind a 210 grain Berger @about 880fps. 500 rounds. Great close in deer/pig eradicator.
Russ

 

[.300winmag]

Guy,
300 blackout with 14 grains of AA-1680 behind a 210 grain Berger @about 880fps. 500 rounds. Great close in deer/pig eradicator.
Russ

Is that 210 expanding well at those low velocities, Russ?

 

[russ808]

Nope. But we are keeping the shots to within 50-60 yards. Head shots only. At that low speed the bullets do not appear to be expanding. Heart/lung shots are killing them, but after the run a bit. Hitting the head bone is causing the bullets to blow out the other side of the head. We are using the heavier weight to off set the speed loss. So far so good. Now the nope is not a certain thing as we have yet to recover a bullet. We are using the exit hole as the guide from the heart/lung shot ones. More testing results as we shoot more.
Russ

 

[Oldtrader3]

I have about 15 pounds of powder stashed away. When the third Presidential debate went off the rails, I bought reloading primers and powder stock for a year minimum. I knew that King Pinocchio was going to shag us in the rear as soon as he said the words: "get machine guns off the street" to Governor Romney.

This little queer, snake in the grass talks in riddles. He secretly primes Witch Feinstein to propose banning nearly all gun models while having his picture taken simultaneously "shooting" a shot gun at Camp David. Anything that Pinocchio does is backed by a counter weighted response. This way, Pinocchio can float back and forth appearing as if he supports both sides of the issue as his nose grows longer!

 

[PJGunner]

For a long time,when things were "good", I was shooting a lot of cast lead in some of my rifles; mainlu .308 Win. and 30-06 but some in .358 Win. and .35 Whelen as well. People at the range sometimes made snide comments telig me what a waste of time that was. I'd just smile and say that it was fun and cheap shooting to boot. These days some of those guys are not making such comments and some are even asking me to teach them how to do it. I tell them you get some wheelweights to replace what I use and they can come over and do it on my stuff to learn. One fellow that was on another site was actually serious enough about it to drive the 120 some odd miles from Phoenix to Tucson the learn how to do it. He spent almost 8 hours while I showed him how to do it all. I still hear from him every once in a while.
I have one load for my .308 that uses a whole 25.0 gr. of either 4895 that will do 1.5 MOA at 200 yards if it's not too windy. 8) The same charge and bullet from a 30-06 will hit the pig silhouette at 300 meters and if the bullet hits near the top of the pig, will slowly topple it. Bullet weighs 190 gr. in my alloy. I've used cast for deer hunting iwith the 30-30 loaded to full power level and they work just fine. I once did a test comparing my 175 gr. cast bullet load for the 30-30 to a 170 gr. factory load using very well soaked bundles of newpapers. Bullets weight within 5.0 gr. of each other the the expansion i boith bullets as fo all practical purposes the same. I no longer hunt where the 30-30 is a useful cartridge because for one, I can't see the sights well enough anymore and the areas where I do hunt these days require much longer shots. I can state though that the deer that were taken with those cast bullets loads never complained about their effectiveness. Never did recover one. I started shooting cast bullets in 1954 to feed a .38 Spl. revolver and started loading the 30-30 in 1956. I still have that old Lyman Tong tool that I used back then.
Paul B.