Basic Wildcat Question

[foxx]

Just out of curiosity, and hypothetically speaking...

Assuming there is no published load data for a particular wildcat...

and the shooter does not have fancy pressure gages and testing apparatuses...

how does one work up a load in a reasonably safe manner?

I believe I know the answer, just curious to hear what you all have to say about it.

Thanks.

[scope eye]

Do not worry Grasshopper, I shall guide you, First lets say your wild cat is a 6.5-06 and you want to shoot 120s, you look at a 270 same parent case and a 25-06 also same parent case, and compare powders and volume, for the 270 In H4350 and a 120gr starting load, is 51gr and max is 55g, and for the 25-06 and H4350 and a 120gr starting load is, 44gr and max is 47gr, so if min on the 270 is 51gr and max on the 25-06 is 47gr, that means 49gr is a safe place to start, if you are going down in bore use the min of the bigger bore, and if you are increasing the bore size you can use the max of the smaller bore.

Dean

[foxx]

Thank you, Dean. That was actually a better explanation that what I was hoping for, and it makes perfect sense. It is, in fact, also what I assumed, but could not have articulated as well as you did.

In a broader sense, then, one must be somewhat educated on certain principals of hand loading and be able to extract guidelines from sources that do not necessarily apply in an absolute and specific manner to your situation, and use sensible reasoning in ones own application. Then pray everything works out.

I can see how certain people have the knowledge and experience to be able to do that. I can also see that I am not there yet. Fortunately, I have no desire at this point to wander all that far from "home." I have done so with some Ackley loads, and that's more than enough for me at this point.

Having a better understanding of all of that, I can also see how some would say hand loading is, in many instances, a combination of art and science.

[scope eye]

What really gets tricky, is when you have nothing to go by, for example the 22 X 55 Swede there is nothing even close, with it's 55gr load capacity the closest thing I could find, was a 22-243 wildcat and that was only 45gr of powder, so that is when experience comes in, along with knowing powder burn rates and how quickly they build pressure.

Dean

[bootsmcguire]

What really gets tricky, is when you have nothing to go by, for example the 22 X 55 Swede there is nothing even close, with it's 55gr load capacity the closest thing I could find, was a 22-243 wildcat and that was only 45gr of powder, so that is when experience comes in, along with knowing powder burn rates and how quickly they build pressure.

Dean

Yup, went and am still going through the same thing with my 6-WSM. It can be a process, but often worth it and always educational.

[scope eye]

Another thing that I have on my side, when going on blind faith is my use of light bullets, they are more forgiving if you are off and the load is hot.

Dean

[earl39]

Always nice to have a gun vise and a long string too lol

[scope eye]

I have always felt confident when pulling the trigger on a new wildcat, except for two occasions once with the Mach IV 80gr of powder, and the 25 RUM with over a 100gr of powder it was a bit unnerving, but felt a great deal of satisfaction when they went off without a hitch.

Dean

[BillPa]

Always nice to have a gun vise and a long string too lol


I take a buddy along, "Hey, send a few out of that thing while I get us some coffee from the truck". :p


Actually, the last weirdcats were the 270-08 and 270-08 Improved. I used a mid range load for the 7-08 w/130 to start for the 270-08. The improved was pretty easy, I already had the parent 270-08 so it wasn't any different than any other improved cartridge.

Bill

[yorketransport]

I like to cheat and run everything through Load From a Disk. It will get you pretty close, but it's still helpful (and smart) to use Dean's method as another reference point. Once I get a basic starting point I load up one shot each at different powder charges in either .3, .5, or 1.0 grain increments depending on case capacity. I usually load up a total of 10 rounds. Then it's off to the range with a chronograph. Shoot the different charge weights over a chronograph and watch for pressure signs and changes in velocity. When the increase per grain starts to drop, you've hit the point where your efficiency is going down. Here's an example:

270 RUM with 140gr Nosler BT and US869 powder and a Federal 215M primer. I came to the conclusion that 86.0 grains would be a safe starting point. I started there and worked up in 1.0 grain increments up to 98.0 grains. When shooting over the chronograph this is what I got:
86.0 grains 3189 fps
87.0 grains 3254
88.0 grains 3315
89.0 grains 3383
90.0 grains 3447
91.0 grains 3505
92.0 grains 3566
93.0 grains 3598- slight ejector mark starting to show, primers starting to flatten
94.0 grains 3637- lite ejector mark, primers flat almost to the edges
95.0 grains 3677- well defined ejector mark, primer flat MAX load tested

I took this info and went back to start working up loads to test accuracy. I started at 92.0 grains and worked up 94.0 in .4 grain increments shooting 3 shots at each charge. The charge I ended up with was 93.2 grains at 3610 fps and .5" groups at 100 yards.

I've use the same basic test in all of the wildcat's I've worked with.

Andrew

[BillPa]

I like to cheat and run everything through Load From a Disk. It will get you pretty close

Andrew

Yeah, I found the data for my 270-08Imp AFTER I bought it!

BTW, it appears Blackwell flew the coup. If you try updating the DBs you get an error and if you search for site it ain't there some more.:p

Bill

[GaryB]

I am by no means a wildcat reloader, but would not the Powley Computer be helpful here. Seems it would give you a starting point. And it's free; free is good! :p

http://kwk.us/powley.html

[yorketransport]

Yeah, I found the data for my 270-08Imp AFTER I bought it!

BTW, it appears Blackwell flew the coup. If you try updating the DBs you get an error and if you search for site it ain't there some more.:p

Bill

I noticed that! I should have seen that coming.

[sixonetonoffun]

I thought I read somewhere he passed away and wife had no one to take it over? Effectively eol. Only reason I'd looked into it was you guys were always refering to it.