I have been working on loads for this for about 9 months or so. I had envisioned loading heavy stuff at subsonic levels while being able to use factory ammo in a pinch. Everything is finally coming together and I have some loads that are showing real promise. Most loads are shooting in the 2 MOA range which is good considering the max range with the subsonic loadings will probably be 150 yards or so. I still need to do some more testing so maybe I can shrink the groups. The barrel seems to be breaking in well because the groups have gotten smaller over the last 100 rounds or so, hopefully the trend continues.

The rifle itself is a basic short action Savage that I had rebarrelled and chambered in the 7.62x25 Tokarev round. The barrel is 1/10 twist and a little over 24". The reason it is so long is because I was wanting to make sure all powder burned in the barrel if possible. The bolt .223 boltface had to be opened up a little to accomodate the bigger 7.62 case. I turned the ejector around to prevent the cases from ejecting because they would eject just out of the chamber and I would have to "fish" them out. Now all I do is pull the empty case off the bolt face making it much easier than fishing.

Pegleggreg has helped out immensely with load data and without him I probably would have given up long ago while trying to figure out what works.

I was using CCI 400 primers but now I have started using Remington 7 1/2 BR primers and they seem to be working out well also. Most of my loads use 168 grain SMK's for now but I will be trying some even heavier stuff. I am trying to get the heaviest bullet I can to just below the supersonic level. I have also loaded some really hot stuff (110 grain Varmint bullets) and according to Pegleggreg's calculations they should be reaching 1700+ FPS. The 110 grain load is extremely accurate shooting less than 1/2 inch at 50 yards when measured outside to outside but still comfortable to shoot without hearing protection.

So far I have tried Longshot, HS-6 and most recently Clays.

With Longshot I loaded 5.5 grains over a 168 SMK and it was definately a more powerful load. It kicked quite a bit harder than my 223 bolt gun and hit steel targets with ALOT of energy. The primers still looked great with no signs of pressure. It has about the same report as my wife's 9mm blowback AR but kicked a lot harder. I suspect because the Longshot is such a slow powder it allows me to load it to gain a lot more velocity and energy compared to HS6 or Clays. If I decide to load some hotter stuff Longshot will probably be what I use to gain as much velocity as I can while keeping pressures in check. With 8 grains over a 125 grain softpoint noise levels were still comfortable without hearing protection while providing a accurate, flatter shooting round.

HS-6 was the primary powder I have used during most of the testing and has proved to work well. I have used it to load 110, 125, 150, 155 and 168 grain bullets. Most shot well enough and some proved to be very quiet. Five grains of HS-6 seems to be the sweet spot for the 168 grain SMK's. Using 5 grains over the 168 grain SMK's the gun is about as quiet as a HV 22 lr out of a rifle. When testing at night there is no muzzle flash. I know felt recoil is not the best way to test but this load kicks about the same as my 223 bolt gun. I do believe this load is going supersonic but relative to the noise level it seems like a pretty powerful load.

The past few days I decided to try some loads using some Clays I had laying around. So far this looks promising also.

With 4.5 grains of the Clays it knocked the primer loose and flattened it causing crisp, squared edges from obviously high pressures. The case was extremely hard to extract and ruined the case during extraction because it shaved some of the rim off.

With 4 grains it was still supersonic and my wife even commented how it sounded wierd. I presume because the muzzle noise was pretty quiet but the bullet still cracked from going supersonic. You could actually hear the crack as it went down range over the sound of the muzzle blast. It did flatten the primer a little bit so I decided to lighten the load a bit.

I loaded the case with 3.5 grains and found a perfect combination as long as it shoots well and that seems to be the case. It was very quiet but still had a a lot of felt recoil. The recoil felt more of a push rather than a jolt and about the same as my 223 AR (My AR weighs less than the bolt gun too). It was rather weird firing this load, the felt recoil didn't match the sound of firing. I fired it at night and it has absolutely no muzzle blast. I fired about 10 rounds and all acted the same with none going supersonic. My wife and son actually kind of giggled over the fact of how quiet it is compared to the recoil.

The Clays loads are definately quieter than the HS6 loads when felt recoil is the same. The recoil of the load using 3.5 grains of Clays felt the same as the 5 grains of HS6 I was loading previously but was noticeably quieter. I compared the load using 3.5 grains of Clays and 168 grain SMK's to a 16" Ruger 10/22 loaded with CCI Subsonic HP's. I fired the Tokarev then the Ruger right after and the CCI Subsonics were definately louder than the load using 3.5 grains of Clays load and168 SMK's.

I am going to do some testing using Trailboss to try to get a little more case fill. I will be buying it as well as some 22 grain bullets to try.

Here are a few pictures of the rounds in case someone missed my post from a few months ago.
Here is a 168grain SMK loading compared to a 45 ACP when I was still using surplus cases:
[img width=600 height=450]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v446/Adyth/Savage/S5000149.jpg[/img]
[img width=600 height=450]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v446/Adyth/Savage/S5000151.jpg[/img]

I will post updates when I get done testing a littel more using the Trailboss and heavier bullets.

Thanks for looking,
Dolomite