Now this is just cool... the Universal .30 Plinking load...

[Old Ironsights]

http://www.reloadingroom.com/index_file ... l%2030.htm

The Universal .30 Load

Like many shooters, you have a .30-caliber rifle. You use it on big game. You may even use it on coyotes or other varmints, but not much. It hits hard, but it hits hard on both ends. Have you ever wished you had a really light load? A load that is quiet, yet accurate, with almost no recoil? A load that a child can shoot, but which you find useful? Sit right there, my friend. There is such a load. And it works in almost any .30-caliber rifle. ...

[kimwcook]

Hey, OI. I can't get your linkie to workie.

[Old Ironsights]

Huh... does for me. I'm running Chrome though.

[kimwcook]

I'm not using Chrome, but I tried it again and it still just loads a blank page with advertising. I'll go to the actual site and see if I can't find it.

[damienph]

It loaded for me at first, picture of a guy sitting a shooting bench? and text. But screen goes blank before I can read it. Tried twice.

[Old Ironsights]

Bizzare. I've got two pages open in different browsers...

Oh well, here's the whole article:

Rocky’s
Reloading
Room
The Universal .30 Load

Like many shooters, you have a .30-caliber rifle. You use it on big game. You may even use it on coyotes or other varmints, but not much. It hits hard, but it hits hard on both ends. Have you ever wished you had a really light load? A load that is quiet, yet accurate, with almost no recoil? A load that a child can shoot, but which you find useful? Sit right there, my friend. There is such a load. And it works in almost any .30-caliber rifle.

Let me look back into the misty past and set the stage for my discovery of this magic load. Almost four decades ago, I reloaded for only two calibers: .45 Colt and .308 Winchester. My only other guns were either rimfire or shotgun, for which I bought factory ammo. But I happily crafted my own ammo for both the .45 and the .308. I used both guns for deer and wild hog hunting, and loaded mostly full power loads for both chores. But I also had need for some reduced loads in both guns.

The revolver posed no problem. There were an abundance of reduced power loads in nearly any reloading manual. But the only loads for the .308 were at or near full power. I wanted a quiet, low power load I could use for plinking and practice without the expense, recoil and noise of regular loads. I also wanted a load that wouldn’t obliterate small game or leave the woods echoing while deer hunting. It also had to be a load easy to identify, even when mixed with full power loads in my pocket.

One day, while loading up a box of regular loads for the .45, I was thinking about such a reduced .308 load. I changed the dies in my press and prepared a box of .308 brass, then started to mull over a powder charge and bullet. I had almost decided to try a start level load of some powder or other, and was unscrewing the powder measure to empty it when the little light flashed. The powder measure was filled and set to drop the load I’d just used in the .45 Colt. Would that same powder charge work in the .308? Not sure of my footing, I looked in a few manuals. Nothing. But, what the heck, I thought. That powder charge produced only moderate pressure in a revolver with a 250-grain bullet. Surely it couldn’t be dangerous in a larger case with a bullet less than half as heavy. Right? So I charged one .308 case and seated a 100-grain Speer half-jacket Plinker bullet.

With a bit of trepidation, I stepped out behind my house where I sometimes shot a .22. I held the rifle at arm’s length, just pointing the gun at the backstop. I turned my face away and pulled the trigger. Bang. Not a huge BOOM, just a crisp bang. Recoil felt like a .38 Special target load. The bolt cycled open with ease and the case popped out in perfect condition. Hot dang! Back to the bench and load one more. This time, I held the rifle normally, took aim at a dirt clod and squeezed. Bang. The dirt clod vaporized. HOT DANG!!

Soon I had a full box filled and labeled. On my next trip to the range, the new load and the .308 were first to be fired. At 50 yards, the target showed a quarter-sized group. A final shot with my usual full power load nestled neatly at the top of the group. Double hot dang with grits and redeye gravy! This was GREAT!

For ten years, I carried a few cases with that load everywhere I hunted with the .308. I learned that it hit at or near point of aim out to 75 yards or so. It killed squirrels, armadillos, raccoons, rabbits and any other small game I used it on without wrecking too much meat if I stuck to head shots. It once finished off a deer another hunter had wounded, placed right behind the ear at a range of two feet. On close range varmints it was very deadly. The Plinker bullet made in-the-pocket identification easy, by feel alone. Best of all, it was fun to shoot and a loaded round could be assembled for less than the cost of just a regular hunting bullet. As a plinking and practice round it was faultless.

So what was this wonderful load? The initial rounds that long-ago afternoon held 9.5 grains of Unique, later rounded up to an even ten. What makes it magic, and why should you care? Simple: that one load works in almost ANY .30-caliber case. I have yet to find a .30-caliber cartridge except for the .30 Carbine where it wasn’t both safe and effective. From the venerable .30-30 to the biggest, hairiest .300 Wowsa Magnum, the load works as advertised. For cases from the .30-30 to the .308, 10.0 grains of Unique works just fine. For cases .30-06 and larger, use 12.0 grains to make up for the larger case volume.

I shot the load in my .308 for decades before I owned a chronograph. When I started writing articles about reloading, one of Dr. Ken Oehler’s wonderful Model 35Ps was one of my first purchases. Dozens of guns fired thousands of other rounds over the screens but for some reason I never tested the plinker load. I knew it worked to perfection, but I had no idea how fast it went. I recently learned. In my rifle, it leaves the muzzle at 1600 fps and keeps five shots inside an inch at 50 yards. That’s neither a sage-scorching load nor a target load, but it stays on a jackrabbit out to 75 yards or so, lets me take an occasional grouse while I’m hunting bigger game and eliminates pest critters. As mentioned before, it has also taken small game and has pulverized bags of charcoal briquettes (the world’s best plinking targets), pinecones and other fun targets.

Over the years, I’ve burned up as many .308 rounds in deer camp as I have all other places combined. The use? Having fun with the other hunters’ youngsters, kids of ranchers and just plain relaxing. Everyone who has ever shot the load, or seen it shot, wants to know about it. As a result, I’ve passed along the recipe to owners of about every .30-caliber from .30-30 to .300 Weatherby. No one ever tried it without producing a grin and a promise to load more.

I tested a few rifles over my chronograph just for this report. Here’s what I found. From a Marlin 336 .30-30, velocity runs 1675 fps, and a Savage 99 in .300 Savage gets 1600, both with the 10.0-grain load. A Savage 110 in .30-06 gets 1475 with the 10.0 gr load and 1625 with the 12.0 gr recipe. I’d predict that a .300 magnum would be right in that ballpark, although I didn’t have a chance to try one.

Those numbers just about duplicate the ballistics of the wonderful old .32-20. Using a 100-grain cast bullet, the .32-20 churned up just about 1650 fps from a rifle with moderate handloads. It was extremely popular as a great small game gun, a fun plinker and a potent pest killer out to 100 yards or so. Back then, a lot of shooters had a need for a round that was easy to shoot, easy on the pocketbook, took small game or varmints without destroying them, and was simple to reload. They also tended to use one rifle for lots of jobs. Sound familiar?

Not all guns shoot the Plinker to the same impact point as they do full-power loads, but that’s to be expected. Nor do some guns group the load as well as others. That’s also to be expected. But not many shoot worse than about two inch groups at 50 yards, some much better. I suspect that some rifles don’t handle the very short bullet well because of the long jump to the rifling. Others take it in stride.

By the way, don’t bother trying to seat this bullet close to the rifling. The half-jacket portion of the bullet measures only about .300” in length. I generally seat them so that a narrow portion of the copper jacket extends past the mouth of the case. That means that the stubby little thing has about a quarter-inch of free space to cross before it even gets to the rifling. I don’t even bother trying to set a precise overall length. I just keep screwing in the seating die stem until it looks about right. Trust me: it doesn’t matter.

At this point, a word about lever actions is in order. I’ve always loaded lever-action guns with no more than two cartridges when using this round, one in the chamber and one in the magazine tube. The load is so low-powered that I don’t believe there is enough recoil to either risk a discharge in the tube or of having the bullets driven into the case mouth. But I wouldn’t risk it. Others have reported no problem with loading more than one in the magazine tube. You’re on your own.

Another thing I don’t recommend is trying any kind of filler over the powder. Unique is very forgiving of positioning in the case, and ignites just fine no matter where it seems to lie. Standard deviation of velocities is usually quite low with this load, ranging from as low as five to no more than about 30 in the largest cases. That indicates pretty uniform ignition and burning, despite my having taken no precautions whatever to position the powder before firing. In all cases, I simply inserted a round and closed the action in the normal way, then lay the gun on the rest and fired. So skip the fillers. While I’m on the subject of ignition, I might mention that standard force primers are all you need, but magnums won’t hurt. Heck, it’s even OK to substitute large pistol primers for large rifle.

You do need to be very vigilant to avoid double charging. I prefer to drop one powder charge, funnel it into a case and immediately seat the bullet. I avoid loading blocks like the plague just because of the possibility of a double or even triple charge. If I have any doubt whatsoever about having the right amount of powder in a case, I dump that charge back into the powder measure and start over with that case. Looking into the case doesn’t help. Unique is a nearly black flake powder, and it simply disappears inside a rifle case, even with a good light shining into the case mouth. If in doubt, dump it, and tap the case mouth on the bench to be sure.

Other than that, no special loading techniques are involved. It does help to chamfer case mouths, especially if new or just trimmed, but that’s standard procedure anyway. Full length versus neck sizing is moot. Uniforming primer pockets, deburring flash holes, weighing cases or powder charges, using match primers, or any other common accuracy or benchrest technique is just plain silly. In fact, this is the perfect way to use up those inevitable threes and fours of mismatched cases and primers that every reloader has laying around. If you don’t have the Speer Plinker bullet, Hornady makes an identical model, or you could even substitute a cast bullet of 100 to 115 grains without a worry. This load just takes what comes along and loves it.

In fact, that explains why one of the ten-shot test strings I chronographed with this load became a nine-shotter. About shot six or seven, just as I closed the bolt on my favorite .308, a rock squirrel loped out onto the range. I was alone, the gun was loaded, and the burrowing pest had a disdainful smirk on his kisser. I’ll never know the exact velocity of that particular round, but I know it went right where I aimed! Considering that I was using the exact same rifle that I’d first used to bust a dirt clod with the Plinker load three decades ago, that shot pretty much tied everything together. The Load made me grin way back then – and it still does!

Rocky Raab

Copyright 2004

[Griff]

Did the same for me... then I noticed the bar at the bottom... scroll right my friends.

[awp101]

I wonder if there's enough ooomph to cycle a semi-auto? Perhaps a Garand plinking load?

[LeverBob]

Howdy Pards!

I'm glad this was blogged by OI....it is one of the finest disertations (sp?) on small game loads I have read to date. Thanks to big Rocky! The load was worked out about 1900 (?) when Unique was first offered to the field. They cast the old 311291 to top it off.

My great grandfather used these loads quite extensively in the early 1900's, taught it to my Pa in the 1930's & he taught it to me in the early 1950's. My whole extended family used this load in a truckload of rifles in a variety of chambers to kill small game & pratice our art. Brothers, sister, cousins, family friends used this load even in the near north suburbs of Chicago (of all places) during that era. Kept the belly full & the practice up. They even used baseball bats to club rabbits to fill the larder. Doing it that way was quite a bit cheaper.

It is wonderful to see new generations rediscover what older generations had discovered & used for decades. Knowledgeable reloaders of times past used this load to survive during the great depression. Young guns like OI are bringing it to the fore. Excellant!!!

Just a tip...in a bad times scenario...you won't be living on big game. The errant house cat or a brassy woodchuck or any small game (like a feral dog, coyote) will be the main fare for quite a while. Taste can be aquired... A universal small game load like this will fill the larder, keep you in pratice, teach the 'youngins and be easy on the pocket book.

Well done OI...You did a real fine job in bringing this out. I'm a big fan of SG Loads.

Here's some fav. loads:
30WCF: any case, primer, cast boolit: 10grs. Unique, 1/4 square TP tamped down on the powder & 3 grs. chassis lube (lithium) on top of the wad. In 50 yrs I haven't had a ringed chamber, nor any leading in any rifle I've used with this proceedure. Don't even need a GC. It gets about 1500fps. 8 Grs. will give about 1200fps. It will stay on the head of a squirrel out at 50 yrds. & has enough energy to kill a deer out at 100 yds. (My all time favorite load).

06': same load only put up 12-15 grs. Rocky's right, need a little bit more to bring the accuracy in (in my rifles).

.375 H&H: 24grs. 2400 Herc./Alliant equals 1500fps. Lyman .375449. Kill Elk & Deer (by experience). Love this load for all around including big game. This will shoot through a big elk from the side or angled. If you shoot an Elk directly from the front you just might find it in the rear hams. Or, you just might find a 3/8" exit hole. Leaves a 3/8" hole through small game. 18 grs. Unique gives about 1500fps.

Sorry about the length, I get all itchy about sharing some of my knowledge to help anyone who might be interested in small game loads.

LB

[gamekeeper]

Many thanks OI and LeverBob .
These loads are just what I'm looking for.
Nath kindly sent me some dies, bullets and powder and I have made up a few cat sneeze loads for my 30/30, great low noise plinkers.

[olyinaz]

Great info.

Oly

[AJMD429]

Those numbers just about duplicate the ballistics of the wonderful old .32-20. Using a 100-grain cast bullet, the .32-20 churned up just about 1650 fps from a rifle with moderate handloads.

It would also be interesting to make a brass .308 cartridge case, with a .32-20 chamber cut into it, and just use .32-20 loads that way.

[J Miller]

This is one thread I will bookmark. It answers the question I asked a couple weeks ago about a light load for my -06. Just with lighter bullets.

Rocky Raab is a regular poster over at Handloads.com by the way.

Besides the Speer 100gr Plinker which I haven't used in decades, and the Hornady bullet, I suspect the 110gr bullets intended for the 30 Carbine would work great as well.

I am going to try this load. Unique I got lots of.
Now, if the 30-30 and 308 size cases take 10 grs, and the 30-06 takes 12 grs, what would the 303 Brit case take; 11??

OI, thanks for posting this.

Joe

[kimwcook]

Cool.

[damienph]

Did the same for me... then I noticed the bar at the bottom... scroll right my friends.

Thanks, I guess it worked all along.

Interesting article, I've never seen that website before.

[M. M. Wright]

Thanks Ole,
Works just fine for me, course I'm runnin' chrome too.
Bet some of those 115 grain 32-20 bullets I've got tons of run through a .309 sizer would work great. Gotta try it.

[Malamute]

I've used similar laods for a few years. I've worked up a light and ultra light load for several of my rifles. 3 grs Unique with a .310 or .315" round ball, (ball lubed with Lee liquid alox) makes a dandy grouse and small game load with a noise of about a standard velocity 22. I've found Unique IS position senstive, when used in small quantities in fairly alrge cases, or the 3 gr load quoted, so I use a very small tuft of dacron pillow stuffing. Another good load is 6 1/2 grs Unique with a commercial cast 115-120 gr bullet meant for the 32-20, they work fine as they come without sizing them down. I believe it runs about 1200 fps and is very pleasant to shoot, but not as quiet as the round ball loads. I've read that Red Dot is less position sensitive than Unique, so am switching to that in my small game loads to eliminate the dacron. 3 or 4 grs red Dot with a .350" round ball makes a decent grouse load for 348 also, not much noise and doesnt tear them up much, even with body shots. Am planning on working up similar loads in my bolt guns. They may get some loads with 110 gr rn carbine bullets, or some of the half jacket bullets mentioned in the article. The 375 H&H may be good with .375 round balls for small game and grouse.

The Lyman reloading manuals have some light loads for cast bullets and a variety of levels.

[Ysabel Kid]

Very cool - thanks for sharing OI (and thanks for copying the whole article)!!!

[GoatGuy]

That load's for sure gonna get tried right here in the Ozarks. Thanks for the post.

[LeverBob]

Go getum' boys & spread the word. The city folk will look like scarecrows & we'll be sittin' fat & sassy. Christian charity will of course rule our decisions if it gets real bad...but we will survive & prosper!

Love the round ball loads Mal...

LB

[Bullard4075]

Read an article on a similar universal load, 13 grains Red Dot if I remember correctly. I'll have to dig it
out and look.

[ollogger]

Bizzare. I've got two pages open in different browsers...

Oh well, here's the whole article:

Rocky’s
Reloading
Room
The Universal .30 Load

Like many shooters, you have a .30-caliber rifle. You use it on big game. You may even use it on coyotes or other varmints, but not much. It hits hard, but it hits hard on both ends. Have you ever wished you had a really light load? A load that is quiet, yet accurate, with almost no recoil? A load that a child can shoot, but which you find useful? Sit right there, my friend. There is such a load. And it works in almost any .30-caliber rifle.

Let me look back into the misty past and set the stage for my discovery of this magic load. Almost four decades ago, I reloaded for only two calibers: .45 Colt and .308 Winchester. My only other guns were either rimfire or shotgun, for which I bought factory ammo. But I happily crafted my own ammo for both the .45 and the .308. I used both guns for deer and wild hog hunting, and loaded mostly full power loads for both chores. But I also had need for some reduced loads in both guns.

The revolver posed no problem. There were an abundance of reduced power loads in nearly any reloading manual. But the only loads for the .308 were at or near full power. I wanted a quiet, low power load I could use for plinking and practice without the expense, recoil and noise of regular loads. I also wanted a load that wouldn’t obliterate small game or leave the woods echoing while deer hunting. It also had to be a load easy to identify, even when mixed with full power loads in my pocket.

One day, while loading up a box of regular loads for the .45, I was thinking about such a reduced .308 load. I changed the dies in my press and prepared a box of .308 brass, then started to mull over a powder charge and bullet. I had almost decided to try a start level load of some powder or other, and was unscrewing the powder measure to empty it when the little light flashed. The powder measure was filled and set to drop the load I’d just used in the .45 Colt. Would that same powder charge work in the .308? Not sure of my footing, I looked in a few manuals. Nothing. But, what the heck, I thought. That powder charge produced only moderate pressure in a revolver with a 250-grain bullet. Surely it couldn’t be dangerous in a larger case with a bullet less than half as heavy. Right? So I charged one .308 case and seated a 100-grain Speer half-jacket Plinker bullet.

With a bit of trepidation, I stepped out behind my house where I sometimes shot a .22. I held the rifle at arm’s length, just pointing the gun at the backstop. I turned my face away and pulled the trigger. Bang. Not a huge BOOM, just a crisp bang. Recoil felt like a .38 Special target load. The bolt cycled open with ease and the case popped out in perfect condition. Hot dang! Back to the bench and load one more. This time, I held the rifle normally, took aim at a dirt clod and squeezed. Bang. The dirt clod vaporized. HOT DANG!!

Soon I had a full box filled and labeled. On my next trip to the range, the new load and the .308 were first to be fired. At 50 yards, the target showed a quarter-sized group. A final shot with my usual full power load nestled neatly at the top of the group. Double hot dang with grits and redeye gravy! This was GREAT!

For ten years, I carried a few cases with that load everywhere I hunted with the .308. I learned that it hit at or near point of aim out to 75 yards or so. It killed squirrels, armadillos, raccoons, rabbits and any other small game I used it on without wrecking too much meat if I stuck to head shots. It once finished off a deer another hunter had wounded, placed right behind the ear at a range of two feet. On close range varmints it was very deadly. The Plinker bullet made in-the-pocket identification easy, by feel alone. Best of all, it was fun to shoot and a loaded round could be assembled for less than the cost of just a regular hunting bullet. As a plinking and practice round it was faultless.

So what was this wonderful load? The initial rounds that long-ago afternoon held 9.5 grains of Unique, later rounded up to an even ten. What makes it magic, and why should you care? Simple: that one load works in almost ANY .30-caliber case. I have yet to find a .30-caliber cartridge except for the .30 Carbine where it wasn’t both safe and effective. From the venerable .30-30 to the biggest, hairiest .300 Wowsa Magnum, the load works as advertised. For cases from the .30-30 to the .308, 10.0 grains of Unique works just fine. For cases .30-06 and larger, use 12.0 grains to make up for the larger case volume.

I shot the load in my .308 for decades before I owned a chronograph. When I started writing articles about reloading, one of Dr. Ken Oehler’s wonderful Model 35Ps was one of my first purchases. Dozens of guns fired thousands of other rounds over the screens but for some reason I never tested the plinker load. I knew it worked to perfection, but I had no idea how fast it went. I recently learned. In my rifle, it leaves the muzzle at 1600 fps and keeps five shots inside an inch at 50 yards. That’s neither a sage-scorching load nor a target load, but it stays on a jackrabbit out to 75 yards or so, lets me take an occasional grouse while I’m hunting bigger game and eliminates pest critters. As mentioned before, it has also taken small game and has pulverized bags of charcoal briquettes (the world’s best plinking targets), pinecones and other fun targets.

Over the years, I’ve burned up as many .308 rounds in deer camp as I have all other places combined. The use? Having fun with the other hunters’ youngsters, kids of ranchers and just plain relaxing. Everyone who has ever shot the load, or seen it shot, wants to know about it. As a result, I’ve passed along the recipe to owners of about every .30-caliber from .30-30 to .300 Weatherby. No one ever tried it without producing a grin and a promise to load more.

I tested a few rifles over my chronograph just for this report. Here’s what I found. From a Marlin 336 .30-30, velocity runs 1675 fps, and a Savage 99 in .300 Savage gets 1600, both with the 10.0-grain load. A Savage 110 in .30-06 gets 1475 with the 10.0 gr load and 1625 with the 12.0 gr recipe. I’d predict that a .300 magnum would be right in that ballpark, although I didn’t have a chance to try one.

Those numbers just about duplicate the ballistics of the wonderful old .32-20. Using a 100-grain cast bullet, the .32-20 churned up just about 1650 fps from a rifle with moderate handloads. It was extremely popular as a great small game gun, a fun plinker and a potent pest killer out to 100 yards or so. Back then, a lot of shooters had a need for a round that was easy to shoot, easy on the pocketbook, took small game or varmints without destroying them, and was simple to reload. They also tended to use one rifle for lots of jobs. Sound familiar?

Not all guns shoot the Plinker to the same impact point as they do full-power loads, but that’s to be expected. Nor do some guns group the load as well as others. That’s also to be expected. But not many shoot worse than about two inch groups at 50 yards, some much better. I suspect that some rifles don’t handle the very short bullet well because of the long jump to the rifling. Others take it in stride.

By the way, don’t bother trying to seat this bullet close to the rifling. The half-jacket portion of the bullet measures only about .300” in length. I generally seat them so that a narrow portion of the copper jacket extends past the mouth of the case. That means that the stubby little thing has about a quarter-inch of free space to cross before it even gets to the rifling. I don’t even bother trying to set a precise overall length. I just keep screwing in the seating die stem until it looks about right. Trust me: it doesn’t matter.

At this point, a word about lever actions is in order. I’ve always loaded lever-action guns with no more than two cartridges when using this round, one in the chamber and one in the magazine tube. The load is so low-powered that I don’t believe there is enough recoil to either risk a discharge in the tube or of having the bullets driven into the case mouth. But I wouldn’t risk it. Others have reported no problem with loading more than one in the magazine tube. You’re on your own.

Another thing I don’t recommend is trying any kind of filler over the powder. Unique is very forgiving of positioning in the case, and ignites just fine no matter where it seems to lie. Standard deviation of velocities is usually quite low with this load, ranging from as low as five to no more than about 30 in the largest cases. That indicates pretty uniform ignition and burning, despite my having taken no precautions whatever to position the powder before firing. In all cases, I simply inserted a round and closed the action in the normal way, then lay the gun on the rest and fired. So skip the fillers. While I’m on the subject of ignition, I might mention that standard force primers are all you need, but magnums won’t hurt. Heck, it’s even OK to substitute large pistol primers for large rifle.

You do need to be very vigilant to avoid double charging. I prefer to drop one powder charge, funnel it into a case and immediately seat the bullet. I avoid loading blocks like the plague just because of the possibility of a double or even triple charge. If I have any doubt whatsoever about having the right amount of powder in a case, I dump that charge back into the powder measure and start over with that case. Looking into the case doesn’t help. Unique is a nearly black flake powder, and it simply disappears inside a rifle case, even with a good light shining into the case mouth. If in doubt, dump it, and tap the case mouth on the bench to be sure.

Other than that, no special loading techniques are involved. It does help to chamfer case mouths, especially if new or just trimmed, but that’s standard procedure anyway. Full length versus neck sizing is moot. Uniforming primer pockets, deburring flash holes, weighing cases or powder charges, using match primers, or any other common accuracy or benchrest technique is just plain silly. In fact, this is the perfect way to use up those inevitable threes and fours of mismatched cases and primers that every reloader has laying around. If you don’t have the Speer Plinker bullet, Hornady makes an identical model, or you could even substitute a cast bullet of 100 to 115 grains without a worry. This load just takes what comes along and loves it.

In fact, that explains why one of the ten-shot test strings I chronographed with this load became a nine-shotter. About shot six or seven, just as I closed the bolt on my favorite .308, a rock squirrel loped out onto the range. I was alone, the gun was loaded, and the burrowing pest had a disdainful smirk on his kisser. I’ll never know the exact velocity of that particular round, but I know it went right where I aimed! Considering that I was using the exact same rifle that I’d first used to bust a dirt clod with the Plinker load three decades ago, that shot pretty much tied everything together. The Load made me grin way back then – and it still does!

Rocky Raab

Copyright 2004

[ollogger]

Thought this might perk up some interest & being less handy on the computer than a 2 year old this is
the only way i could get it done, i have a chance of getting a bunch of these for less than it would take
to cast up & g.c. a bunch of the Lee 115 gr, bullets, any one ever try the plinker?



Brad

[Old Savage]

Get them and try it.

[3leggedturtle]

Thought this might perk up some interest & being less handy on the computer than a 2 year old this is
the only way i could get it done, i have a chance of getting a bunch of these for less than it would take
to cast up & g.c. a bunch of the Lee 115 gr, bullets, any one ever try the plinker?



Brad

Oh Heck Yeah! In 30/30 from about 1500fps up to about whatever max charges were for 3031 with a 110 gr SP from Hornady manual in the 70's. Blew up alot of fruit and veggies along with water bottles and diet pop. Seemed to be reasonably accurate but never shot any critters with them.

[Scott Tschirhart]

Here's some fav. loads:
30WCF: any case, primer, cast boolit: 10grs. Unique, 1/4 square TP tamped down on the powder & 3 grs. chassis lube (lithium) on top of the wad. In 50 yrs I haven't had a ringed chamber, nor any leading in any rifle I've used with this proceedure. Don't even need a GC. It gets about 1500fps. 8 Grs. will give about 1200fps. It will stay on the head of a squirrel out at 50 yrds. & has enough energy to kill a deer out at 100 yds. (My all time favorite load).

. . . .

Sorry about the length, I get all itchy about sharing some of my knowledge to help anyone who might be interested in small game loads.

LB

No apology needed, this is good information and I enjoyed reading this kind of thing again. Thank you.

[Scott Tschirhart]

I used to load a lot of round balls in revolver cartridges using the information in the older Speer manuals......until I had one bounce back on me from shooting at a green tree.

Since then, I generally rely on .22s for such uses. But this is good information and something we all ought to be familiar with.

And by the way, a .22 rimfire suppressor and a Ruger semi auto is a handy and accurate package that may prove very useful one day.

[Grizz]

THIS is real good info. my questions are, has anyone shot round ball with the universal 308 rifle load? And, will this load cycle a roller-lock semi-auto 308?

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question about round ball is serious. i have a mold for #1 Buck, which is 24 pellets in a 3" shell going, in one load, 1040 fps, which, stating the obvious, is the functional equivalent of getting hit simultaneously by 24 .30 cal bullets.....

thanks for turning on edit mode. i appreciate being able to fix my many boo boos, if i may be so bold to use this term while trying to not offend anybody.

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[Tycer]

I used to load a lot of round balls in revolver cartridges using the information in the older Speer manuals......until I had one bounce back on me from shooting at a green tree.

Since then, I generally rely on .22s for such uses. But this is good information and something we all ought to be familiar with.

And by the way, a .22 rimfire suppressor and a Ruger semi auto is a handy and accurate package that may prove very useful one day.

We shot a composite car fender once at 20 yards with #4 bird shot. Once. Thank goodness for eye protection.

[ollogger]

Yea as kids we found out that oak slabs were not good targets for a cap & ball revolver
a bud of mine got hit by a 22 bullet that took a 90 degree turn on frozen tag alder brush that knocked him
flat & bruised him badly, the bullet hit him right where he had his bill fold in his shirt pocket, him & his brother
was hunting snowshoe rabbits, his bro. fired & figured Jim was safe where he was at



Brad

[Scott Tschirhart]

Yea as kids we found out that oak slabs were not good targets for a cap & ball revolver
a bud of mine got hit by a 22 bullet that took a 90 degree turn on frozen tag alder brush that knocked him
flat & bruised him badly, the bullet hit him right where he had his bill fold in his shirt pocket, him & his brother
was hunting snowshoe rabbits, his bro. fired & figured Jim was safe where he was at



Brad

Makes you grateful that he wasn't hit somewhere else.