Light loads

[thecapgunkid]

Daryl...Most rifles will shoot well to 50 yards, with 1/2 of the load actually needed to shoot 100yards or further.

Another beautiful theory viciously murdered by a fact.

[WadePatton]

I drive the speed limit because I don't like throwing money at the insurance company.

My insurance never changed, but the state officers often applied the fast tax assessment to me.

THEN I discovered that going real slow and not making marks all over the road saved a heap of fuel.  100 miles worth in a 34 gallon tank.  I've been kittykat-footing it since.   Most of the time. 

Similar thing with the light loads.  The more you shoot short/light the greater the powder savings.  It could also be used to make any gun a little less intimidating to a newcomer, child, or lady.

[rich pierce]

I’ve never tried light loads on paper but I have started making my last shot at the range a light plinking load shot offhand at a silhouette target at 120 yards. Funny, I vastly overestimated how high I’d have to aim to hit it.

I made a little 5 and a half pound .50 caliber rifle for my wife and our son when he was 10 years old and they used to plink with 25 grains. It didn’t shoot well for me but I didn’t spend that much time with it.

[Daryl]

The more you shoot short/light the greater the powder savings. 

That is why I shoot only 82-85gr. in my .69. (saving powder as well as reduced recoil & it's easier on the steel targets)
The hunting load tends to really bend then and break the chains.

[bob in the woods]

This subject of light loads just brought to mind an incident concerning friend of mine for whom I built a .36 cal flint rifle some years ago. He was " in the dog house " in the eyes of his wife when she came home one day and found him shooting his rifle in the basement. He had a nice target set up with a paper stuffed box backstop at 40 feet [ length of the basement ] He was shooting 7 gr of 3F .
He had opened the windows in the hope of clearing the smoke and smell from the house before she got back from shopping     

[Daryl]

Yep - that's a very light load - and likely a bit smokey too, for indoors. We flashed off black powder in the basement when we were kids.
Dad's tools rusted.

[WadePatton]

Speaking of light loads and twist rates--there's a 54 with a 24 twist in the classifieds. I'll bet it wouldn't take much powder to get an accurate light load out of that one. 

Of course I realize that rate was for something entirely different, but I thought of mouse poot loads when I saw it. 

[Hungry Horse]

 Years ago the club I belong to put on a survival walk that required the participants to only take enough powder for about half the course of fire. It was up to them to figure out how to make it work. Some groups ( they were 4 shooter groups) worked out work arounds to get the job done, but some just couldn’t make that adjustment. One group was so determined that a muzzleloader couldn’t shoot accurately with a half charge, that they gave their powder to one shooter, and gambled that he would never miss. We were astonished at how many shooters were totally inflexible when it came to powder charges.

  Hungry Horse

[OldMtnMan]

Years ago the club I belong to put on a survival walk that required the participants to only take enough powder for about half the course of fire. It was up to them to figure out how to make it work. Some groups ( they were 4 shooter groups) worked out work arounds to get the job done, but some just couldn’t make that adjustment. One group was so determined that a muzzleloader couldn’t shoot accurately with a half charge, that they gave their powder to one shooter, and gambled that he would never miss. We were astonished at how many shooters were totally inflexible when it came to powder charges.

  Hungry Horse

How did they regulate that? I'm sure everybody had different loads normally. Powder is in a horn. How did they know what someone took for half the targets?

[WadePatton]

Years ago the club I belong to put on a survival walk that required the participants to only take enough powder for about half the course of fire. It was up to them to figure out how to make it work. Some groups ( they were 4 shooter groups) worked out work arounds to get the job done, but some just couldn’t make that adjustment. One group was so determined that a muzzleloader couldn’t shoot accurately with a half charge, that they gave their powder to one shooter, and gambled that he would never miss. We were astonished at how many shooters were totally inflexible when it came to powder charges.

  Hungry Horse

What a wonderful exercise.  And that resistance to change--is exactly like that I get from folks about repairing their health with diet.  It clearly works, but they won't believe it.

Hey this would be a great idea for a postal match. Half-charges (or thereabouts) at modest ranges. Could be a great excuse for those who don't have light loads sorted out for their guns to get started. It automatically cuts your per shot powder costs guaranteed.

Recover/reuse your lead and it's nearly like shooting for free! Also could be a good way to consume patching that won't work for full power loads.

[Hungry Horse]

 Pete, we used the shooter powder measure to fill their horn before they started the ordeal.

  Hungry Horse

[OldMtnMan]

Ok, that will work.

[hanshi]

In general I have a .36 and a .32 that get pulled out when little critters are on the menu.  They also get fired a lot with anything from 20 grns to 30 grns of 3F.  The .36 will ring the most performance from 20 grns of 3F and even 30 grns.  A friend and I spent an afternoon shooting my .36 at 80 yards using 20 grain charges.  Plastic soda pop bottles weren't safe at that distance.  One simply had to allow for the drop.

In my .40 60 grains of 3F will group 3.5" to 4" at 100 yards; that's about as good as I can do with any rifle.  With 40 grains it makes a good, accurate all around load for up to at least 50 yds.

This target was fired at 25 yards using 30 grns of 3F in the .40.  This is my squirrel load in this rifle.  So there are THREE sweet spots in this barrel rather than just two.