30-40 Gallery Hand Loads?

[butlersrangers]

Culpeper, don't give anyone the idea that you can load smokeless powder by gestimating "a pinch of powder" into each case.

The Bloke in the video was obviously joking, if he said that.

I do know, he talked about how catastrophic a double load of smokeless pistol powder will be.

GP round-ball cartridges with a small pistol powder load require weighing each charge and impeccable quality control.

[Parashooter]

Waterman here with some recollections and caveats from geezerdom:

1: Mattern was written in the 1930s.. . .

Yes, but Harris wrote his thoughts in 1993, as stated.

To add my experience, lots of novices to the "cat sneeze" region of handloading are terrified by the "double-charge" hazard when dealing in small quantities of fast powder. This is a prudent approach but can be mitigated by load and technique choice.

1. Put sized, primed cases in the loading block mouth down, then singly invert, charge with powder, and seat bullet as one continuous operation, vastly reducing opportunity for double charge errors.

2. Select a charge that can be doubled without harm. Harris' 7-grains of Bullseye is a good example, as doubling this to 14 grains (w/ 170 gr. bullet) produces only about 34000 psi peak pressure, in .30/40 Krag - well below hazardous level. Image attached shows five 7.5 Swiss fired cases - four at 7 grains and one intentionally 14 grains. Easy to pick the "hot" one, but nothing scary there.

K31rat.jpg (19.85 KiB) Viewed 1657 times

[Culpeper]

Culpeper, don't give anyone the idea that you can load smokeless powder by gestimating "a pinch of powder" into each case.

The Bloke in the video was obviously joking, if he said that.

I do know, he talked about how catastrophic a double load of smokeless pistol powder will be.

GP round-ball cartridges with a small pistol powder load require weighing each charge and impeccable quality control.

I looked at the video again just to be clear in my mind. Chap was referring to the upper limit of the useful calibers which he figured to be 8mm and if you had to fill the case with flash paper you might as use a pinch of powder. It naturally follows that "pinch" of powder needs to measured for correct weight on a scale before loading into a cartridge case.

Still, I wonder what a pinch of powder might be with my incredibly handsome man hands. The problem with a pinch is it is different for every human in the same manner as the development of the inch was in far back history or in recent times such as the building of Gudelon Castle in France.

Bloke on the Range has two hosts. Bloke, a British fellow and Chap a French or Swiss citizen. Chap was in the video.

[butlersrangers]

I don't watch a lot of gun videos because most are horrible.

This video was very skillfully done and was interesting, imparted knowledge, and was witty.

I didn't know there was a "Bloke" and a "Chap". The intro page was titled BOTR and Bloke on the Range.

When the Chap said "pinch of powder", he was describing a small amount of pistol powder and not a measuring technique.

Thanks again for sharing, I particularly enjoyed the scene stealing cat!