Unique powder and jacketed bullets

[Flatlander15]

Good afternoon,

I was doing research and research for a low pressure load and the local gun store had a guy working who helped me out when starting on 38 special/357.

He did his own looking and came up with a 170 grain 30-30 bullet (just round nose) and 12.4 grains of Unique. The velocity is 1430 feet per second, but there are no figures on pressures unfortunately. This load came out of a 1937 book if that helps.

The only bullets I could find are jacketed so I bought them.
The data states for lead bullets. Will this change anything with pressures? I just want to be safe.

Thank you in advance.

[butlersrangers]

NO! STOP! - That type of load is for low velocity CAST BULLET rounds NOT FOR JACKETED BULLETS.

A jacketed bullet offers more resistance when being 'pushed' through the bore.

(It also sounds like it could be an excessive amount of Unique!

8-9 grains of Unique is more often cited in CAST BULLET loads).

This is not an area of expertise for me. Other KCA Members will have far greater knowledge and experience.

[Flatlander15]

Thank you. Oh well, I'm glad I asked first. I loaded up a dummy round and seated the bullet to the groove, the OAL is only 2.816" so based on the guides it seems too short although it cycles great. Well, at least I have the brass sized and primed, part way there.

The load data is from page 373 in the Complete Guide to Hand Loading, from 1937.

[Flatlander15]

I bought these bullets

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/414059/hornady-interlock-bullets-30-30-winchester-308-diameter-170-grain-flat-nose-box-of-100

Looking at the factory loaded 30-40 rounds, these seem wayyy too short. What kind of non self casted bullets do people use to reach over 3" OAL?

[Parashooter]

In my view, 12.4 grains Unique with the Hornady #3060 bullet should be a perfectly reasonable combination delivering less than 30,000 psi and about 1700 fps. This bullet is lightly jacketed and lead core, offering little more effective resistance than a cast bullet.

Ignore the position of the bullet's cannelure ("groove") and seat it to a normal Krag OAL (~3.08") for optimal alignment in the magazine. This will yield a seating depth of ~.32" - plenty for adequate neck tension without crimp.

If you're unaccustomed to reduced loading, be sure to check each charged case visually before seating bullets. This charge occupies only about 40% of the powder space, allowing an inadvertent double charge to slip by unless watched carefully. That mistake would yield about 80,000 psi - way too much for comfort!

[madsenshooter]

Sound advice, double charges of fast powders wreck rifles and the pieces sometimes kill.

[butlersrangers]

'Parashooter' and 'Madsenshooter' are far more knowledgeable in re-loading matters than I.

[reincarnated]

I trust Sharpe completely. If you go back to the source, he frequently listed pressures (with the old style primers) for Hercules powders.

[psteinmayer]

Just the same... I would avoid the Unique and find a powder more suited to a jacketed bullet at Krag pressures. As others have said, it's very easy to mistakenly double, or even triple a charge when it's that small, and fast burning pistol/shotgun powders tend to do nasty things when the charge is excessive.

3031 and 4064 seem to work very well with the 30-30 bullets in Krags, but consult a loading manual on this.

Just my humble $0.02

[RichWIS]

The only reduced loads I have seen for the Krag with jacketed bullets were using SR4759, which is unfortunately discontinued . There is a lot of data with other rifle powders but these will be closer to full power loads. Cast and jacketed data is different, even a hard cast bullet only has a Brinnell hardness of perhaps 18-20 whereas most jacketed bullets start closer to 115-120. If you do a google search there are a number of suppliers of pre-cast bullets in a variety of diameters. If using cast suggest you use a .310-.311 diameter as Krag barrels tend to run large and you want to seal the bore to prevent leading.