[neolithic hunter]

I've seen similar references in the past, Neo. Do you recall whether or not a filler is used to offset the greater case capacity?

i've been using 12.0 to 12.5 grains of unique in one of my 30/06's for years. i have never used a filler. i've not had any miss-fires or squib firings in 20+ years of shooting it. i use a 160 grain lead bullet without a gas check. the rifle will shoot into 1/2" at 75 yrds. the only thing over the years that i have noticed is that the rifle will not shoot for crap without trimming alll of the cases to the same length. also i don't crimp the cases either, just bell them and load them as usual. if your worried about the case capacity though just use a mag primer, the extra flash of the primer will light anything.

Rich as for big cases and small powder charges the one thing you have to stay away from is light charges of slow burning powders. if you under charge a slow powder you could run into a case of pressure excursion. meaning that instead of the powder burning evenly the charge detonates. this will cause the pressure curve to spike exponentially on you and could ruin you day or your life for that matter. at the very least it could destroy a rifle that your holding very close to your face. as for lighting off to much fast burning powder at one time, you have to consider that the maximum chamber pressure your talking about with 12 gr's of unique is around 12-15k psi, in that big case. if your rifle has been made in the past 75 to 100 years you should be able to fire bunches of rounds at these pressures. if the load is to low you have to deal with the case not expanding enough to seal the chamber and you get blow back.

 

[tugtrio]

Cutter: I am sure that you already know this, but thought I would put it out here anyway.

Hot pistol loads could lead to a overpressure load in lever guns. One gun that I have is worn out from hot loads, Marlin 1894 in 44 Mag. to many hot stuff through it for too many years created head space problems.

Lever rifles don't have a cylinder gap, so hot pistol loads become super hot loads in lever guns.

The Winchester series 94/92's are stronger actions then the Marlin 1894 series and handle the hot stuff better, but they will still take their toll on gun life, not to mention safety.

 

[cutter]

I did know it and am very glad you put it out. That is the kind of info that not just everybody comes across by accident. I found it out from actually paying attention to my reloading manuals. It isn't a problem for me because I don't like hot loads. I find that my favored reloads tend to fall dead center to a little below center of the load data. Come to think of it, I have never fired a max loaded reload. I loaded a couple of batches for test fires but determined that my progressively warmer loads were too hot before I got to the max loads. Now, I don't even bother with loading all the way to the max loads when developing a new load.

I find my middle of the road approach to loading gives me rounds that may have a little less range or "punch" but greater overall accuracy.