10 Spot Terminator
Member
After litterally years of messing with trying to get a premium hunting bullet under 140 grains to fly fast and accurate from my old Westerer I found the "magic bean". I searched all the forums and gun articles I could find over the last few weeks including this one and found mention of a couple fellas who heard of a couple of fellas that knew some other fellas that had used some IMR 7828 with good results . They couldnt remember what bullet or charge weight was being used but at least they remembered the powder. I then went to my dozen or so reload manuals and found those that did list 7828 did so for the heavier for calibre bullets but seeing as to how I already had a pound of the stuff on the shelf I thought what the heck , give it a shot and see what happens. I opted to use a bullet with a long load bearing surface and settled on the 125 nosler partition. I used max load data for the 140gr. as my red flag zone and bear in mind I had the short throat reamed out of my old Westerner and have noted nearly all top end loads not to show excess pressure signs. I loaded 5 rounds at 65.0grs of the 7828 and got a group that measured 1 1/4 in. at 100 yds . Next came 5 rounds at 65.5grs and took the group down to 7/8 in. ,,, OK this looks promising, time to set up the old chrony.... The next 5 shot string at 66.0grs. put me on a 1/2 in. group with a 19 fps deviation at 3,230 fps . From an old war horse Model 70 I couldnt be happier .