Duly noted, thanks!
Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits - Mark Twain
Private signature line - do not read
Dacron fill should be tucked loosely into the case neck to reduce free air space, but not pushed down against the powder, otherwise the filler behaves like a projectile and the bullet base as a bore obstruction and you may ring the chamber. I use a 1 - inch square of 1/4" thick quilt batting, which weighs about 1 grain. Tucked loosely into the case mouth it is positioned by the seated bullet only.
For very light loads it helps to enlarge flash holes in the cases to .096" with a no.40 drill. It does no harm to go as large as 1/8". Contrary to popular belief there is no issue pressure - wise using enlarged flash holes in full charge loads. Larry Gibson ran extensive pressure tests in .308 Win. which were published in The Fouling Shot Issue No. 267 of Sept.-Oct. 2020 thoroughly debunking this myth.
Small game hunting you say?
Never heard of such a thing!
Generally I like .44 and .45s with a good wadcutter or semi wadcutter going in the 800 FPS range. Cuts a nice clean cookie cutter type hole right through just about anything.
Even round nose lead .44 Magnums can be fun just for rolling ground squirrels:
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I haven't looked recently but I used to be fairly active on the kifaru forums that was focused on backpack hunting. There were some pretty extensive info on small game loads for camp meat.
What kind of accuracy are you guys seeing with the light rife loads? I've been playing with some light loads in 30-30 with Red Dot and a powder coated 165 grain bullet. Shooting offhand I see ~2" at 25 yards.
-Seconds Count. Misses Don't-
Not sure how many times I’ve almost bought a Hammond game getter and/or 32ACP chamber adapter... 30/30, .308, 7.62x39.
I keep coming back to the idea what I actually want is a .32 H&R mag chambered “bunny gun” like @Outpost75 has. Already have the pre-WW2 .410 to use as the donor.
https://www.hensleygibbs.com/edharri...gamerifles.htm
I looked back thru my 30-30 notes. Appears I tried 135gr, 150, and 173gr cast with Unique. The 170s showed some promise, but had the issue with the shallow throat causing issue. The 135s fit fine, but I included no accuracy data. That means it wasn’t worth noting. I also had leading issues with all 3.
Working diligently to enlarge my group size.