"Stalingrad 1942" = cold weather reload powder testing
Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 8:11 am
Some fellow sporting shooters and I went out yesterday at a local gun club. It was winter league opening weekend. Temp on the car thermo was 11 degrees F when we got there, and 13 when we left. Wind gusts of 10-20mph with "snow devils" swirling all around. Very bitter. You can probably picture that, wind chill was 0 degrees or less. One of my buds commented we were in training for a repeat of the Stalingrad 1942 campaign. Yeah we are probably nuts.
It was a perfect opportunity to try some low pressure reloads in really cold weather. Santa brought an early Christmas present a month ago, a MEC 9000 progressive loader for 12 gauge. I've been experimenting with low pressure 1 ounce loads with IMR "PB" powder, and more recently with IMR SR 7625 which is reputed to be not so good for low temps. Hulls were Rem Gun Clubs, Winchester 209 primers, and Rem TGT12S wads. All load pressures were ~5500-6500 psi as per the references. I don't want to comment on the web what weight of powder I used for each, but if you're interested you can look at the IMR/Hodgdon website for recipes.
I shot a 32” A grade Fox. Shells were left in the car overnight and I even put the ones loaded with 7625 powder outside the cab when I drove up to the club. Results: all of the 7625 loads went off OK without any problems at all, they seemed comparable to my PB loads (same velocity) as regards recoil and time of flight to the targets, however the report was SLIGHTLY louder which I would expect from slower burning single base powder. That Fox has tight bores, I don’t remember but I think they’re .724” or therabouts. So just for the heck of it I asked one of my buds to shoot some of the 7625 loads in his factory overbored Browning (.742” bore) to see if the wads would seal. They did, no problems. The only thing about 7625 is that it burns dirtier than the PB.
I thought I'd share this experience here. It seems that web info about 7625 being a poor choice for cold weather might be be suspect, at least with the components I used. Doesn't get much colder than Stalingrad 1942 in most hunting or target shooting situations! Silvers
It was a perfect opportunity to try some low pressure reloads in really cold weather. Santa brought an early Christmas present a month ago, a MEC 9000 progressive loader for 12 gauge. I've been experimenting with low pressure 1 ounce loads with IMR "PB" powder, and more recently with IMR SR 7625 which is reputed to be not so good for low temps. Hulls were Rem Gun Clubs, Winchester 209 primers, and Rem TGT12S wads. All load pressures were ~5500-6500 psi as per the references. I don't want to comment on the web what weight of powder I used for each, but if you're interested you can look at the IMR/Hodgdon website for recipes.
I shot a 32” A grade Fox. Shells were left in the car overnight and I even put the ones loaded with 7625 powder outside the cab when I drove up to the club. Results: all of the 7625 loads went off OK without any problems at all, they seemed comparable to my PB loads (same velocity) as regards recoil and time of flight to the targets, however the report was SLIGHTLY louder which I would expect from slower burning single base powder. That Fox has tight bores, I don’t remember but I think they’re .724” or therabouts. So just for the heck of it I asked one of my buds to shoot some of the 7625 loads in his factory overbored Browning (.742” bore) to see if the wads would seal. They did, no problems. The only thing about 7625 is that it burns dirtier than the PB.
I thought I'd share this experience here. It seems that web info about 7625 being a poor choice for cold weather might be be suspect, at least with the components I used. Doesn't get much colder than Stalingrad 1942 in most hunting or target shooting situations! Silvers