Boys rifle experiment

So in the ongoing mission to get a young Sam onto a deer I've modified a rifle to suit him (he's a very responsible but small framed 10 years old).

@nor-west kindly swapped me back a Remmy Model 7 in 260 - it was a nice light rifle but too long for a small person. It got a barrel chop to 18" and threaded, and an inch taken off the factory stock (I have a really neat laminated stock that I got off @Ryan_Songhurst a long time ago so it can go back to an adult size later)

Ballistically, I wanted to approximate 6.5 Grendell with a 120gn at about 2400 fps. But I also wanted to test an idea that if I reduced the muzzle pressure and used a modest amount of powder it would enable the suppressor to be most effective - so I was aiming to keep the load to 30 grains powder or under. Quickload suggested a number of powders but Reloader 7 (the old Hercules one) was the most promising among the powders I had to hand. Quickload showed a velocity of 2419 with 30 grains, max pressure 45,000 psi and muzzle pressure 9,560 with 100% powder burn. I read up on the use of Reloader 7 for a variety of reduced loads and everything suggested to would work well (it was used a lot for cast bullet loads in many different cartridges).

Loaded up a batch and headed to the range. The rifle was neat to shoot, very low report, and soft like a 300 BLK. Obviously I still had a sonic crack thing going but it really was surprising how quiet it was compared to a 308 with full house loads and the same suppressor - a DPT. And best of all the load shot really well, for a light barrel I was pleased with 3 shot groups all round the 23-27mm mark at 100 yards. The reduced 120gn chronied at a smidge over 2400 fps so will carry enough energy to kill deer at well past 200 M - which will suit the Boy's limit and the accuracy achieved.

Hope this helps someone else out with an "idea".

Next I'm going to try it with a very cut down 303 - as a replacement for AR in 300 cals - 125gn at 2400 fps with lots of mag capacity on a fast to shoot action