Thread: Downloading / Reduced loads for youth or recoil sensitive shooters

I've been playing around with some reduced recoil loads for various rifles of late, due to my 8-year-old stepping up from 22lr, 17 cal and 223 etc getting ready to shoot his first medium game animals, goats, then deer hopefully by the end of the year.

I found some good info online a couple of years ago, about using IMR4198 for reduced recoil youth loads, and apparently, that's the powder that Remington used in their factory youth loads. It was supposed to be much better for the job than the "60% of the max load of 2206H" that many people have heard of, the IMR4198 was said to give far greater accuracy.

So of course I tested it, and I proved this to be true, in 4 different cartridges, 223, 260, 7mm08, and now 6.5 Creed, the IMR4198 reduced loads all shot far better than the 2206H reduced loads.

In 243, 260, 7mm08 and 6.5 Creed 30gr of IMR4198 seem's to be the sweet spot.

In 6.5 Creed I've loaded up 123gr eldm's with 30gr of 4198, and my Frankenstein Model 7 6.5 Creed shoots them damn well. Velocity is 2,570 fps, so right about Grendel velocity, which is perfect for my little 8-year-old to shoot, it has minimal recoil with a DPT on it. And as we know a 123 eldm at this speed works well out to 250-300 yards as evidenced by plenty of people shooting deer at these ranges with their Grendels.



Here's how the Reduced 123gr 6.5 Creed shoots at 100 yards (me shooting).



I took my lad out to the 400 yard range yesterday for a couple of hours, after he did plenty of shooting with the 22lr at 100 yards, we then went back to 200 and shot the 17 hmr, I was getting him to load the magazines, and dial the scope turret all himself this time.

Then it was back to 300 yards and ready for his first shot with the 6.5 Creed. He's shot reduced 243 reduced 80gr loads before, but the stock was a little long for him on that rifle), the Creed has the same LOP as my 223 that he can shoot well.

He dialed the scope up, after I showed him the correction that the App gave, and away he went, he handled the light recoil just fine and shot well from prone with bipod and rear bag.



Once we were finished there, he was getting a bit over it, he'd been shooting for a bit over an hour I guess, so I went back to 400 yards to test another rifle. While there I decided to see how the reduced 6.5G loads went at 400 yards. I dialed up the 6.25 MOA the app gave, and let rip, bang! smack in the middle of the 3" dot I have painted on my gong plate, fired two more to make sure it wasn't a fluke, and they went in the same spot.

Archie, then says well I'd better have a shot too, so he proceeds to bang one onto the 3" pink dot too ;-)



So if any of you are wanting to get a young fella, or a wife or an older fella with buggered shoulders into some shooting with the rifle you already have, this is a really good option. These reduced loads can shoot as good if not better than a full power load, and there's no need to buy another rifle chambered for a smaller cartridge, like a Grendel or a 6x45 etc, when your 243 260 7mm08 or 6.5 Creedmoor, or 308 for that matter can be made to do the same job with only 30 gr of powder.

This way the young fella can grow into the rifle, as he gets bigger and is able to tolerate more recoil I can simply step the loads up on the way to full power loads. And if he is hunting with me, I can chamber a light load for him, and if there's a shot on that's too far for him, I can simply slip in a full power round (as long as you know the POI difference), which I wouldn't be able to do if we were using a Grendel or 6x45 etc.

What sort of velocity are the reduced loads doing?

Originally Posted by Cigar

What sort of velocity are the reduced loads doing?

2570 fps mate, as on the pic (actually you may have asked before the pics were up) Basically 6.5 Grendel speeds.

What about with the other calibres (223, 260, 7-08)?

Originally Posted by Cigar

What about with the other calibres (223, 260, 7-08)?

I'll look up my data note book and post here. I know I used 14gr of IMR 4198 behind a 55gr SGK and it shot tiny groups measuring in the .2's at just over 2100 fps

thats great shooting young fella...good on you Dad.

Greetings All,
I have used AR2206H for reduced loads in my .308 and .303 rifles with good results. It burns a bit dirty and can smoke the cases at 60% but improves as you work up. It did not do as well in my 6.5X55 though. Start loads of AR2209 worked much better. I have some IMR4198 though and will try it as well. IMR4198 and IMR4227 both seem to be used in cast loads as well so there is plenty of data.
Regards Grandpamac.

So I wonder how 30g would go under 150g pill in my 16in barrel .308,been using 2206h and trail boss up till now .

only one way to find out bud.....

I remember the late Graham Henry writing about the humble .308..article why not the .308 he said way back then,dead simple to make a reduced load down to below 30/30 levels for youth and dead easy to step it back up in power again.......all things under the sun have already been done....

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

I remember the late Graham Henry writing about the humble .308..article why not the .308 he said way back then,dead simple to make a reduced load down to below 30/30 levels for youth and dead easy to step it back up in power again.......all things under the sun have already been done....

Yeah totally

In my shortie 308 I run a starting load of 2208 (41gr) with the 30-30 FTX bullet. It's a bit above 30-30 speed at 2350fps.

Originally Posted by The bomb

So I wonder how 30g would go under 150g pill in my 16in barrel .308,been using 2206h and trail boss up till now .

See what shoots best between 30 - 32.5gr of IMR 4198 behind a 125gr to 150gr bullet in 308.

People have had good terminal performance with 125gr nbts at this lower speed or any bullet designed for the 30-30

hell yes...125grn NBT or the 130grn hp speer both work awesomely ......we used them in the 7.62x39mm to good effect.

Wanting to get down to close to 7.62x39 speeds and recoil with the .308 for the young fella,150g bullet though as I have a good selection already.