470 Reduced Practice Loads

[Racer00]

I am new to the double world. Thanks to all of you enablers, I now own a beautiful Merkel 470NE. I took it to JJ last week and he cut it for a red dot (eyes are at that stage). I am going to begin reloading for it. Thanks to some info from JJ and also our very own Rare Breed, I have a decent idea where I should start.
My question for all of you experienced double gun nuts is have any of you ever loaded reduced loads for practice? I know that a lot of 375 H&H and 416 Rigby shooters load 5744 behind hard cast lead for reduce practice recoil shooting.
My thoughts are after finding my regulating load, if I could load some reduced loads for practice, it would enable me to shoot more. I really don't care about the regulation of the reduced loads. If they hit 5" low and 10" apart, I am ok with that. As long as they group somewhat consistently, it would allow me to practice live fire and work on my reloading skills under somewhat gameday situations. Mostly building muscle memory for rapid reloading is my thought.
Am I crazy? Or do you think this is feasible and sensible?
Looking forward to your comments or critiques.
Thanks for all input,
Jody Racer 00

 

[rookhawk]

It’s not easy to do with 470NE.

Generally speaking, to get this to work you need reasonable accuracy (broadside of a barn). What people usually do is try to mimic the same velocity you had with the full load, but with a lighter bullet, thus your gun has relatively similar regulation properties.

470NE is a 500gr bullet, so you’d find a .471” to .474” bullet that was perhaps 380-400gr for your reduced load. You’d then select the fastest burning powder safe for that load and would try to regulate using as close to a starting load as possible.

Expensive, time consuming, specialty work for you to do this. You’ll need to be a proficient handloader as well.

For me, I’d just shoot off sticks to reduce my perceived recoil and I’d develop a load that has less recoil. An IMR3031 “full load” with 77gr of powder and 500gr bullet produces 58lbs of recoil, a full load with IMR4831 106gr of powder produces 89lbs of felt recoil. RL15 also is a low perceived recoil full load.

What you’ve asked is much easier to do with a magazine rifle because regulation isn’t a factor. It’s doubly hard with a 470NE because there are fewer light bullet options than say a 500NE that has a standard 570gr bullet but also an obtainable 440gr alternative.

 

[wildwilderness]

So the recommendation is to use IMR 3031 with the 500gr bullet?

Can it be used with a lighter bullet?

 

[Racer00]

Thanks for the reply Rookhawk. The load the previous owner had worked up was with a very heavy charge of 4831. I fired a couple of these loads and my chronograph showed almost 2300 fps. I was concerned that it was over charged and stopped shooting them. JJ agreed that it was probably going to be detrimental to my rifle in the long term and he recommended 3031. I have picked up a cpl pounds of 3031 to try.
I am not recoil adverse, but no one wants or needs excessive punishment that eventually makes shooting a chore and not fun.

 

[Philip Glass]

I am new to the double world. Thanks to all of you enablers, I now own a beautiful Merkel 470NE. I took it to JJ last week and he cut it for a red dot (eyes are at that stage). I am going to begin reloading for it. Thanks to some info from JJ and also our very own Rare Breed, I have a decent idea where I should start.
My question for all of you experienced double gun nuts is have any of you ever loaded reduced loads for practice? I know that a lot of 375 H&H and 416 Rigby shooters load 5744 behind hard cast lead for reduce practice recoil shooting.
My thoughts are after finding my regulating load, if I could load some reduced loads for practice, it would enable me to shoot more. I really don't care about the regulation of the reduced loads. If they hit 5" low and 10" apart, I am ok with that. As long as they group somewhat consistently, it would allow me to practice live fire and work on my reloading skills under somewhat gameday situations. Mostly building muscle memory for rapid reloading is my thought.
Am I crazy? Or do you think this is feasible and sensible?
Looking forward to your comments or critiques.
Thanks for all input,
Jody Racer 00

I had Safari Arms load some for me for practice. It is a good idea but there are going to be vastly different on paper than regular loads. I solved my problem by going to the .450/400.

 

[deewayne2003]

My .470 is loaded with 3031 and I would suggest foam backer road over Dacron because the backer rod produces lower pressures and I've also read there can be a chemical reaction between the powder and Dacron; so I switched to foam backer rod.

Get yourself a double barrel 12ga with same length barrels and double triggers and use it for practice and familiarize yourself with it and use full power loads to practice with in your .470

 

[rookhawk]

My .470 is loaded with 3031 and I would suggest foam backer road over Dacron because the backer rod produces lower pressures and I've also read there can be a chemical reaction between the powder and Dacron; so I switched to foam backer rod.

Get yourself a double barrel 12ga with same length barrels and double triggers and use it for practice and familiarize yourself with it and use full power loads to practice with in your .470

This is true. Mine regulated beautifully with Dacron, but a friend got poor regulation. He then used Kynoch wads with 77gr of imr3031 and got excellent regulation at even lower pressure. This is the lowest recoil “full load”.

 

[deewayne2003]

This is true. Mine regulated beautifully with Dacron, but a friend got poor regulation. He then used Kynoch wads with 77gr of imr3031 and got excellent regulation at even lower pressure. This is the lowest recoil “full load”.

I had great regulation with Dacron - 78gr IMR3031, 2.0gr Dacron, 500gr bullet, Win Magnum primer; this was the load that Ken worked up and regulated the rifle with.

Then I became aware of the pressure & chemical reaction issue and switched to the Kynoch wads from Trader Keith and the point of impact and velocity was exactly the same as with the Dacron.

The Kynoch wads are expensive for what they are, however it's easily justifiable to spare myself the pain in the ass of measuring Dacron.

 

[rookhawk]

I had great regulation with Dacron - 78gr IMR3031, 2.0gr Dacron, 500gr bullet, Win Magnum primer; this was the load that Ken worked up and regulated the rifle with.

Then I became aware of the pressure & chemical reaction issue and switched to the Kynoch wads from Trader Keith and the point of impact and velocity was exactly the same as with the Dacron.

The Kynoch wads are expensive for what they are, however it's easily justifiable to spare myself the pain in the ass of measuring Dacron.

In a recent trial by @Wahoo he was getting poor regulation with dacron, but got excellent regulation with the kynoch wads. I believe his chrony showed lower velocity at a given pressure and load with kynoch wads, surely altering regulation. Note, my 470NE heym and his are made in same year and my regulation was the opposite, it was very good with dacron at same grain weight his gun was excellent with kynoch.

My opinion is that if dacron is safe at a given load, the kynoch wad opens up more options to fine tune your regulation. But I'm a conservative guy and like starting to moderate loads with big bores. The goal is getting passed 2050fps at the muzzle with great regulation. It seems that these loads are around 2150fps at the muzzle of a 24" gun. That's all a man needs to take down every animal on earth.

 

[Wahoo]

In a recent trial by @Wahoo he was getting poor regulation with dacron, but got excellent regulation with the kynoch wads. I believe his chrony showed lower velocity at a given pressure and load with kynoch wads, surely altering regulation. Note, my 470NE heym and his are made in same year and my regulation was the opposite, it was very good with dacron at same grain weight his gun was excellent with kynoch.

My opinion is that if dacron is safe at a given load, the kynoch wad opens up more options to fine tune your regulation. But I'm a conservative guy and like starting to moderate loads with big bores. The goal is getting passed 2050fps at the muzzle with great regulation. It seems that these loads are around 2150fps at the muzzle of a 24" gun. That's all a man needs to take down every animal on earth.

True story.

 

[Wahoo]

In a recent trial by @Wahoo he was getting poor regulation with dacron, but got excellent regulation with the kynoch wads. I believe his chrony showed lower velocity at a given pressure and load with kynoch wads, surely altering regulation. Note, my 470NE heym and his are made in same year and my regulation was the opposite, it was very good with dacron at same grain weight his gun was excellent with kynoch.

My opinion is that if dacron is safe at a given load, the kynoch wad opens up more options to fine tune your regulation. But I'm a conservative guy and like starting to moderate loads with big bores. The goal is getting passed 2050fps at the muzzle with great regulation. It seems that these loads are around 2150fps at the muzzle of a 24" gun. That's all a man needs to take down every animal on earth.