Powder and Reloading

I suppose by some of my question's that you folk's have figgered out I am really new to reloading and casting.Actually, about 2 years experience under the belt.But I have had a rifle in my hand since I was a little guy growing up in the east Kentucky mountians,when my Dad expected me to be able to shoot the fuzzy balls off a Sycamore tree with a .22. Sorry if that sounded long winded.But to my point,when I first decided to reload,(casting seemed to be the natural thing to follow),simply ,I knew nothing,so I gave Hodgdon a call.( no one else seemed to want to waste their time with me,Hodgdon talked to me).Told them I would be reloading .30 cal.(30.30,30.06) and 7mm Mauser,and what would be the one powder that would sustain all my needs.I was told to use Varget.Now I have had no problems with it, but since I don't know any better,I don't know if I can do better.But I do know that not all loads use Varget.Sometimes you just have to adapt and overcome.I use #2 alloy for my boolits.Now I have learned alot in these 2 years,but thank God for this web site and all the knowledgeable people.Should I have different powders for different rounds? Or should I stay were I am and leave well enough alone?Thanks guys.

It depends on what you want to do. There are lots of other powders you can try. First off, get yourself a copy of Modern Reloading by Richard Lee. It has a lot of cast boolit loads for .30-30, .30-06, & .308. Also the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook. But, to answer your question, IMR 3031, Alliant RE7, Unique, and 2400 are all powders I have used successfully with those rounds. Can you do better? Only your rifles can answer that, so you have to experiment. Lee has a great formula for figuring reduced loads for cast boolits, but you need to read what he has to say about using it. Most of his published cast loads are based on Hodgedon Powders because they were the only company that was interested in his project at the time and they provided pressure data for him on the various loads. He obviously used many other powders in his experiments and he goes into great detail about how he did it.

Well, Taylor, it all depends on which calibers you'll be loading for. If you stay with what you've mentioned you are probably not going to need much else. But if you get into loading other calibers you'll probably need some other powders. What calibers are you thinking about? The various loading manuals have lots of good powders listed. If you tell us what calibers and bullets you want to load some of us would be glad to give you some suggestions.

At this point I have a fairly good library. Molds are Lee,30.30-309170,30.06-309180.Alloy is 9 lbs ww and 1 lb 50/50 bar solder.I wish for a hunting and practice load.So far 27 gr Varget seems to do well in both the Marlin and Winchester.Still playing around with the 3006,weather not too good this weekend,no range time. Do you suppose their will be a point when changing powder may be the way to go? I don't wish for 1/2 inch groups at 500 yards,just to be happy with the way they shoot.

What size groups are you getting now? What are your goals/expectations? What rifles are you using for the -06 and 7x57? Sounds like levers for the .30-30. Good boolit choices, I shoot both of them with good results. I also really like Lee Soupcans (C309-117-FN), especially with the .30-30. What are you using for lube? The more info you give us, the more positive feedback we can give you.