A cowboy load for a Mannlicher, a Mauser, a Carcano, and Enfield, a Mosin Nagant, a SKS, a Kropatschek...? I DON'T THEENK SO!
I like my cowboy load for a Martini Henry. Fill that huge honking .450/.577 cartridge (THE original BOXER primed round) full of black powder and blast away!!!
"Living life in fear isn't living life at all." ~ Winter Soldier
My memory algorithm needs adjustment, but it has been almost 14 years... There was no H4198 load for the SKS. I guess I was thinking of the Mosin Nagant.
These are my notes on load development. I stuck with 25 gr. for future loads. FURTHER, the lube was Lee alox tumble lube and primers CCI military primers (NEVER USE ANYTHING BUT MILITARY PRIMERS IN A SKS!!! SLAM FIRES CAN RESULT AND SLAM FIRES HAVE BEEN DETERMINED IN A COURT OF LAW TO = FULL AUTO... even though they aren't). This is a bootleg load, that worked for me in my Albanian SKS but if you use it you do so AT YOUR OWN RISK.
20071021 0077 7.62x39mm Russian 155 gr. GC LRN sized to .311 25 gr. BL-C (2) 80 Lee pp. 410 & 157 (should produce velocity about 1770 & pressure about 26000 by my calculations) - WS This load gave mild recoil but always cycled the action properly plus it produced extremely good accuracy. My 1st three shots with it at 100 yards were a 10x and two 9s.
20071021 0078 7.62x39mm Russian 155 gr. GC LRN sized to .311 29 gr. BL-C (2) 32 Lee p. 410 This load is TOO HOT. It did NOT produce good accuracy and several shots blew the magazine open.
"Living life in fear isn't living life at all." ~ Winter Soldier
Additional notes: I used both wheel weight and linotype lead in various batches and didn't not any difference in performance. I also used the same 25 gr. load with a batch of 125 gr. spire point linotype cast bullets and didn't note any difference in performance.
For any newbie hand loaders out there... this is a cast lead load. NOT to be used with copper jacketed bullets.
"Living life in fear isn't living life at all." ~ Winter Soldier