Hi Curl--
Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you. Regarding powder, I'd probably start with the data in the Hornady manual, and try to get your velocity up above 2,000 fps for starters, and more like 2,200 ideally, especially if you want to kill deer with it. In my experience, the H4895 data for the 160RN did not produce adequate velocity for a hunting bullet, and it wasn't particularly accurate, either, although the same powder with Hornady's 140 SP did produce good results in my rifle both on paper and on game--I had a lightning-fast, one-shot kill on a prongbuck at 160 yards with this combo last year.

I'm mostly using Norma N204 powder because I have a bunch of it, in a recipe acquired from a friend who in turn passed it along from a '60s-vintage Norma factory loading manual. It seems to work great with the 160RN, and I can get 10-plus firings out of a case even with a pretty hot load. On the other hand, Tatume, who knows a lot more than I do, has suggested that N204 might be too slow a powder for optimal performance.

Given that your gun is as old as it is, and as pristine as it is, I'd definitely start off on the cautious side. My rifle is twenty years newer, and I'd assume that the metallurgy improved over the decades although I don't know that for sure.

A few other things I've encountered: my Reddington dies produce excessive headspace when set to full-length resize in a conventional manner, yet my rifle will not feed a neck-sized-only cartridge through the rotary mag. I wound up smoking the neck of a cartridge and turning down the FL die just to the junction of the neck and shoulder, and this solved the feeding problem while avoiding the headspace issue. I have neck-sized-only for a friend's 1903, and his works fine with such.

I've found that tightening the action screws past index produces better accuracy. Also, I tapped out the metal sleeve that lines the hole for the tang screw in the stock, shaved it back slightly with a Dremel tool and replaced it, which resulted in a tighter action-to-stock fit and better accuracy.

Best of luck, and I'll look forward to hearing more as you work with your new beauty--
Malcolm