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just recently purchased a searcy 470, i was told that butch regulates his guns with federal ammo, so i'v been on line trying to look up any and all different types of loads, and i came across this one that dupicates the federal load.
Has anyone tryied this load ?

So, I reckoned that, if the Federal shoots so well in my gun and if my gun is regulated for that load, then I need only to duplicate the Federal load. My next move was to pull apart a Federal cartridge for a look see. In a Cordite for 4831 exchange it takes 107 grains of IMR 4831 and a little more of the Hogdon, say 109 gr. That pretty much fills up the case. However, low and behold the Federal case was about half full (you can shake it and tell that) and weighed at 87 gr of something. Back at the SCI convention my buddy and I asault the Federal booth and demand that they tell us what powder they are using. No way Jose say they, private and double secret information distributed on a strictly need to know basis. The powder is, they finally said, a proprietary canister powder and a non-available to the public Federal 216 primer.

Only slightly daunted we sought out Craig Boddington, noted gun writer and the guy who must hold the record for trips to Africa, for his opinion knowing that he is an imense fan of the 470NE. We tell him the Federal story and he replies, dead pan, B*** S***! "It's 87 grains of Reloader 15."

The problem is, he further elucidates, that that 216 primer is MUCH hotter than the 215 made available and Federal cannot be cajoled into releasing it for the public. That primer (greater brisance I think the word is) allows them to function with a lot of airspace in the case, even with the powder not covering the primer!

So next it's off to the Kynoch booth where my buddy had bought some nifty foam wads for just this problem. They are simply 1/2" wads cut from black insulation foam, the squishy, spongy stuff, about an inch long. This material expands on insertion to fill the diameter of the case below the neck and totally disintegrates on firing, leaving no residue. I buy a couple of hundred (quite cheap they were) and return home to load and test. In goes 87 gr of RL15 topped by the foam wad which is ever so slightly compressed by the bullet. Take ten of these and out to the range we go. Glory Halleluiah and the Jubilee Come, they print within a two inch circle at 50 hards and the felt recoil is considerably less than a 4831 load of equal velocity. I am not engineer enough to understand why but it deffinitely kicks less with the faster powder.

So, we are pretty certain that, if you have a modern double in 470NE regulated for the Federal Premium Safari ammo, you can duplicate the performance with a Norma case (or recycled Federal nickle plated), 87gr of Reloader 15 topped by a 1" x 1/2" soft foam wad (buy 'em or make 'em), a Federal 215 primer and either a Woodleigh 500gr bullet or the Trophy Bonded 500gr. Pressures appear to be the same as the Federal, they feel the same to shoot and accuracy is like what you paid for! The velocity? Don't know, don't care. Get a double to shoot to the same place as the regulation load and it's so close as to not be of issue.

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