.310 Cadet

[PeterN]

I have had my .310 Cadet rifle for 20 years this year. It came with 90 odd converted .32-20 cases. I have used these since I got the rifle. Goodness knows how many times they have been reloaded, but they still seem fine. An occasional resize if they start sticking in the chamber is all they have needed. I bought some .32-20 cases to convert some years ago but have not needed them yet. I have used Nobel Pistol 2 and 3 to reload for this rifle as that was the only published reloading data I have. I have used a charge of Alliant 2400 powder also. I have some Pistol 3 that I used to use in my revolvers before they were taken from me and I was given two hand a half tins of Pistol 2 from a fellow club member that had no use for them. It is the Pistol 2 that I have been using recently. The Nobel book gives a suggested load of 5.5 grains with a maximum load of 5.8 grains for a 90 to 120 grain bullet. It says the velocity of the 5.5 grain load is 1240fps. I have been using the Shellhouse Bullet Co 120 grain bullet. I have the RCBS mould but I have never used it. I have settled on 5.4 grains of Pistol 2. I was out shooting the rifle recently and I took my Garmin Xero C1 chronograph to see what speed my bullets were doing. I fired 50 rounds and the Garmin logged every one. It told me that the average velocity was 1346 fps with a maximum velocity of 1377.5 fps and a minimum velocity of 1302.2 fps. The spread was 76.3 fps with a standard deviation of 18.1 fps. The velocity surprised me as it was 100 fps faster than the Nobel book gave for a tenth of a grain less powder. The kinetic energy was 482.7 foot pounds average. I will load some up with the Pistol 3 powder and see what speed they do. The Nobel book suggests about 200 fps less than Pistol 2 but we shall see. An interesting exercise, well I thought so.
Regards
Peter.

[Vossie]

Great Post thank you

[Alpha1]

I have had my 310 Cadet for about the same length of time a fun rifle. I am also using 32 - 20 modded cases.

[PeterN]

I have had the Cadet out again. I had a load of 8 grains of Alliant 2400 that I had used before. I loaded 15 rounds to test using S&B rifle primers. They were rubbish. They had an extreme spread of 234.6 FPS, a minimum of 1215 FPS and a maximum of 1449.6 FPS to give an average of 1356.6 FPS and a SD of 73.3 FPS.
I also loaded 38 rounds using Nobel Pistol 3 and PMC small pistol primers. The book gives a suggested load of 4.3 grains for a velocity of 1075 FPS. I used 4.1 grains as I had used this load before. What a difference. Over the 38 rounds, there was an extreme spread of 33.3 FPS, a minimum of 1240.8 fps and a maximum of 1274 FPS to give an average of 1258.2 FPS and a SD of 7.6 FPS. They shot better as well. I will use the Pistol 3 load again for my next outing. I had used the 2400 load quite a lot but won't bother with it again. An informative exercise.

Regards
Peter.