Armi Sport Spencer, in 56-50

[pakm]

I got 25 rounds loaded up and shot my Amri spencer in 56-50. it works just fine and it seems to be pretty accurate. I was mostly checking my loads, and to make sure the rifle worked right. I put the first three shots inside a 2 inch circle at 25 yards.Ok, I"m good to go.  the only loading data I could fine said to use 12 gr;s of Trail Boss with a 300 gr. bullet.  MY lightest 50 cal. bullet is abour 350 gr. and with very little compression I used 10.5 gr's or TB. I was under the sound barrier(no crack when the gun went off)I"ll try to crony the loads later.  and yes, work the action quite vigorously, I let a few friends shoot it and no one worked the action quick enough(I did, because I had the spencer in .45 schofield and I"m use to it)

[mtmarfield]

   Greetings!

   Great, now you're shooting! I see that you've got a Spencer Rifle, as opposed to a Carbine; so do I, I like the heft.
Keep us posted on your shooting and reloading experiences!

   Be Well!

         M.T.Marfield:.

[ndnchf]

I thought Trail Boss was not suppose to be compessed   A max load is when the powder just touches the base of the bullet.  A starting load is suppose to be 70% of that.  I don't know where 10.5gr falls in this scheme.  But keep in mind that just because it feels or sounds like a mild load, doesn't necessarilly mean the pressures are mild.  Not saying you are right or wrong, just be safe when playing with smokeless.

[PvtGreg]

TrailBoss is suppose to be VERY "lightly compressed" for best performance and never over compressed.

With my Armisport Rifle 8.8gr is just compressed - i.e the bullet base is set a mm or so into the powder at an OAL of 1.575.  At this load I get 5in groups at 100yrds with the back sight flipped up, no slider.  This load will provide 2.5 in groups at 50yrds with the back sight down. Both are benched.

TrailBoss is a deceptive powder in that the chamber pressure is actually very high at low velocity.  So if it feels light in recoil, the chamber pressure will actually be pretty high.

The load data I have says that 12gr for a 300 is a 45-70 load FYI.

I'd be curious what Herbert thinks on this.

Pvt Greg

[Herbert]

As mentioned Trail boss gives very high pressure for a low velocity,how ever it is still a very usfull powder used properly,in the new re-production Spencers ,in cartridges for this Spencer it is reasnabl safe if not compresed more than 1mm in my opinion,but always rember that cutt for the extractor is the weak link in the Spencer so I would not use it in the Ramano Spencer with the larg blade extractor and defintly not in a original Spencer.I use BP because to me it perfoms much at  better and at safe pressures no matter how much powder you stuff in the case and to me it is realy about trying to get the feel of the original (pros and cons)It constantly suprises me just how good some old BP rifles were and with the Spencer how much of a leap foward in arms it really was