I work a lot with boys, via Scouts and I am the only rifle merit badge counselor within our local district...
started playing with the old Speer Manual for reduced loads a long time ago.... and worked up from there...
In about any caliber, I sorta settled on 30 grains of 4198, with all ( just in some cases with real heavy bullets) cases from 243 to 30/06...
RL 7 is also a good substitute or 33 grains of H 322...
IMR 4895 is a great substitute for H 4895 loads... it is as accurate, without all of the idiosyncrasies of H4895...
As your hog also showed, typical varmint bullets with these charges/loads are moving at decent enough velocity, (without too much velocity) to allow these bullets to perform pretty reliably on deer sized game...
Minimal to zero recoil also gives a new or young shooter the confidence to do good shot placement....
Second largest blacktail I have taken here in Oregon, was 210 lbs on the hoof...( when the average is more like 100 to 120 lbs.. the latter being a bigger one)... it was taken with my Model 70, in 7mm Mauser... with a Speer 115 grain HP....
Shot placement was a piece of cake.... and the 115 grain Speer disintegrated within....after plowing a big valley right down the middle of his heart...
I hunt at 30/30 ranges ( as I call them) here locally... 1/2 mile from the house...30/30 speeds is about all one really needs...hence why I also carry these loads often...
dropped a few deer in my yard late season, several years...
Live on one acre in a wooded community....and these sort of loads come in real handy there also...
also allows a lot of trigger time at the range for a reduced cost, and a lot less wear and tear on the rifle barrel...
read an article ( long ago lost and forgotten)... that spoke of barrel life... I remember it stating that the average barrel life on a 30/30 was 20,000 rounds... due to the low powder charge... don't know if that is correct, but I know its a lot more than many cartridges...
and if someone wants to make reduced loads easy as possible...just take 30/30 data for say a 150 grain bullet... start a little lower and work up.. as long as one's bullet doesn't exceed 150 grains.. you are pretty safe...
not scientific, but its worked in my guns... using one's head and working up a little...but 2200 to 2400 fps with about any but the real premium bullets, seems to work pretty darn well at 250 yds or under...
cast bullet manuals are also your friend...older ones seem to have more choices on readily available mid burn rate and quicker powders...
"Minus the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the Country" Marion Barry, Mayor of Wash DC
“Owning guns is not a right. If it were a right, it would be in the Constitution.” ~Alexandria Ocasio Cortez
