Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles reduce loads in 243 Win with Speer TNT

My wife says she wants to try shooting a cf rifle lol. So I looked up reduce loads and apparently Seafire says with bullets between 80 to 100gr you can use IMR 4198 or H4198 or RL 7
between 25gr to 30gr and can even go a bit lower. Of course this is with 80g to 100g but can this safely be used with Speer 70 TNT?
The Speer book does not show anything for this bullet in Reduce Loads so thought I'd check this.
I have the Sierra 85gr HPBT and NBT 95 but would rather try the TNT bullets as they are cheaper and I got the 750 value pack.

Will this reduce load H4198 of 25gr to 30gr also work with the Speer 70gr TNT??

I am going to use my son's Ruger American compact 243 for her after I mention I would sell this as no one uses it anymore. So it has the 18.5 barrel but she is a slender woman and is really lightweight for her age.

It works just fine. Lighter bullets of similar construction/form produce less pressure than heavier bullets with the same powder charge.

I very much prefer the IMR versions of various powders for this application, because they are 100% nitrocellulose with no nitroglycerin content. Their burn rate depends on their shape and size, rather than deterrent coatings. That also means their charge: pressure: velocity ratio is going to be close to linear.

Valad:

I usually go thru up to a couple thousand of the 70 TNT bullets a year.. in the 1000 packs. Just doing some inventory, I'm setting on about 6,000 plus of them.... So yeah, I have a lot of experience with the bullet.

you can run that bullet pretty darn low in velocity, and it will still open up. It would be on the first bullets I'd recommend for kids first year bullet if they were carrying a 243. That 18 inch barrel Ruger would be perfect.

I've loaded it with down to 10 grains of Blue Dot, down to 15 grains of 4198 ( IMR) and RL 7.. .plus a few other powders.
Slowing it down, it tends to act more like a Soft Point. Season of 2021, one of the sisters of one of our scouts, shot a doe on the family farm with a 243 , that bullet and 10 grains of Blue Dot. Distance was closer to or just a hair over 100 yds... bullet took it down with no problem.

Her older brother took one a number of years ago, with 15 gr of Blue Dot load and the 70 TNT. Place the bullet in the right spot, a deer will go down... and the low recoil of 10 to 15 grains of powder, makes bullet placement easy, even for kids.

With Blue Dot I recommend a max charge of 22 grains in the 243, regardless of bullet weight.. 4198 and RL 7, with that bullet weight ( 70 TNT)
I have recommended the load in a range of 20 to 30 grains of 4198 or RL 7., and kids have taken their first deer with that set up locally.