Hi all,

First of all, your load seems ok on the face of it with your TP wad, provided it keeps the powder at the primer end of the case. Just remember to keep the rounds pointy end up until fired, to keep the powder and wad where you want them. A couple of things to take into account though: I've run the load through quickload and your velocity is around 1850 fps. in a rifle and about 1650 fps. in a carbine. Your pressure is also quite low at 16877 psi. compared to the maximum allowable pressure of 56565 psi. Ordinarily, I'd say go with it, if you were using brass cases, because you're using steel cases, I doubt the pressure will be enough to form a consistent gastight seal; so your shot to shot variation will cause poor accuracy. I did once try out a similar load of 36 grains of Viht N150 with a suitably sized piece of TP wad, when 5744 was unobtainable. It was accurate with brass cases, but they were obviously soft enough to obturate to form a good seal between the case and chamber. I only did this once in an emergency and wouldn't repeat the practice, as I kept forgetting the wad and had to pull the bullets and reload too many rounds.

My recommended load would be 25 grains of accurate 5744. this will give you 2050 fps in a rifle and about 1900 fps in a carbine, with a still moderate pressure of 25664 psi. and a high enough degree of accuracy to win the Veteran rifle deliberate at 200 yards in the NRA Trafalgar competition at Bisley!

One more thing, your bullets need to be two or three thou fatter than your slugged rifle barrel. One thou won't give you a good enough gas seal. It's very important to make sure your rounds will chamber easily and safely though. With a three thou fatter bullet, my carbine wouldn't chamber freely, so I had to trim a thou off my case neck thickness (on all 500 cases) but the extra thou bullet diameter made all the difference; enough to win 200 yards snap and rapid shooting at bisley in the carbine class.

Cheers, Griff.