The only real issue with it is that the cartridge length will be a little longer than you thought. I also believe too much gap makes carbon build-up more likely. This may just be imagination on my part, mind you. WH
Got it, thank you for flagging that, I'll keep it in mind. Do you know if any reamer makers are currently using a corrected drawing?
One potential trade would be to the 50 BMG crowd. That powder would be mother's milk to that caliber.
That's not really a thing here in MA... The most powerful caliber I've ever seen on my range is 338LM, and I only know of one. But given that I'll have less than 2 jugs left over once I load all my 6.5x55 primed brass, I'm not too concerned about using it up.
--
For anyone that's curious, I took a couple of bolt guns to the range this weekend to test WC872 loads and got some interesting results. I don't expect anyone to really read this, but I'm documenting for posterity's sake since there's limited info out there on using WC872 in rifle calibers.
My 6.5x55 load with 48gr of WC872 under a 140gr FMJBT is slower than I remembered, averaging a whopping 2230 fps from my M96 Mauser's 29" barrel. But it's a very pleasant load to shoot. It leaves a trail of powder kernels down the bore, but I think they look partially burned. This load does not cause misfeeds in my semi-auto AG42 or Garand. I got 17 fps SD from the bolt gun with thrown charges. Not too bad in my opinion, and I think it suggests that it's generating enough pressure to get consistent ignition. There were no kernels stuck to the bore or chamber, and no strange fouling, so I'm thinking they're just getting pushed right out the muzzle by the next shot. I'll try using the powder in .308, 6CM, and 6BR bolt guns just to see if I can come up with a loads that are accurate within 200 yards. I have no qualms about shooting mild loads for fun as long as they're accurate.
I ran a different test shooting 30-06 loads from an 03A3. The goal of this test was to see if I'd get something that's good enough for plinking with old milsurps without sorting cases. I loaded 60gr of WC872 behind cheap 147gr FMJBTs in cases with 7 different headstamps (4 rounds each), all having different case capacities. This included 5 commercial and 2 military headstamps. This load fouls the chambers of my Garands and rounds often fail to chamber. Those that do chamber get engraved with unburned powder kernels from the previous shot. The trail of kernels down the bore of the 03A3 was heavier than in the M96 Mauser, and the kernels looked larger, so I think they're mostly completely unburned. Interestingly, the average velocity was 2215 fps, very similar to the M96 Mauser above. The SD was much higher at 39 fps. I was ringing a 2/3 size IPSC steel target and some 12" gongs at 200 very consistently, so I think it's good enough for iron sight plinking despite the large variability.
I played with the data to get SD number for sub-categories in the population (just commercial, just military, just commercial with similar volumes) and the results were all showing SDs around 40. I know these are small population sizes, so I'm treating the results as anecdotal. Having said that, I think I'm getting less consistent ignition with 30-06 than with the 6.5x55 load. I think the 30-06 load is generating less pressure despite the much larger powder charge due to its larger bore and the relatively light bullets I used.
Given those results, I'm going to load uniform headstamps of 30-06 with 178gr projectiles to see if I can get the SD down under 20 before I go and rechamber this Savage .308 barrel to 30-06 AI, since the capacity increase of the AI is marginal. It would be interesting to see if the sharper shoulder of the AI makes ignition more consistent in practice. It should in theory. But I'm probably not willing to spend the money to test that theory out unless the results with heavier bullets show way more promise than this test did.
TLDR- WC872 is slow but consistent in 6.5x55 and good enough for iron-sighted bolt action plinking in 30-06.
