Hey guys, one of the older guys in the gun club I belong to, offered me an 8 lb. jug of IMR 4198, at a price I couldn't refuse. I load for most of the common classic rifle calibers, Ex. .223, .243, 30-30, 7mm-08, 7x57, .308, 30-06, and 45-70.

Right now, I'm playing around with developing a load for the 7.62 x 54R for my new to me, Russian Mosin-Nagant. I know I can use IMR-4198 for .223, 30-30, 7.62x39mm, and 45-70.

What I'm hoping to find out is, has anybody used IMR 4198 for loading .308Win and 7.62x54R with 150 grain bullets? If so, can you point me in the right direction, backed up by (a loading manual) documentation? I have no intention of hurting myself, if I can't find a reliable recipe to reload the 308 or 7.62x54R, I'll just use up the IMR 4198 in loading for the classic rifle calibers I mentioned previously, that I have documentation from a reloading manual for.

BTW, I'm aware that you can load the 308 with 110gr bullets using IMR4198, but I'm trying to use it for 150gr bullets.

Thanks for any help.

All of the following powders appear on the same "line" in my powder eqivalents chart...

AR2207, H4198, Reloader 7, IMR4198, W680, Tu 2000, N200, N130

I think if you do a little resaerch you shouldn't have any problems working out a suitable load for your 7.62x54R. However, I am thinking that IMR4198 might be a tad fast for that large a calibre.

Personally, I would be looking at Varget or IMR8208 for this calibre mate.

No loads on the Hodgdon web site nor in the Lyman manuals.

As Vince said - too fast for .308 and 7.62x54R.

It depends based on reliable reloading data, but IMR4198 has some specific and limited applications that does not include .308 Winchester or 7.62X54R. I have used IMR4198 in 7.62X39 reloads and liked it. All the best...
Gil

Vince, RePete, and Gil Martin - I was aware that IMR4198 might be a tad fast for 308 & 7.62x54R. But I was hoping to find something like the load I found in the Lee 1996 manual:

start - 31.9grs. to max - 35.5, for 2,595FPS, but I wanted a confirmation from a second source.

Thanks anyway, will use it in another caliber.

You can call the Sierra Tech line at 1-800-223-8799.
They don't list a load in their manual but if there is a load that will work, they'll have it.

Take this with a grain of salt

The only load I saw using 4195 powder

190 gr. Gardner's... ? unknown Bullet to me ?
IMR-4198 powder 32.5 gr
2,272 vel.
2,178 energy

2.915 AOL

from Ammoguide.com
ammoguide.com/cgi-bin/...s=1&page=5

Garders are cast bullets, high quality cast but still cast. It is normal to use fast powders with lead. I think you might have to use a different powder or use wadding to keep the powder in place. Have you tried the Sierra hotline yet?

pete4d wrote:

Take this with a grain of salt The only load I saw using 4195 powder 190 gr. Gardner's... ? unknown Bullet to me ? IMR-4198 powder 32.5 gr 2,272 vel. 2,178 energy 2.915 AOL from Ammoguide.com ammoguide.com/cgi-bin/...amp;page=5

pete4d - It's IMR 4198, NOT IMR 4195. Don't want to get the powders mixed up.

8 lbs. of IMR or H-4198 for a good price is a great deal if you like shooting cast lead in rifle cartridges,I use it with all my cast lead loads in all my 30 cal. rifles including 30-06, 7.62 x 54r an X 39, 30-30 and 300 Sav.

If you want to shoot cast lead in rifle cartridges your going to have to invest in a Lyman Cast Bullet manual for load data which only covers cast bullet loads for rifle and pistol cartridges. You will also find powders that are not normally associated with rifle cartridges using jacketed bullets that are excellent with cast lead in rifle loads IMR-4198 being one of those.