1st test of NOE 316-160-SPGC in my Type 56 SKS

Prior to purchasing the NOE 316-160 mold mentioned above, I was using a Lee 175-SPGC mold intended for the 8mm Mau., but resized to .3155″ for my Type 56 SKS.  While the Lee CB was accurate enough, it was tiresome to size it  down from .3245″ -> .3155″.  The new NOE 316-160-SPGC is easier to deal with as it only needs to be sized from .317″ -> .3155″, and is a 4 cavity, so I get 4x more CB’s than the Lee.

Today was the first test of the NOE CB with what has almost become my “go to” powder for that rifle, namely Alliant Unique.*  Accuracy was quite good, but there’s room for improvement mostly because I was shooting over my chronograph and I find it somewhat difficult to concentrate on both the target and the chrono.  My standard loads are 8.0-, 8.8-, and 9.3gr.** (not tested today) of Unique as recommended by C.E. Harris (8 – 10gr. actually, but 10gr. -> difficult extraction in my SKS):

Lee 175gr. CB resized to .3155″ & 2.10″ OAL + 8.8gr. Unique -> 1,281 +- 13 fps

NOE 164gr. CB @ .3155″ & 2.215″ OAL = 8.8gr. Unique -> 1,322 +- 3 fps  (8.0gr. -> 1,254 +-21 fps)

Thus far I’m extremely pleased with how quickly I received the mold, with how well it casts, and with the accuracy of the CB’s it drops

*Unique and Blue Dot (not yet tested) are the only powders I have on hand which are suitable for the SKS.  None of the loads I tested will operate the action, btw.

**I use a Lyman pistol powder measure with interchangeable rotors, hence the odd charge weights.