There have been some excellent threads on NES about the many good reasons to reload: economy, availability, tailoring the cartridge to the task, etc. For me, one of the biggest reasons is finding the magic load that a particular gun loves.
A few weeks ago I bought a S&W1911 from an NES member. I had been looking for another 1911 because my Colt was getting lonely. I saw one I liked so I grabbed it. Here it is:
The first thing I did was make up some test loads with Winchester 231 powder and Bullsye. My son had a day off, so we headed to the range this morning to test it out. Here's my two best groups at 50' with the WW231 test loads:
With 4.2gr of 231, 225gr round nose cast bullet, 5 shots:
With 5.4gr of 231, same bullet, 5 shots:
Not bad, but not great. I planned on testing the loads with Bullseye on the next range trip. We happened to have a box of loads for the Colt that I had made up a few years ago. It was the most accurate load I had come up with for that gun, 3.5gr of Bullseye under a 200gr cast bullet. The bullet is a truncated cone style, by Lyman, almost like a semi-wadcutter. It feeds fine in the Colt, but I didn't know how the S&W would handle it. My son wanted to give a few of them a try. His target was at 25'. He fired two strings of 5 shots each. The wiseass went and did this:
The S&W worked flawlessly, no FTF's or FTE's. The load that my son was firing wasn't anything special. I cast the bullets, sized and lubed them. The brass had been reloaded many times and was all mixed headstamps. I loaded that box in 2007 and it had been sitting in the ammo box since then.
If you've been thinking about reloading and wondering if homemade ammo can be as good (or better) than the factory stuff, take the plunge. Factory ammo is good stuff. It's better today than it was when I started shooting years ago. There's immense satisfaction when the stuff you make meets or exceeds what the big factories turn out.
Did I mention it's a lot cheaper?![[laugh]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/012.gif "Laugh [laugh]")
DISCLAIMER: I double-checked my load data here, but you should verify that the information I typed is safe before using it. I am not responsible if you don't exercise reasonable caution.
A few weeks ago I bought a S&W1911 from an NES member. I had been looking for another 1911 because my Colt was getting lonely. I saw one I liked so I grabbed it. Here it is:
The first thing I did was make up some test loads with Winchester 231 powder and Bullsye. My son had a day off, so we headed to the range this morning to test it out. Here's my two best groups at 50' with the WW231 test loads:
With 4.2gr of 231, 225gr round nose cast bullet, 5 shots:
With 5.4gr of 231, same bullet, 5 shots:
Not bad, but not great. I planned on testing the loads with Bullseye on the next range trip. We happened to have a box of loads for the Colt that I had made up a few years ago. It was the most accurate load I had come up with for that gun, 3.5gr of Bullseye under a 200gr cast bullet. The bullet is a truncated cone style, by Lyman, almost like a semi-wadcutter. It feeds fine in the Colt, but I didn't know how the S&W would handle it. My son wanted to give a few of them a try. His target was at 25'. He fired two strings of 5 shots each. The wiseass went and did this:
The S&W worked flawlessly, no FTF's or FTE's. The load that my son was firing wasn't anything special. I cast the bullets, sized and lubed them. The brass had been reloaded many times and was all mixed headstamps. I loaded that box in 2007 and it had been sitting in the ammo box since then.
If you've been thinking about reloading and wondering if homemade ammo can be as good (or better) than the factory stuff, take the plunge. Factory ammo is good stuff. It's better today than it was when I started shooting years ago. There's immense satisfaction when the stuff you make meets or exceeds what the big factories turn out.
Did I mention it's a lot cheaper?
DISCLAIMER: I double-checked my load data here, but you should verify that the information I typed is safe before using it. I am not responsible if you don't exercise reasonable caution.
![[cheers]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/018.gif "Cheers [cheers]")
![[wink]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/002.gif "Wink [wink]")
