You silly poor person , the person blasting off that could not care less about ammo prices.
Theres members at 2 clubs I know wont even bother to clean up after themselves because a poor gun owner will be along to pick up the brass.
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What did you do in the reloading room recently?
- Thread starter DW357
- Start date
Theres members at 2 clubs I know wont even bother to clean up after themselves because a poor gun owner will be along to pick up the brass.
Small batch of 50 357 mag.
Not really trying that hard to get rid of the ammo. If I were a manufacturer, I might say that I've just "discontinued" that 180 grain HC load over 2400. The 158 grain Zero JHP loads over N350 were already on the "production plan", but they weren't scheduled for a couple of years. I just bumped up a small batch.
I'm curious to read how you like those. Most I ever loaded up in 357 magnum with that bullet and Unique was 7.5 grains. I was getting a lot of side blast from the cylinder gap, and the primers appeared to be cratering. I've only loaded up to 6.5 grains since, which gets me about 1080 fps out of a 6" barrel.
I think these are OK. Even though the cartridges were too long, they chambered fine, right up to the rim, and they also slid out just as easily. I know what you mean, though, because I have experienced what you're describing with other HC bullets.
I went through a few years of completely nerding out most times I went to the range. I'd only go on weekdays so I could set up the chrono, paint the targets, take notes, etc. I think I'm zeroing in on what loads I like for general range use now though.
And of course I was only buying one or two pounds of powder at a time until I figured out what I like, and the powders that I like aren't available any more. Not seeing a lot of 2400 or Power Pistol on the shelves lately. So I'll have to do all over again.
I got out to the range for the first time in a couple months yesterday during the nice weather. Was kind of a last minute decision so I didn't drag much along, just a 6" S&W 357 revolver, and an old West German Sig P228. Brought some 162g LSWC 38s with 3.4g of Titegroup, 158g Zero JSP 357s with 13.4g of 2400, and 124g Hornady FMJ 9mm with 5.5g of Power Pistol.
Was a fun group of guys there, and we ended up on the rifle range with handguns going after a 2'x2' square gong at 100 yards. We all got dialed in pretty good and were sighting for each other. One of the guys had a S&W 460 with an 8" barrel, and that thing was a hoot. He was running a selection of 454 Casull and 460 Magnum through it, and he let us try it. Total blast. No problem putting a round on the gong with that thing, and you sure knew when it connected.
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If you want a lot of brass, pay for a training course and bring a canvas 12ft sqaure or bigger tarp with a bucket. I went to a rifle class with 8 people and came home with about 4k once fired .223 brass.
At this point I've settled on 3 powders for what I need.
Bullseye for 45acp and 38 spec
Unique for 357 mag handgun loads
Imr4227 for 357 mag and 44 mag rifle loads.
That's all I use and now that I have loads worked up that I like my reloading time is basically churning out ammo.....I don't experiment at all anymore.
allen-1
NES Member
I'd say something snarky, but that's exactly the position I'm in right now, except that I'm using (4) powders, (and two primers).
Accurate #9 for .357Sig
LilGun for .357Mag
TiteGroup for 9mm & .38spcl
VN320 for .45
pastera
NES Member
Didn't add anything but deleted a bunch
Son wanted to try out his brand new toy (P320-M17) so off to the range we went (Mom tagged along)
Wife shot about three cylinders of 38 and was done (on paper at 30' from a snubby so plenty enough for her purposes)
Son helped deplete the supply of 115g +p range ammo
That P320 is pretty nice - fun when the kids have nicer guns than you can afford.
Son wanted to try out his brand new toy (P320-M17) so off to the range we went (Mom tagged along)
Wife shot about three cylinders of 38 and was done (on paper at 30' from a snubby so plenty enough for her purposes)
Son helped deplete the supply of 115g +p range ammo
That P320 is pretty nice - fun when the kids have nicer guns than you can afford.
My favorite handgun cartridge, out of the 9, 38, 357, and 40 that I own, is 357. But I mostly like to shoot what is basically silhouette "long range" at 100 yards. So I'm interested in maintaining the ability to load for that round more than anything else, and in the success people have had with various powders in that one. I do like full power loads in that one. I don't really bother downloading in that cartridge. For that I just switch to 38.
However, the other day at the range, when we were trading off guns, I got to run a new S&W 69 44 mag, and... I think I might need to add one of those to the quiver.
I really liked the 460 magnum too, but I'm going to try to restrain myself on that one.
P- You now know who will be driving you to the range when you are too old to take yourself. Something to look forward to 
I’m still stuck at just doing my 4.9
of HP38/W231 in 9mm.
Not ready to deal w caliber conversions, multiple powders, multiple projectiles, and god forbid I need to hunt for another type of primer! lol
I’ll eventually diversify but right now, every time I look at a gun that isn’t a .22 or a 9mm, all I can start hearing is the list of reloading demands that the new gun/caliber will bring. This being said, I really like the S&W 686 plus and unless I start loading rifle first, that would be me next direction.
Unless someone can explain why I should stick w SPP and my existing powder choice and start loading .380 with all these .380 cases I have in the closet. The S&W bodyguard is not going to turn into a range toy so, I’m open to fun .380 handgun suggestions. It would be the cheapest switch over for me, I just suspect it might not yield above my fun/work reward curve and feel like a waste in the end. I’m open to suggestions.
I’m still stuck at just doing my 4.9
of HP38/W231 in 9mm.Not ready to deal w caliber conversions, multiple powders, multiple projectiles, and god forbid I need to hunt for another type of primer! lol
I’ll eventually diversify but right now, every time I look at a gun that isn’t a .22 or a 9mm, all I can start hearing is the list of reloading demands that the new gun/caliber will bring. This being said, I really like the S&W 686 plus and unless I start loading rifle first, that would be me next direction.
Unless someone can explain why I should stick w SPP and my existing powder choice and start loading .380 with all these .380 cases I have in the closet. The S&W bodyguard is not going to turn into a range toy so, I’m open to fun .380 handgun suggestions. It would be the cheapest switch over for me, I just suspect it might not yield above my fun/work reward curve and feel like a waste in the end. I’m open to suggestions.
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pastera
NES Member
Bodyguard sucks to shoot - Too small and smacks your handP- You now know who will be driving you to the range when you are too old to take yourself. Something to look forward to
I’m still stuck at just doing my 4.9
Not ready to deal w caliber conversions, multiple powders, multiple projectiles, and god forbid I need to hunt for another type of primer! lol
I’ll eventually diversify but right now, every time I look at a gun that isn’t a .22 or a 9mm, all I can start hearing is the list of reloading demands that the new gun/caliber will bring. This being said, I really like the S&W 686 plus and unless I start loading rifle first, that would be me next direction.
Unless someone can explain why I should stick w SPP and my existing powder choice and start loading .380 with all these .380 cases I have in the closet. The S&W bodyguard is not going to turn into a range toy so, I’m open to fun .380 handgun suggestions. It would be the cheapest switch over for me, I just suspect it might not yield above my fun/work reward curve and feel like a waste in the end. I’m open to suggestions.
I have a 380EZ performance center and that is plenty of fun at the range - would have to go look up my load data for W231 with a HiTek 102g Lee RN
38SPC is easy to load - HP38 is perfect for for it
Go with a 125g bullet and you might not even have to reset your powder drop (Hodgdon lists HP-38 at +P with a 5.3 max)
Or go with 357 and a 158gn LSWC for another easy load with HP-38
None of my handgun loads are pushing pressure limits for the guns I shoot them in, so as far as I am concerned, all pistol primers of the same size are interchangeable. I probably wouldn't have trusted in that before I got a chronograph.
Either embarking on reloading a new cartridge sounds like fun or it sounds like a chore. If this is supposed to be fun, keep it fun.
I was going to write some other stuff, but I see @pastera already wrote it. If your double-taps with 9mm aren't quite competition-ready, the 380EZ will make you feel like an operator.
I've noticed with 357 specifically, I will get loads that show signs of overpressure with faster powders before the chrono numbers get high enough that they would in and of themselves give me pause. Mostly I get ejection problems, though sometimes it'll lock up the cylinder. My 586 is a really old one too that had a somewhat loose bushing around the hammer mounted firing pin, and those are prone to primer extrusion.
I _did_ once see the chrono numbers go too high with 170g Sierra #8350, which near as I can tell is a discontinued bullet, probably because it wouldn't work in tubular rifle mags. These: https://palmettostatearmory.com/38-cal-170-gr-fmj-match-8350.html are the ones, and they were super accurate for me at 100 yards. But the chrono numbers, 1333 fps out of a 6" barrel with 2400, just confirmed my suspicions based on how the recoil felt, and the fact that I couldn't eject them from the cylinder. Oh hey, I might want to dial that down a little. They went from 1333fps with 13.6g, to 1200fps with 13.3g, so... seemed like I was right where the pressure curve starts getting a little weird.
Just looked at my notes again, and I misread it in a previous post. I said I was running 158g JSPs with 13.4g of 2400, that's wrong. My last batch of those was 14.2g of 2400. That gets me about 1110fps with a CCI500, same as 16.3g of H110 with a CCI550, and is oddly the exact same powder bar setting on my Dillon 550.
That kind of chronograph use implies an established baseline. Such baselines don't apply across different powders or even across different guns, for that matter. Once you have the baseline established, you can infer something about the pressure from the velocity, but like you say, the baseline is lower for faster powders.
That doesn't have really anything to do with the quote you're responding to, though. The chronograph testing that I'm alluding to is measuring velocity with different brands of primers and standard versus magnum. In this context we're holding the gun, the powder, the bullet, the COAL, possibly even the brass head stamp constant. What I see is that the variation caused by the primers is a small nudge on the average velocity and standard deviation when all those other things are constant. If the pressure were very different, I think I'd be seeing more significant velocity differences. Since I'm not pushing the limits on pressure, I don't really care that the pressure is going up or down but 100psi or 200psi or something like that. I don't need to account for that. If you're loading Ruger-only 45 Colt to 30K PSI, maybe you do. But I load my Ruger-only 45 Colt to about 22K PSI. I've got tons of room there. Even in 9mm and 45ACP where I'm loading to the max published, it's the max published for standard loads, and my guns can take +P.
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I use two different accurate powders For pretty much everything. And I believe I use bullseye for my 40 mm via loading .38 blanks.
For me it’s about safety and accuracy and making it so simple you couldn’t screw it up. Where some powders offer a different amounts of muzzle smoke/flash… Other powders may burn a little cleaner. But who really cares
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pastera
NES Member
Match the powder to the load
I love Silhouette but it doesn't really work for lower power loads
Win 231 simply doesn't work for me in 9mm but excels in 380
Even after trying so many powders, or maybe because of it, I don't think I fully understand how to predict what powder I'm going to be satisfied with in a given caliber. Part of it is because powders seem to behave differently with light-for-caliber and heavy-for-caliber bullets. Some insist on high pressure to burn consistently. Some are OK with excess case capacity, but others aren't happy unless they almost fill the case. I think some like the lower initiation pressure of HC bullets better than the higher initiation pressure with copper-jacketed bullets. Some perform well when downloaded a bit, others don't. And any of these things might be cross-linked in a given situation. I can usually get by with Auto Pistol (medium burn rate pistol powder) and a magnum powder (H110/W296, N110, 2400, etc.) for what I load. But I recently ran into a situation where I wanted to get to a higher pressure for a cleaner, more consistent burn without driving a bullet too fast. I needed a faster powder for that.
One thing I like about 2400 vs H110/W296 is that it's not so fussy if downloaded a bit. H110 it's like... would you like max load or max load? Even coming down just a little bit, I end up with granules of unburned powder everywhere. But those are the only two magnum pistol powders I've used. Haven't yet tried #9, H4227, or Lil Gun. I must have 15 kinds of powder, but mostly stuff for shotgun or non magnum pistol or 223.
I can't boast that many magnum powders myself. Just H110/W296, 2400, N110, and Heavy Pistol. Did not like Heavy Pistol--always got the "breadcrumbs". I kind of gravitated away from H110 because of some discussion about ball powders maybe being harder on revolver forcing cones than stick powders. Haven't tried Lil Gun because of all the reports of it damaging revolvers. Supposedly this is because it runs super hot.
N110 is a strange beast. The VV published maximums are scary biscuits. I say that because I don't think I've ever been near to one before I stopped increasing due to cratering. I have all the N110 I'll need for 4 years or so because I snagged an extra 8-pounder at the beginning of the pandemic. When I'm out, I'll be choosing something else, I think, probably go back to 2400. It's not the performance, rather because N110 meters poorly in the powder drop, up to +0.3 grains on rare occasions. Last time I loaded 44 magnum, I resorted to dropping the charges one at a time from the RCBS Chargemaster. Sometimes I set the drop to give me a half grain under and then trickle up over the scale. Both methods are excruciating if you're loading up more than 50 rounds or so.
I’m a simple man. 2400 for 357 and H110/W296 for 44 mag. Those have been my go to powders for those calibers.
I did like how clean N110 was but tough to find and 110/296 is everywhere
I did like how clean N110 was but tough to find and 110/296 is everywhere
Why didn't you prefer 2400 for 44 mag?
I have two pounds of H110, and some large pistol magnum primers, so maybe now I need to buy a 44...
I guess I have to take that back in 44M. My 44M load is under the published max, but only slightly. It's .357M that I was thinking of. The published max for a 158 grain XTP bullet is 16.3 grains with a COAL of 1.575". I was getting noticeable cratering at 15.0 grains, and the report sounded kind of sharp before I even knew it. Based on accuracy and velocity spread, I settled on 14.2 grains, and I think even that is a compressed load, or close to it.
Yeah, and I don't believe that pressure on a 14.0 grain load there, either. I'll have to check. I've been shooting my 180 grain HC over 2400 loads for so long now I don't even remember, but I want to say the primers on my 14.2 grain loads come out kind of rounded. Sometimes you really are on your own.
I think I may have tried 2400 for 44 mag a while back and it worked fine. But I get such good accuracy with 2400 in 357 that I’d rather save my 8 pound jug for 357 only. Especially with 2400 being a PITA to find now
gerrycaruso
NES Member
Loaded some 6.5x55 with a 170 grain coated gas check and IMR4227, AA5744 and IMR4198. The bullet seems a bit heavy for the caliber so I hope it will stabilize.
