Started Weighing my Cast Boolits Recently..l Cant Believe.....

[sw282]

how much its helped the accuracy of my ammo..l shoot lHMSA with a Smith&Wesson 629 44 Magnum revolver from their Performance Center...l have used this gun for a couple of years just having fun...0ver the Winter l have practiced but l just wasn't satisfied with my shooting..So l decided to use the ammo loading routine that had worked when l shot a BenchRest rifle.
Case trimming, deburring flash holes, uniforming primer pockets and WEIGHING my ctast boolits...
l cast using a H&G #503 4 cavity mold from mostly wheel weights... Then weigh each boolit and put them in jars. labeled 250-251-252-253gr. 2/3 end up in the ''252'' jar..
Whenever l load 50 rds l will use boolits from only one jar... l shoot a mild load with 7.7gr of Power Pistol. My groups have shrunk by HALF !!

[Nueces]

That's good info. Please keep up the reports.

[aquarist]

Awesome! I may have to break out the scale and weigh my new 9mm rounds.

[hutch18414]

Goodsteel has a thread in cast bullet section about casting consistency laying out some things he has learned about keeping the weight the same as a measure of casting consistency. It is worth reading.

[DerekP Houston]

I had read that threat as well hutch. Great to see it worked out well for the OP.

[HangFireW8]

Depending on your casting technique, you may find some weight ranges more accurate than others.

A primary factor of accuracy is consistent neck tension, which is of course a factor of boolit diameter (and other things like die adjustment and brass thickness and springiness).

If a particular weight range has varying diameters and another doesn't, you should see an accuracy difference.

[TXGunNut]

I mainly use my digital scale to sort out light and heavy boolits for culling, the remainder are always within a 1-2 gr range and are good enough for most purposes. I think you're on the right track for precision using a 1 gr ES in boolit weight, some folks prefer a tighter spread. I tend to think of ES in boolit weight as a percentage of the mass, a tighter ES in grs for a 30 cal boolit than say, a 43 or 45 cal boolit.

[44man]

how much its helped the accuracy of my ammo..l shoot lHMSA with a Smith&Wesson 629 44 Magnum revolver from their Performance Center...l have used this gun for a couple of years just having fun...0ver the Winter l have practiced but l just wasn't satisfied with my shooting..So l decided to use the ammo loading routine that had worked when l shot a BenchRest rifle.
Case trimming, deburring flash holes, uniforming primer pockets and WEIGHING my ctast boolits...
l cast using a H&G #503 4 cavity mold from mostly wheel weights... Then weigh each boolit and put them in jars. labeled 250-251-252-253gr. 2/3 end up in the ''252'' jar..
Whenever l load 50 rds l will use boolits from only one jar... l shoot a mild load with 7.7gr of Power Pistol. My groups have shrunk by HALF !!
7.7 gr of power pistol will not take steel at 200 meters. While BR case prep works for any gun even case tension in the .44 is most important. Fact is even a lube change can cut groups 50%. I never weigh boolits, waste of time. Cast right at the start.
Every 29 or variation I ever shot could do 1/2" at 50 meters but the grip defeated me. Just putting the gun down between relays and picking it up again would see my groups 10" off or more. No, groups did not enlarge, they just went somewhere else.
I would clean 40 with a Ruger but 20 with a S&W was luck. They NEVER were in the top at IHMSA. You beat a horse that you can't sit on.
I know you are not using PP for IHMSA when that boolit needs 23.5 to 24 gr of 296. 50# of steel will not fall with a tap.
You are on the right track but have not reached what you need. Wrong gun for a start. Sorry, never seen a S&W to hold POI. Groups and love for the gun would be YES but a Ruger will beat it.

[paul edward]

Weighing batches of bullets on a beam scale takes too long. Is an automated system available for measuring bullets and cases?

[wlc]

Weighing batches of bullets on a beam scale takes too long. Is an automated system available for measuring bullets and cases?

I'd say get you a digital scale.

[JeffinNZ]

I'd be surprised it such a small variance made such a large difference. Maybe this process is just giving YOU more faith in your ability. Either way, well done.

[sw282]

My next step to lmprove accuracy will be neck tensioning. l can see where just sizing maybe half the case length will help accuracy. The rear of the case will remain centered and snug in the chamber much like a neck sized rifle bullet. 0ne of our top shooters in 100yd 'field pistol' uses this method for his 629

[w5pv]

I did weigh mine until I got a mold that will cast within a couple of grains,I found that it didnot make much difference in my shooting.I still can hold about 6 inch group at 50 yards which is plenty good to scare some one if your shooting at them.

[Blackwater]

I dunno, w5pv. It may be enough on a range, but in a real tight situation, those 5" groups tend to get MUCH larger. Even people who shoot under 2" groups at 50 yds. can miss at 5 yds. if they get rattled. Missing is very easy. It's hitting on demand and under pressure that's hard. I know one bow shooter who won all the local archery meets, but for many years, couldn't take a deer because he'd panic when he saw a deer. Sure made the hunt exciting, but he didn't eat much venison unless someone gave it to him.

Long ago, I started doing my "combat" practice by learning to imagine a bad guy with the drop or advantage on me. It helps, though nothing works 100%. Few these days get enough real life experience with these things to really KNOW what they'd do in a tight. Preparation of our mentality is about the best we can do, and a lot of that has to involve one's imagination. We fight like we train, and the mentality of it is a part that even many "schools" don't teach, or don't teach very well. Apparently, many object to imagining such "scary" things. As a consequence, they'll often miss, even up close, if they ever HAVE to deal with the real thing. Conditioning one's mind to deal with bad situations is, I think, equally as important as what kind of groups we can shoot. Some respond very well, and it's not always the people we think who do the best job. That's the joker in the deck in "tactical" training, I think, and very few schools train that way, or train in the dark or dim light, which is more likely than a daytime scenario, usually.

Real martial use of a handgun takes a certain mindset for it to be used effectively and without degradation of our normal skills on the range. If our minds are conditioned well, 5" at 50 will almost always do just fine, though. It's really amazing what real life scenarios reveal about us, and not one of us, you, me or anyone else, is immune from missing when we most need a hit. The mindset thing really helps, though, because as stated, we fight as we train, and if we haven't at least seriously imagined a bad guy coming at us to kill us, we'll likely fumble something or worse, and that ain't real training.

No, it's not pleasant, and some could get a bit overly zealous with it, but a serious but sober approach will be most likely to let us react effectively, and believe me, when I say "react," I'm using the word very specifidally and accurately here. It's also humbling to realize how slow we are, but don't get yourself shot in the butt or knee by trying quick draw TOO early! Just get your reflexes grooved, and gradually speed up. This takes a lot of time, but so does healing up from self-inflicted gunshot wounds! Just what I've found in my own experience, but your point is still very well taken. Lots of folks who could NEVER shoot little groups. It's those who react well who hit. Look at all the stories where cops get involved and many shots are fired, and nobody gets hurt! If they can do that badly, judging one's ability in a defensive situation by how big or small a group we shoot on an unhurried range isn't really very much of an indication of who will perform and who'll choke and miss. Like I said, this is a real joker in the deck, and all we can do is do our best to train our minds to respond to a real threat, and to respond quickly and accurately. Even even then, we can't really KNOW or even assume how we'd do in a real defense situation. I guess that's why we have faith and can practice and learn?

[sw282]

l adjusted my sizer so it only does the first half inch of the case..Net l will back off the roll crimp a bit on my seating...Due to avability l have to use CCl 300 primers instead of Fed150s
Powder charge will stay the same...These 90 cases are from a 'Field Pistol Match' in Gainesville Ga yesterday

[bangerjim]

I only weigh rifle boolits. I do not waste time with pinker semi's or revolvers. I do not shoot any competition stuff at all. Just kill a bunch of paper and water bottles. And have tons of fun.

banger

[sw282]

Went to the range today and fired a few of my 'neck sized' 44s. l also backed off the crimp some. l think it helped accuracy a bit. l was afraid if l backed off the crimp too much the bullets might move In their cases..Kinda fun, all this testing...Never too old to learn new ways ..

[dondiego]

The testing and the ability to change and adapt is the fun part about handloading and casting.