10mm and Red Dot

[morme@gte.net]

Red Dot and 10mm Auto

I want to try Red Dot in my 10mm Delta Elite. 4.5 grains seems like a good place to start for a 180 grain copper plated lead flat point bullet.

Any suggestions, or experience? I have used the same load as my standard 200grain .45ACP load for years.

On a more general note, do copper plated bullets handle the velocities of jacketed bullets, or do they act like a regular cast one?

thanks

[sargenv]

plated bullets generally act more like lead than they do jacketed. Usually the plating isn't much more than .006" thick, sometimes less. I've always used cast bullet data for plated.

[morme@gte.net]

plated bullets generally act more like lead than they do jacketed. Usually the plating isn't much more than .006" thick, sometimes less. I've always used cast bullet data for plated.

Thanks. I guess the benefit is mostly making them cleaner to handle.

[mvintx]

I'm going to try and breathe some life into this topic with the hope that there might be similar interest out there. I'm trying to find a reduced-recoil load for bullseye pistol matches. The thought being that a lighter bullet with a faster burning powder should produce a lighter-recoiling load I have a Colt Delta Elite that I shot many a Lyman 401638 175 TC through with 5.6 grains Unique. It chronographs around 950 fps and if I did my part, would group around 2.5" at 25 yds. Not super accurate but acceptable to me. I signed up for a Mihec 165 TC group buy, but in the meantime I purchased some 165 Hi-Tek coated TCs from Bayou Bullets to experiment with. I'm at the beginning of this experiment and yesterday I fired 10 different loads with Red Dot and Unique powders. The battery in my chronograph died after 6 loads but here are my results;

Red Dot
5.5 grains, 1088 fps, SD 29.6
5.7 grains, 1096 fps, SD 6.92
5.9 grains, 1104 fps, SD 7.21
6.1 grains, 1122 fps, SD 9.21 (the most accurate at 2.75" at 25 yds)
6.3 grains, 1136 fps, SD 22.80

Unique
6.5 grains, 1067 fps
6.7 grains, fired but no chrono data
6.9 grains, ditto
7.1 grains, ditto
7.3 grains, ditto

None of the Unique loads displayed acceptable accuracy but I'll be trying some loads below my starting point of 6.5 grains. I will also try the same with Red Dot. I never found Alliant Bullseye to produce acceptable accuracy in 10mm so I am not including it in these trials. I also have Alliant Power Pistol and it is my go to powder for 9mm and .40 with plated or jacketed bullets, but recoil is fairly sharp and mimics full-power defensive loads.

I will post more data as I collect it. If any readers have experience with this bullet/powder combination, I'd be interested in hearing about it.

[mvintx]

I had some time to test a few more loads this afternoon. Unique, which has performed admirably with my 175 TC has exhibited poor accuracy with high extreme spreads and high standard deviation so I'm removing it from consideration. Red Dot on the other hand displays a standard deviation of less than 15 in most of the loadings.

5.1 grains, 1019 fps, SD 13.11
5.3 grains, 1048 fps, SD 12.12
5.7 grains, 1104 fps, SD 13.07
5.9 grains, 1124 fps, SD 6.7 (most accurate at 2.25" @ 25 yds and shoots to point of aim)
6.1 grains, 1122 fps, SD 9.21 (yesterdays winner at 2.75" @ 25 yds but shoots to left of point of aim)

I'm thinking the sweet spot for this barrel/bullet combination is around 1120 fps with 5.9-6.1 grains Red Dot. The case fill with both loads is very good so maybe I've got a winner here.

[Ed_Shot]

Red Dot and 10mm Auto

I want to try Red Dot in my 10mm Delta Elite. 4.5 grains seems like a good place to start for a 180 grain copper plated lead flat point bullet.

Any suggestions, or experience? I have used the same load as my standard 200grain .45ACP load for years.

On a more general note, do copper plated bullets handle the velocities of jacketed bullets, or do they act like a regular cast one?

thanks

A Lyman reloading manual is a good investment. Agree with mvintx, Red Dot / Promo 6.0 gr. under a 401638 or 401043 in 10MM is a winner.