Trying to hard?

[MEVS]

Had an interesting realization yesterday that some others may find interesting. On top of doing this as a hobby I sell reloading supplies as a side business. I often have at length discussions aboutheadspace, crimps, necksizing, coal...etc. ad nauseum with customers trying to improve their groops. I've read tomes in the hopes of wringing accuracy out of my boolit launchers. So I'm working up loads for a 32-20 revolver and decided to consult my 1940's lyman cast bullet handbook, it has a whole adendum with loads from readers. Nothing groundbreaking in there but one load gave me a huge reality check. Load was 4.5 grains unique under the 3118 boolit. Under size instead of numbers was the word "not". For length it said "as long as the chamber will allow" and for lube used it said "Crisco". The additional conment said "Great load in my Colt for shooting the heads off of grouse, no meat damage." I couldn't hit a running grouse in the head from a handgun with birdshot! I'm guessing this guy spent way more time shooting than loading. You ever get the feeling you're trying to hard?

[felix]

Yes, you can be trying too hard. This can be defined as having to compensate amongst physical, emotional, intellectual capabilities. Best to switch to a different endeavor as a cooling off period. ... felix

[1Shirt]

I believe in the KISS principle!
1Shirt!

[**oneshot**]

I truely believe in the KISS principle, I just wish I could practice it more.

[rintinglen]

Very often I find myself getting caught up in the minutiae when If I thought about it for just a minute, I'd realize for this application and this load, it really won't matter if I don't weigh each boolit, trim every case, weigh my brass etc. Sometimes, just stick a boolit in a case on top of a reasonable load of powder and go shooting.

[Jack Stanley]

It's that perfectionist in all of us that sometimes we have to sit him down and let him know this is for fun too . He will squiggle , squirm and throw yeahbuts at you but just remember you are in charge here .

I know this from experience I tell ya .

Jack

[MEVS]

It's that perfectionist in all of us that sometimes we have to sit him down and let him know this is for fun too . He will squiggle , squirm and throw yeahbuts at you but just remember you are in charge here .

I know this from experience I tell ya .

Jack

You mean i don't have to weight sort brass for offhand can plinking at spitting distance? I think the inner perfectionist is breathing slowly into a paper bag. My other reason for posting this was to point out the amount of raw skill it would take to head shoot a bird runnng through brush. I might know one man capable....it isn't me. Something to aspire to i suppose.

[d garfield]

Good morning.
I have been at this for nye on 50 yrs.I got int o shooting benchrest and they are so anal about everything. I bought me a 45-70 Quigely sharps and have a lot of fun with it.You don,t need all of that **** people tell you about.
Get a good Lyman mold and some good powder and some wheel weights and go at it.Don,t worry about out of round and all of that other stuff,most of you can,t shoot good enough to tell the differancs any way, I don,t mean this as a snub.
If you use wheel weights they will kill anything that walks on this planet.I shoot 357 mag,38 spl.,and 45-70 with ony wheel weghts and have no problem with leading. now you can,t shoot 500 rounds without cleaning. I normaly get about 50 rounds before it affects acuracy. Now some body will say I,m crazy but they are intitaled to there op.:drinks:

[Jack Stanley]

I agree with you , it would take a lot of skill to hit a target that size on the move . I never have been that good but twenty years ago when my eyes worked better I could do OK on stuff standing still ....... and close . Sometimes it's good to let your inner perfectionist loose and try stuff , he does get lucky from time to time .

Jack

[Bwana]

Almost all the grouse I killed were either sitting in a tree or still on the ground. And they were mostly shot within 12 yards. So, his shooting wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Growing up in Alaska was great.

[runfiverun]

i use a 20 ga to headshoot them mostly and get laughed at.
so i switched to the 30-30.

it dawned on me the other day that i have a plain based undersized nosed mold that might just shoot well at cough gaspcough1200 fps.
iv'e had it for years and never thought about that...

[Thumbcocker]

Runfive : try the soup can rolled in liquid alox over 3-4 grains of red dot.

[MEVS]

Almost all the grouse I killed were either sitting in a tree or still on the ground. And they were mostly shot within 12 yards. So, his shooting wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Growing up in Alaska was great.

I'm used to nearly tripping over grouse in dense overgrown western PA woods. After you kick him up you have approximately half a heartbeat to blast him with your twelve gauge for the clean ethical kill before there's brush/saplings between the muzzle and the bird. Where is this nirvana where birds hold still while you take careful aim? On another front my inner perfectionist is getting away with me again. I've maid a drop tube out of an arrow to drop more holy black into 32-20 cases. I'm determined to get 23-25 grains behind a 100 grain bullet... The reason? To see if it can be done.

[Bwana]

I'm used to nearly tripping over grouse in dense overgrown western PA woods. After you kick him up you have approximately half a heartbeat to blast him with your twelve gauge for the clean ethical kill before there's brush/saplings between the muzzle and the bird. Where is this nirvana where birds hold still while you take careful aim? On another front my inner perfectionist is getting away with me again. I've maid a drop tube out of an arrow to drop more holy black into 32-20 cases. I'm determined to get 23-25 grains behind a 100 grain bullet... The reason? To see if it can be done.

Forty to fifty years ago it was central Alaska. Fairbanks and the Healy area to be specific.

[Wolfer]

The grouse I see in colo are pretty dumb. Shots can be close sometimes but most of my shots are from 15 to 25 yds in a tree or on the ground. I only take head shots if I think I can make it. If their facing or straight away I shoot for the craw area. If sideways I shoot for the butt of the wing. With these two shots the breast is often not touched or barely hit.

[429421Cowboy]

Our Blue and Spruce grouse will sit right on a limb and look at you as you pick their buddies off one by one, i think it'd actually be had to get one to fly far enough to shoot with a shotgun.

And yes, i do think sometimes we overthink this!Look at Elmer, he loaded with a Lyman tong tool and cast boolits lubed with beef tallow, but he spent all winter herding sheep with this pistol, do you think he was a good shot because be had gilt edge loads or because he spent alot of time behind his guns?
But then shooting takes up valuble time that could otherwise be spent reloading! I shoot to reload, not the other way around:)

[quilbilly]

I think most of us are pathological tinkerers. We get something that works well then mess with it.

[Jack Stanley]

I'm with you Cowboy , I'm in the process of unloading some M-72 rounds so I can make up a nice load to plink with .

Jack

[TXGunNut]

I think most of us are pathological tinkerers. We get something that works well then mess with it.

I think the mindset of a tinkerer is required for reloading, most certainly for casting.

[Wolfer]

Yep, I can't leave anything well enough alone.

[leadman]

The Crisco reference took me back to my first cartridge reloading with cast. I was a muzzleloader shooter primarily but bought an H&R Shikari 45-70 and a Lyman mold. Since Crisco worked for the muzzleloader I just smeared some on the 45-70 boolit and loaded it. It worked great, even with a healthy dose of 3031.
As to getting the amount of blackpowder in the 32-20 IIRC the original cases were folded head and had more room in them. The area around the primer at the head was not solid so could contain powder.

[Gunnut 45/454]

I use the "Good enough" Standard. If I get good enough accuracy, velocity,function(AR's) in a cast loads I don't get my panties is a bunch. Usually that means accuracy to hit what I'm hunting! deer/yotes and grouping of 1-2" at 100 yards which with certain loads allows hitting that same game at distance!

[smoked turkey]

This thread is interesting because it forces us to take a good look at the process and ask why do we do what we do. I have been a hand loader for ..gulp..about 45 years. Today because of more knowlege (mainly from this site) I find myself being an excessive compulsive over things that frankly I didn't know were there to "bite" me back then. All in all I think I am having more fun now than I did then. Could be that I just have more time on my hands now that I am older and retired and can mess with things that are interesting to me without so much "production". I have to say that life is good for me. I certainly enjoy the process.

[JoeTheMechanic]

I was just wondering last night if I was trying too hard. I picked up a new used s&w 15-3 (38 spl) a few weeks back, and I had a fair bit of leading at the forcing cone with my 2.5gn red dot/150gn tlwc load. after slugging and measuring things I concluded this was due to my mold being a little small. I have to run it very hot, even with a lot of tin to get boolits that are big enough to go through a 358 sizer and actually achieve .358 all the way around. as cast size averaged .359x.3565. with my k-38 M&P I was shooting these boolits unsized and tumble lubed with no leading and 1" groups @ 10 yards. but the 15 has nearly a .358 bore, and just wasn't having it. so I beagled my mold and sized some boolits, but i haven't fired those yet as they weren't dry in time. so i loaded up the old unsized boolits. however, i went back to my old load of 3.0 grains red dot, but not because i thought the leading would change. i had lowered the charge to work on my rapid fire groups and wanted to "increase the weight", so to speak. and low and behold the 3.0gn load didn't lead! grouping was typical for these boolits, but im starting to wonder if it can be better.

since im using wadcutters with a light taper crimp, case neck tension has a lot to do with ignition, and therefor velocity. at 10yd i probably wont see much difference, but 25yd? 50? might be worth sizing all my boolits, might just need a dedicated long range load with a better suited boolit/velocity.