C. Latch
12-24-2013, 09:14 PM
I did some shooting today; I had PC'ed some lee 358-158-tl bullets with HF red and loaded them over 4 grains of 700-x.
They shot horribly out of my 6" 686 (4" at 25 yards) but not bad out of a 4" Colt Official Police (2" at 25 yards). I wasn't thrilled with either group, but keep in mind that these bullets are mainly cast for practice with my J-frames, not formal shooting with larger revolvers. I don't cull much of anything when casting these. After today I think I'll make an effort to cast some with a bit more care and try them again.
I then shot some of my 305-grain flat points out of my .45 colt Ruger Bisley 5.5".
Previously I had loaded this bullet over 20.0 grains of N110 for 1045 fps and 22.0 grains for 1255'. I figured that 21.0 grains would split the difference and put me right at 1150', which is sort of where I want to 'land' with this bullet.
It didn't happen that way. I shot a handful over the chronograph and they averaged ~1025'. That's over 100' slower than I expected (I shot a few of the 22.0 grain load to check, and they were within the variation I'd previously seen out of that load, so there's no problem with the chrony).
Anyway, at 50 yards the 21.0 grain load put five into ~4.5". Not the worst group ever, but this bullet has been shooting into 3" at 50 yards with 22.0 grains (and did today also!).
So I lost a lot of velocity and a bit of accuracy with this bullet PC'ed.
When I loaded them, they were so much easier to seat (and size) and crimp, that I am sort of curious as to whether my crimp wasn't strong enough to hold the bullet for firm ignition. N110 isn't as hard to ignite consistently as H110 or other powders, but I'm wondering if maybe the PC is so much more slippery that I need to crimp harder. Add that to the list of stuff I still have to figure out.
They shot horribly out of my 6" 686 (4" at 25 yards) but not bad out of a 4" Colt Official Police (2" at 25 yards). I wasn't thrilled with either group, but keep in mind that these bullets are mainly cast for practice with my J-frames, not formal shooting with larger revolvers. I don't cull much of anything when casting these. After today I think I'll make an effort to cast some with a bit more care and try them again.
I then shot some of my 305-grain flat points out of my .45 colt Ruger Bisley 5.5".
Previously I had loaded this bullet over 20.0 grains of N110 for 1045 fps and 22.0 grains for 1255'. I figured that 21.0 grains would split the difference and put me right at 1150', which is sort of where I want to 'land' with this bullet.
It didn't happen that way. I shot a handful over the chronograph and they averaged ~1025'. That's over 100' slower than I expected (I shot a few of the 22.0 grain load to check, and they were within the variation I'd previously seen out of that load, so there's no problem with the chrony).
Anyway, at 50 yards the 21.0 grain load put five into ~4.5". Not the worst group ever, but this bullet has been shooting into 3" at 50 yards with 22.0 grains (and did today also!).
So I lost a lot of velocity and a bit of accuracy with this bullet PC'ed.
When I loaded them, they were so much easier to seat (and size) and crimp, that I am sort of curious as to whether my crimp wasn't strong enough to hold the bullet for firm ignition. N110 isn't as hard to ignite consistently as H110 or other powders, but I'm wondering if maybe the PC is so much more slippery that I need to crimp harder. Add that to the list of stuff I still have to figure out.