Testing the "Charles Irby" Load in 45 Auto

[Super Sneaky Steve]

The boolit is a 209ish .452 for 45 Automatic. Mould is the MP with penta pins. Sloppy batch powdercoated.

The load is 6.8gr of Power Pistol with a COL of 1.190. Please load according to your manual, not my post.

Test weapon is a Sig Sauer P220 Compact.

Media was water jugs. The first jug was a 1lb Power Pistol jug. It's harder than a milk jug and the top screws on tight. Second jug was a typical milk jug. The boolit went through the first one popping the top while staying threaded. Second jug had a full pass through but not enough energy to get into the third. It lay on the bench.

Hardness is below the Lee scale but I would estimate it about a 7. I used 50% range scrap and 50% pure lead. Pretty darn soft. I fired three mags with no malfunctions. I'd like to shoot more but primers...

Weight retention is 100%.

Expansion is 0.8640".
https://i.imgur.com/F7piZQL.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/BV9YcTH.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/3ugs0VQ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/HWvPiGc.jpg

[Stopsign32v]

What makes this a "Charles Irby" load?

[Super Sneaky Steve]

What makes this a "Charles Irby" load?

He made something almost just like it.

[Iwsbull]

Very nice, that looks to be a great walking around load also well worth showing off.

[OS OK]

heheheee...I didn't know I had a signature cast HP!

But...BE FOREWARNED...Casting and testing HP's is ADDICTIVE ! :bigsmyl2:

[Char-Gar]

How fast it that going out of a 5" barrel?

[358429]

Isn't there some magic with power pistol and cast bullets that just works???

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

[Super Sneaky Steve]

heheheee...I didn't know I had a signature cast HP!

But...BE FOREWARNED...Casting and testing HP's is ADDICTIVE ! :bigsmyl2:

Thanks for the inspiration Charlie. Consider this boolit "peer reviewed".

[Super Sneaky Steve]

How fast it that going out of a 5" barrel?

I didn't have my chronograph out that day. Water jug testing at my range isn't really permitted so I need to be fast like a ninja. In and out.

The test weapon had a 3.9" barrel. I couldn't ask for better expansion. And if for some reason it didn't expand the alloy is so soft would would surly squish when hitting bone.

I'll also add this cartridge was very accurate. Soft powder coated alloys always give me the best accuracy. I think they fill the groves in the rifling just a little bit better.

[OS OK]

When I was experimenting with various HP cavities...(3 sided, 4 sided & 5 sided) I wanted to really push these things and try to overcome the lack of penetration we usually get from slow projectiles and big shrooms.

This is one of my recipes with Power Pistol, I had to buy a laptop and order the 'Quick Load software' so that I would have some idea of where I was going related to pressure & speed.

https://i.imgur.com/rtFkWLc.jpg

The criteria was...'no fragging' & 100% weight retention. If I couldn't achieve this, I backed off the speed.
The hard part is blending your Pb & Sn and having it come out like you wanted BHN'wise after all the processing of casting & PC'ing. Lot's of hit & miss here.
Thee basic 'rule of thumb' for pistol HP's is 1 bhn (of Pb & Sn blends) per 100fps in velocity. That rule of thumb will get you in business pretty quickly but you still have to experiment.