Ok so back from shooting, and I had pretty mixed results.
First I’ll say my DW is a nice shooting gun and handles the recoil of the 38 Super in stride. In fact I was surprised at how low the recoil impulse was, but then I thought about it. That’s only one part of why competitors use it.
So the bottom line is I really like the gun, and the cartridge.
My loads were a different matter. Accuracy wasn’t spectacular at 25 yards, but Walkalong pointed out to me that I’m still using too much crimp. So now that I feel I have a better understanding off how aggressively you need to seat over compressed powder, I’m going to back “flare removal”
off a bit. I also caught myself flinching and do not have a rest, so I’m not going to sweat the accuracy just yet.
Extraction and ejection is a big issue. I had a few fail to feeds in 50 rounds, and ejection was really erratic. 6 cases actually had their case mouths mangled to the point of being unreloadable. I believe this is a clear indication I need to tweak my extractor as it isn’t reliable with the rimless brass. So I’m going to tighten it up a bit before shooting next.
Velocities are as follows. Temp was 80 degrees. Humidity is estimated at 45-55%. Elevation was 6600 ft.
9.9 gr of N105 under 124 gr RMR TC
Ave.1378 from a 15 shot series.
High 1408
Low 1347
ES 61
SD 16.2
10.0 gr of N105 under 124 gr RMR TC
Ave.1371 from a 11 shot series.
High 1385
Low 1358
ES 27
SD 8.1
10.1 gr of N105 under 124 gr RMR TC
Ave.1371from a 15 shot series.
High 1392
Low 1347
ES 44
SD 10
There wasn’t much velocity difference but I had a few erroneous readings I deleted and a few that didn’t pick up at all. I think that first load was a fluke due to me fiddling around too much. All velocities are at the muzzle.
I figure I’ll lighten my taper, tighten my extractor, and load up another ladder from 10.1, 10.2, up to 10.3. I want to break 1400 legitimately and have decent accuracy.
Hopefully I can get back out next weekend.