Epicurean
Member
I’ve been reloading for a few months and have managed to shorten my learning curve by regularly consulting this forum. I think I’m finally getting the hang of things. Heretofore I’ve only been able to achieve standard deviations in the upper teens and lower twenties for anything I loaded (38 SPL, 9mm and 45 ACP) and accuracy was OK but not great. Things changed this week.
I received my second batch of bullets from MBC earlier this week and committed myself to putting together some quality loads. I love my 1911s, so I decided to tweak .45 ACP. I loaded 25 rounds each of MBC’s Bullseye #1 (200 grain SWC) with 3.9, 4.1, 4.4 and 5.0 grains of Bullseye seated at 1.244 using CCI primers in mixed brass. I shot a 10 round string of each though my chrono and then 15 rounds of each for accuracy from a rest at 15 yards. Here’s what I got:
3.9 grains – second most accurate (one large ragged hole with two close flyers) – no failures - average 724 fps, ES 38, SD 11
4.1 grains – most accurate (one ragged hole with one very close flyer) – one failure to feed – average 750 fps, ES 24, SD 6
4.4 grains – least accurate (5” group) – two failures to feed – average 790 fps, ES 16, SD 5
5.0 grains – slightly more accurate than 4.4 grains – two failures to feed – average 845 fps, ES 39, SD 15
What I did differently than previous loads was I weighed the bullets. (A very time consuming process!) I found the average of 25 bullets to be 203.5 grains and loaded only those within 1.0 grains of that. Here’s the problem: it took 121 bullets to get 100 rounds! Twelve were too heavy (up to 206.6 grains) and nine were too light (down to 200.2).
So here’re my questions:
1) I think resting an eight round mag (I usually just rest my wrists) on a sandbag might have caused the FTFs. Is this possible or should I chase something else?
2) What do I do with the off-weight bullets? I don’t cast (yet) so are they just junk if I want to shoot consistent ammo?
Thanks for all you guys have done to teach me! I use “search” all the time so you have taught me a lot without knowing it.
I received my second batch of bullets from MBC earlier this week and committed myself to putting together some quality loads. I love my 1911s, so I decided to tweak .45 ACP. I loaded 25 rounds each of MBC’s Bullseye #1 (200 grain SWC) with 3.9, 4.1, 4.4 and 5.0 grains of Bullseye seated at 1.244 using CCI primers in mixed brass. I shot a 10 round string of each though my chrono and then 15 rounds of each for accuracy from a rest at 15 yards. Here’s what I got:
3.9 grains – second most accurate (one large ragged hole with two close flyers) – no failures - average 724 fps, ES 38, SD 11
4.1 grains – most accurate (one ragged hole with one very close flyer) – one failure to feed – average 750 fps, ES 24, SD 6
4.4 grains – least accurate (5” group) – two failures to feed – average 790 fps, ES 16, SD 5
5.0 grains – slightly more accurate than 4.4 grains – two failures to feed – average 845 fps, ES 39, SD 15
What I did differently than previous loads was I weighed the bullets. (A very time consuming process!) I found the average of 25 bullets to be 203.5 grains and loaded only those within 1.0 grains of that. Here’s the problem: it took 121 bullets to get 100 rounds! Twelve were too heavy (up to 206.6 grains) and nine were too light (down to 200.2).
So here’re my questions:
1) I think resting an eight round mag (I usually just rest my wrists) on a sandbag might have caused the FTFs. Is this possible or should I chase something else?
2) What do I do with the off-weight bullets? I don’t cast (yet) so are they just junk if I want to shoot consistent ammo?
Thanks for all you guys have done to teach me! I use “search” all the time so you have taught me a lot without knowing it.