bengals1975
Member
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2013
- Messages
- 32
A friend of mine is trying to load .38 special with IMR 700X and Berry's 125 gn hard cast RNFP bullets (picture attached). Dropping the bullets into the cylinder he's noticed that some of his rounds will drop in just fine, others don't (he's also noticed that the same bullet will drop fine in to some holes in the cylinder and not in others, which we thought was weird. The gun loads factory ammo just fine I guess though). He's using the Lee Classic Hand Loader and measuring the powder by hand to a 3.8-4.0 gn load. He's then seating the bullet to a 1.445 OAL.
The only load data we could find for cast 125 grain bullets was on the IMR/Hodgdon/Winchester web tool and this meets the recipe they list. I took a look at one of his loaded rounds and I noticed the cannelure was still showing on the round. Is he supposed to seat all the way to the cannelure in the bullet? If so that's probably almost another 1/8th of an inch more than the load data shows in the IMR website. I've looked at the load data in my Lyman's #49 and while they don't have a cast 125 gn bullet, they have a JHP one that seems to measure close to the same dimensions (I'm estimating), it's OAL is 1.470! even longer! The 120 gn cast RN bullet in the manual is slightly longer OAL as well.
Does anybody out there load the 125 gn Berry's cast RNFP? What OAL do you seat to? We're a little concerned about seating to the cannelure (which is what I would think it was there for) because that would lead to a much shorter round than shown in any load data we've been able to find. Then to avoid an overly high pressure situation would probably need less powder, but we can't find any load data to indicate what that would be.
Any thoughts? Thanks!
.
The only load data we could find for cast 125 grain bullets was on the IMR/Hodgdon/Winchester web tool and this meets the recipe they list. I took a look at one of his loaded rounds and I noticed the cannelure was still showing on the round. Is he supposed to seat all the way to the cannelure in the bullet? If so that's probably almost another 1/8th of an inch more than the load data shows in the IMR website. I've looked at the load data in my Lyman's #49 and while they don't have a cast 125 gn bullet, they have a JHP one that seems to measure close to the same dimensions (I'm estimating), it's OAL is 1.470! even longer! The 120 gn cast RN bullet in the manual is slightly longer OAL as well.
Does anybody out there load the 125 gn Berry's cast RNFP? What OAL do you seat to? We're a little concerned about seating to the cannelure (which is what I would think it was there for) because that would lead to a much shorter round than shown in any load data we've been able to find. Then to avoid an overly high pressure situation would probably need less powder, but we can't find any load data to indicate what that would be.
Any thoughts? Thanks!
.