il.bill
Member
I just spent a week with H110 and it was an eye opener.
After a lifetime of turning wrenches and screwdrivers for a living, heavy loads with sharp recoil in handguns are just no fun for me and my worn wrists. I have been loading most of my revolver rounds with lead bullets over Trail Boss the past couple of years and like shooting them a lot. I recently acquired a dandy double stack RIA M1911 A2 with both 9x19mm and 22 TCM barrels and have found out that the 22 TCM is an absolute hoot, albeit a little expensive to shoot at a little over $0.40 per round.
That lead me to trying to reload the 22 TCM (not an endeavor for the impatient or the faint of heart to be sure - that is another story all by itself. With no SAAMI specs to go by, I followed Mr. Craig's (the 'C' of TCM) advice and bought a couple pounds of H110. It was tedious weighing each individual charge (awfully high pressures pushing that little bullet), but once I had three dozen ready to try, I thought I may as well do some more loading while I was set up. First was 12 each of my four different 240 grain bullets (BHN18 or X-treme Plated) in .44 Magnum to try in the Ruger Super Blackhawk and my new Taurus M44 Then about 30 rounds of 100 grain Coated LSWC for the .327 Federal Magnum Ruger SP101. Finally, 50 of my BHN18 Coated LSWC 158 grain Missouri Bullets in .357 Magnum, tested in a three inch S&W 686+.
I measured them all to the starting load specs and went out shooting. The RIA M1911 A2 ran perfectly (an awful lot of work went into getting those silly 22 TCM cartridges to pass the 'plunk test' first, though). The three magnum cartridges were the first 'real' magnum level loads I have reloaded, and they were all only slightly softer than 'hot' factory loads. The .44 Magnums made beautiful big round holes and were comfortable enough to shoot a couple dozen out of each revolver - I will try to get used to them and see how my wrists like them over time.
The two real surprises were the .327 Fed Mag and the .357 Mag performances. They were both exactly what I had originally been looking for when I bought those two guns. They felt perfect (with rubber Hogue grips in place) when firing the revolvers and were as accurate as anything I have shot in the SP101 or the 686+.
I had always shied away from H110 because of the very narrow range between starting and maximum loads, but not any more. Having to get some for the 22 TCM turned out to be a serendipitous discovery for me. I will still use plenty of Trail Boss in my .45 Colt 'cowboy loads', and for some casual plinking in the magnums, but I think I better look for some more H110 since a pound of that powder gets used up pretty quickly.
After a lifetime of turning wrenches and screwdrivers for a living, heavy loads with sharp recoil in handguns are just no fun for me and my worn wrists. I have been loading most of my revolver rounds with lead bullets over Trail Boss the past couple of years and like shooting them a lot. I recently acquired a dandy double stack RIA M1911 A2 with both 9x19mm and 22 TCM barrels and have found out that the 22 TCM is an absolute hoot, albeit a little expensive to shoot at a little over $0.40 per round.
That lead me to trying to reload the 22 TCM (not an endeavor for the impatient or the faint of heart to be sure - that is another story all by itself. With no SAAMI specs to go by, I followed Mr. Craig's (the 'C' of TCM) advice and bought a couple pounds of H110. It was tedious weighing each individual charge (awfully high pressures pushing that little bullet), but once I had three dozen ready to try, I thought I may as well do some more loading while I was set up. First was 12 each of my four different 240 grain bullets (BHN18 or X-treme Plated) in .44 Magnum to try in the Ruger Super Blackhawk and my new Taurus M44 Then about 30 rounds of 100 grain Coated LSWC for the .327 Federal Magnum Ruger SP101. Finally, 50 of my BHN18 Coated LSWC 158 grain Missouri Bullets in .357 Magnum, tested in a three inch S&W 686+.
I measured them all to the starting load specs and went out shooting. The RIA M1911 A2 ran perfectly (an awful lot of work went into getting those silly 22 TCM cartridges to pass the 'plunk test' first, though). The three magnum cartridges were the first 'real' magnum level loads I have reloaded, and they were all only slightly softer than 'hot' factory loads. The .44 Magnums made beautiful big round holes and were comfortable enough to shoot a couple dozen out of each revolver - I will try to get used to them and see how my wrists like them over time.
The two real surprises were the .327 Fed Mag and the .357 Mag performances. They were both exactly what I had originally been looking for when I bought those two guns. They felt perfect (with rubber Hogue grips in place) when firing the revolvers and were as accurate as anything I have shot in the SP101 or the 686+.
I had always shied away from H110 because of the very narrow range between starting and maximum loads, but not any more. Having to get some for the 22 TCM turned out to be a serendipitous discovery for me. I will still use plenty of Trail Boss in my .45 Colt 'cowboy loads', and for some casual plinking in the magnums, but I think I better look for some more H110 since a pound of that powder gets used up pretty quickly.
