Atroxus
Member
Well I just got back from the range, and I think it was a pretty productive visit. I brought pictures too, though I cropped the targets to only show the areas that have bullet holes to reduce the size of the pictures. Sadly my camera doesn't do close up work well so my pictures of the case heads/primers aren't detailed enough to show anything useful. I tested 3 loads today at 25yds, shooting from a rest. Nothing I was overly proud of but hopefully enough to tell me which load to use while I refine my accuracy. Before I put any live ammo in my gun I put in a snap cap and did soem dry firing from the rest to make sure I wasn't flinching or moving during my trigger pull. Bellow is a a picture of the three targets, each followed by a summary that test batch. All rounds fired and cycled in my gun fine with no failures of any kind.(unless you count my failure to aim better) Please feel free to give constructive criticism. "Your groups suck" doesn't tell me anything that I don't already know. 
My first batch was 115gr Missouri Bullets cast round nose, over 4.3gr W-231 powder, winchester WSP small pistol primer in unfired winchester brass. I fired my first shot then checked for signs of over-pressure. There seemed to be very slight primer cratering, but did not seem to be any other signs of stress or excessive expansion on the case, or case head. So since it was the starting load according to Hodgdon data center I proceeded firing. My first 10 rounds were all on paper though with only 3 in the black and the rest well off to the right. I then asked the range officer to come over and he put 5 rounds down range. The lowest 4 holes in the black and one of the nearest holes below and to the right of the black are his. This told me that yes a lot of the problem was me, not the ammo, but the RO was still to the right just not to the extreme that I was so I noted that and fired the remaining rounds and continued to hit well right of my point of aim and scattered all over. Originally I had planned to test 10 round groups, then check barrel for leading, and change target. However the range I was at seemed to be going a long time between cease fires, and I got impatient and put 19/20(I fired all 20, just 19 made it through the paper) of the rounds from my first batch of target loads into the same target. I did keep an eye on my barrel for leading though, and did not see any. Am not sure how far off the paper that missing 20th round went.
My second batch was same as first except the powder charge was 4.5gr(up .2gr from starting) When I fired the first round I checked for high pressure signs and again noticed slight cratering of the primer but nothing else worrisome. When I compared this to the primers from my starting load batch the degree of cratering seemed identical, so I am thinking maybe just soft primers. So I continued on. As you can see I still can't shoot worth beans, but my "group"(I use the term very loosely) seems alot better with this load, at least a much larger percentage of rounds are in the black(12/20), and all 20 were on the paper at least. So far I am liking this middle load for target shooting while I try to improve my aim. Still no leading in my barrel. yay
My third and final batch for the day was at 4.8gr of powder. The max charge as listed in the load data I got from Hodgdon. I fired a single round then checked for over-pressure again. Again the only "overpressure" sign I found was slightly cratered primer. When comparing to the other batches the primers from all 3 batches looked identical. So at this point I am still thinking I just have some soft primers. At first glance this seems like the best group yet. I have 12 in the black again, and 2 in the 10 ring. The fliers are a lot farther out than they were in my mid range load though,(like the one at the very bottom edge of the paper) and 2 missed the paper entirely. 60 rounds of cast ammo and still no leading in my barrel, it was pretty easy to clean when I got home too.
At this point I am thinking of sticking with my second load as my target load. Then maybe when I can hold a decent sized group I will refine the load further for better accuracy. Please let me know if there are any glaring flaws in my methodology, and again please give "constructive" criticism.
TIA,
Joe
My first batch was 115gr Missouri Bullets cast round nose, over 4.3gr W-231 powder, winchester WSP small pistol primer in unfired winchester brass. I fired my first shot then checked for signs of over-pressure. There seemed to be very slight primer cratering, but did not seem to be any other signs of stress or excessive expansion on the case, or case head. So since it was the starting load according to Hodgdon data center I proceeded firing. My first 10 rounds were all on paper though with only 3 in the black and the rest well off to the right. I then asked the range officer to come over and he put 5 rounds down range. The lowest 4 holes in the black and one of the nearest holes below and to the right of the black are his. This told me that yes a lot of the problem was me, not the ammo, but the RO was still to the right just not to the extreme that I was so I noted that and fired the remaining rounds and continued to hit well right of my point of aim and scattered all over. Originally I had planned to test 10 round groups, then check barrel for leading, and change target. However the range I was at seemed to be going a long time between cease fires, and I got impatient and put 19/20(I fired all 20, just 19 made it through the paper) of the rounds from my first batch of target loads into the same target. I did keep an eye on my barrel for leading though, and did not see any. Am not sure how far off the paper that missing 20th round went.
My second batch was same as first except the powder charge was 4.5gr(up .2gr from starting) When I fired the first round I checked for high pressure signs and again noticed slight cratering of the primer but nothing else worrisome. When I compared this to the primers from my starting load batch the degree of cratering seemed identical, so I am thinking maybe just soft primers. So I continued on. As you can see I still can't shoot worth beans, but my "group"(I use the term very loosely) seems alot better with this load, at least a much larger percentage of rounds are in the black(12/20), and all 20 were on the paper at least. So far I am liking this middle load for target shooting while I try to improve my aim. Still no leading in my barrel. yay
My third and final batch for the day was at 4.8gr of powder. The max charge as listed in the load data I got from Hodgdon. I fired a single round then checked for over-pressure again. Again the only "overpressure" sign I found was slightly cratered primer. When comparing to the other batches the primers from all 3 batches looked identical. So at this point I am still thinking I just have some soft primers. At first glance this seems like the best group yet. I have 12 in the black again, and 2 in the 10 ring. The fliers are a lot farther out than they were in my mid range load though,(like the one at the very bottom edge of the paper) and 2 missed the paper entirely. 60 rounds of cast ammo and still no leading in my barrel, it was pretty easy to clean when I got home too.
At this point I am thinking of sticking with my second load as my target load. Then maybe when I can hold a decent sized group I will refine the load further for better accuracy. Please let me know if there are any glaring flaws in my methodology, and again please give "constructive" criticism.
TIA,
Joe
Guess I was being a little over-careful.
