Exposure
Member
Well tonight was a pretty exciting night for me! My powder finally showed up, and after cooking dinner, cleaning up, and spending some time with my wife I eventually snuck off to the basement to make up my first ever handloads.
The loads are .45 ACP and these initial rounds will be fired from a 1911. Here is what I came up with.
CCI #300 LP primers
Mixed, once fired brass
Rainier 230 GR LeadSafe bullets (Rainier says to use lead bullet data with these, NOT jacketed data)
3.6 Grains of Bullseye powder (Using the Lee reloading manual I took the 4 grain starting charge for 230 GR lead bullets and reduced by 10%)
Very light crimp
1.269" OAL with +/- .003" variance.
The Lee Modern Reloading Manual lists 4.0 grains of bullseye as both the starting load AND the max load. That seems strange to me. Both of my reloading manuals and everything I have read on the net say that starting at a 10% reduced charge is a good idea. Having said that, the 3.6 grains of powder seems light to me but I am trying to keep my face and hands intact here.
Any input is appreciated.
If there was enough moonlight to make my chronograph work I would happily go out in the backyard and pop these off right now. Sadly, I won't be able to get out and shoot these until tomorrow afternoon. The wait is going to kill me!
The loads are .45 ACP and these initial rounds will be fired from a 1911. Here is what I came up with.
CCI #300 LP primers
Mixed, once fired brass
Rainier 230 GR LeadSafe bullets (Rainier says to use lead bullet data with these, NOT jacketed data)
3.6 Grains of Bullseye powder (Using the Lee reloading manual I took the 4 grain starting charge for 230 GR lead bullets and reduced by 10%)
Very light crimp
1.269" OAL with +/- .003" variance.
The Lee Modern Reloading Manual lists 4.0 grains of bullseye as both the starting load AND the max load. That seems strange to me. Both of my reloading manuals and everything I have read on the net say that starting at a 10% reduced charge is a good idea. Having said that, the 3.6 grains of powder seems light to me but I am trying to keep my face and hands intact here.
Any input is appreciated.
If there was enough moonlight to make my chronograph work I would happily go out in the backyard and pop these off right now. Sadly, I won't be able to get out and shoot these until tomorrow afternoon. The wait is going to kill me!