The Chrono Doesn't Lie

[Dr.Rob]

Bill was kind enough to bring his chrono to our shoot saturday, so I had to check the old snubby again.

Sadly... some of the hottest loads my dad mixed for a 6 inch 357 Ruger GP 100 (6.5 gr of red dot/158 jhp) only clocked 925fps out of my Colt Magnum Carry... and often stuck the cases pretty good, though there were no signs of the primers backing out.

The good news is the Remington factory 125 SP loads I brought along (and rather hate shooting I must admit they are harsh on my trigger finger) were clocking mid 1250's and occasionally 1300's... so call the average 1260-75 out of a 2 inch snubby. That seems pretty good, but it's only marginally better than my 9mm.

I need to dig out some of my factory 158 ammo and run it through again... I was sure I've gotten a load out of the lil monster of 158 @ 1100fps

 

[pwrtool45]

You're absolutely right.

That load of 6.5gr is 0.5gr over current maximum. But even out of a 5.6" barrel it's only getting 1,160fps. Exceptionally fast burning powder and magnum loads don't, IME, mix well (though they tend to be pretty accurate). I had a friend burn the forcing cone out of his revolver using magnum loads of Unique (which isn't much faster than Red Dot). Just out of curiosity, what is he getting from that 6" Ruger? If I were to venture a guess, it wouldn't be much over 1200 - 1275 fps, if any?

IIRC, Your results with the full-power factory 125gr jacketed rounds also mirror what Mr. Camp has listed over at hipowersandhandguns.com. If I were to venture a guess, those factory loads wouldn't be using quite as fast a burning powder as Red Dot but still fast enough to make use of 2" - 4" barrels.