Reloading

.38 Special load recipe – for plinking, using Berry’s bullets and Titegroup powder – version 1.1

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

So I have my original .38 Special plinking load.

I realized after loading a bunch that the powder drop was actually dropping 3.7 grains of Titegroup. I’m on the really low end of things so I didn’t think it’d make that much of a difference, but I swore one time at the range those loads felt a little snappier. So I reloaded a bunch more .38 making sure to load it at 3.5 grains.

At the range this morning I tried out both loads side-by-side. I don’t have any chrono results, but I can say I felt a hint more snap in the 3.7 grains vs. the 3.5 grains. And there’s something that wants to say the 3.7 might have been a hair more accurate, but I didn’t have enough on hand to really make that determination.

Nevertheless, 3.5 or 3.7 didn’t make too much practical difference in how things felt. I’m going to run my supply down (should be easy with next month’s snub class), and when I begin .38 loads again, I’m going to try it at the 3.7 grains and see how it goes.

Anyway, at this point I’m pretty satisfied with my .38 recipe. I’m sure I’ll experiment more in the future, different powders, different bullets, different lengths and so on. But for now, what I have works and is good enough to go forward.

Initial 9mm reloads

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

Time to change the Lock-n-Load AP from .38 Special to 9mm.

I’ve actually tried a couple 9mm recipes already, and based upon them and the components I have available, here’s what I’m going to start with:

Bullet: Berry’s plated 9mm 115 grain RN DS

Primer: Remington 1.5 Small Pistol

Cases: Whatever used 9mm cases I have

COAL: 1.135″

Powder: Titegroup 4.5 grains (or maybe 4.4)

The only case prep was cleaning the cases (dry vibratory case tumbler), then of course a resize and decap. No triming, no primer pocket cleaning, nothing like that. I used a taper crimp and I know varying case lengths can affect the crimp, but I’m just looking to make a basic plinking/target load that I can shoot in quantity.

The powder selection is because I’m kinda liking Titegroup, I’ve got a bunch of it, so let’s run with it and see what I can get from it. The last time I used Titegroup had 4.2 grains and wasn’t enough to really make the guns run. So what to use? The Speer #14 manual says the max is 4.5 grains, using a Speer TMJ RN 115 grain bullet and 1.135″ COAL (or a Speer GDHP and 1.125″ COAL). Hodgdon’s manual says 4.8 grains using a 115 grain Speer GDHP and 1.125″ COAL, and lists 4.5 grains as the minimum. Hodgdon’s website adds a 115 grain LRN with a COAL of 1.100″ with a max of 4.3 grains and min of 3.9 grains.  Furthermore, Berry’s plated bullets really can’t go more than 1200 fps, and 9mm by nature tends to push towards that limit. Given all of this, given the performance I saw in my prior test, given that I’d like this to run in any 9mm gun I have well… I’m thinking 4.5 grains ought to be right. I didn’t want to spend all day sweating single granule differences in weight, so the final weight was somewhere maybe 4.45 grains. Close enough.

Since this is the first time for a load, I wouldn’t want to load up a lot: load a few, see if they work, then come back and adjust and load more. However, given what I’ve seen, I think this load ought to work out OK. Thus I loaded 45 rounds (was going to do 50 but had 45 primers left in this one tray so I just went with that). That should be enough to ensure the load cycles in all my 9mm handguns, do some basic testing for accuracy, see how it feels, and just see how it goes.

So at this point, I’ve got my .223 loads, my .38 loads, and now these 9mm loads. I shall be going to the range soon to try them all out. Reminds me… I need to swab out the AR.

1000 are on the way

/ hsoi

I just received an email from Hornady.

My 1000 free 9mm 115 grain FMJ bullets, obtained as part of a special promotion when I bought my Lock-n-Load AP, are apparently on their way. Awesome!

Hornady still has the promotion, but this year it’s only 500 bullets. Still it’s a nice promotion.

I was about to start on my 9mm reloads with the Berry’s bullets but I may hold off a bit and wait until the Hornady bullets come in and tinker with them both at the same time. Whee!

Rambling about reloading

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

Helping myself remember what I’m doing with my reloading.

.223 Remington

Still haven’t gotten to the range to do my Varget testing. It’s CCI #41 primer, case length 1.750″ (used Remington brass, trimmed and prepped), Barnes TSX .224″ 62 grain, COAL 2.250″. Using Varget, and loaded 5 rounds each starting at 25.1 grains up to 25.6 in 0.1 grain increments (30 rounds total). The goal is to shoot 5 shot groups of each charge weight and see how they perform in terms of accuracy. Whichever proves to be most accurate out of my rifle is what I’ll settle upon, load up a bunch of, get some chronograph readings, zero the scope, and move along.

.38 Special

I bought some brass off a guy and loaded a couple hundred more rounds before I switch over the Lock-n-Load AP press. I should have more than enough ammo for the snub class next month, but I’m still waiting on requirements.

One thing I noticed is I think my last round of loads crept up to 3.7 grains of Titegroup, which is more than my normal recipe. It may explain why the last time I shot them it felt a wee snappier. When I reloaded the last couple hundred rounds I rechecked the power drop to ensure 3.5 grains. When I next go to the range I want to take some of both batches of reloads and try them out.

If all is right in the world, I’ll be done loading .38 for a while… tho something just now nags at me that it’d probably be worthwhile to load a couple hundred more before I change the press.

9mm

Because once I switch the LnL press over to 9mm, I’ll be there for a while. I need to load at least 2000 rounds.

My last round of 9mm used Berry’s 115 grain RN DS, 4.2 grains Titegroup, Winchester WSP standard small pistol primers, various used brass, and a COAL of 1.135″. The load turned out to be too wimpy, the guns almost not running. Looking at load data, I think 4.4 or 4.5 grains ought to do it. I have to be mindful because these Berry’s bullets really can’t go over 1200 fps and 9mm pushes towards that end. But again, looking at published data I think 4.4 or 4.5 will work OK. Oh, and I will be using different primers because that’s what I have. Hopefully won’t make too grand a difference.

Overall

I think I’ll do a couple hundred more .38 just to have a buffer because once I set up for 9mm I really won’t want to change back until I’m done. Then I’ll set up for 9mm using the above, load maybe 20 rounds as an initial experiment. Then, I’ll take all 3 sets of loads and 3 guns to the range and try everything out: the .223 Varget different charge weights, the .38 loads, the initial 9mm load. See how everything does. If all is good, probably take care of the .223 loads to put them to bed, then get rolling on the 9mm.

I just need a little more time in a day. 🙂

Of course, of course

/ hsoi

Via referral from foo.c, I purchased about 600 used .38 Special cases off a guy. They arrived today. Threw half in the tumbler and by the time I was done with dinner so too was the brass clean enough.

I spot-checked my Lock-n-Load. Looks like it started throwing 3.7 grains of Titegroup instead of 3.5. That might explain why the last batch felt a bit snappier. I readjusted back to 3.5 grains and it seemed to hold steady there. I’ll try this load out vs. the previous load next time I’m at the range and see what differences I can perceive.

Oldest helped me out. Something about the factory-nature of it all appeals to him. It’s cool. Got to spend time together. Let him run the press for a bit. He’s coming to understand “the feel” of it all.

As mentioned previously, there’s one slot in the shell plate that refuses to come in line at the priming station. Actually that’s not the correct way to describe it, but it’s the way I’m able to keep track of it. The guy at Hornady told me to adjust the right pawl. So I adjusted it… I kept adjusting it…. good grief how much to adjust it before I’ll see a difference? And then I saw a difference. Every time the ram went up, things would jam. You see, the right pawl affects the advancing of the shell plate at the top of the ram (bottom of the stroke). It’s the left pawl that advances the plate when the ram comes down (the handle comes up). So…. I put the right pawl back where I started and started to adjust the left pawl.

Lo and behold, things seem to be working.

Unfortunately I didn’t have enough primers left (only brought so many into the garage) so I didn’t get to go through a lot of cycles. But I do think things are better now. Or at least, now I know the correct one. I’ll chalk it up to the Hornady guy not fully understanding what I was saying or that I didn’t explain it to him well enough (i.e. gonna blame myself before I blame him). Oh well. Learned from it. 🙂

Got about 165 more .38 Special rounds loaded. Hopefully that will be enough for the Claude Werner class next month.

Random reloading stuff

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

After dinner last night I finished reloading 30 rounds. .223 Remington, Barnes TSX .224″ 62 grain, CCI #41 primer, used Remington brass trimmed to 1.750″, COAL of 2.250″, all with Varget powder. Started at 25.1 grain and loaded 5 rounds each at 0.1 grain increments (5 @ 25.1, 5 @ 25.2, etc.). Goal is to take the AR to the local indoor range, shoot at 100 yards for the tightest groups I can. See which shoots the most accurate and smallest group, and that will be what I settle on for my AR hunting load. To me, that will be “good enough” for taking down a Texas deer or a hog. Load up at least 50 of that one. Take it to the rifle club, put it on the chrono, and get the scope zeroed. Rifle club has 200 yard range and I should try it at 200 yards as well as that’s the maximum range at which I think this load would be OK at in terms of hunting and terminal ballistics (yeah on paper can go more, but 200 yards is the most I’d feel OK with, at least at this point).

BTW, I called Barnes a couple weeks ago to ask if they had 5.56x45mm NATO reload data. Guy on the phone said no not yet, but apparently that data is coming. Barnes website says they’re working on data manual #5 so maybe it’ll be in there. That’d be cool. Mostly it provides some known recipes, especially for flirting with safe pressures.

I bought some used .38 Special brass off a guy. Should arrive sometime this week. When I get it I’ll probably load another couple hundred rounds of my .38 Special recipe. I think the Lock-n-Load press was dropping 3.7 grains of Titegroup instead of 3.5, which likely explains why when I tried the loads they had a little more snap to them. Before I load these up I’m going to double-check all the press settings and go from there. I figure as long as the LnL is set for .38 I might as well get a few hundred more cranked out before I switch.

Because yes, I need to switch to work up a 9mm load. You see, Tom Givens of Rangemaster is returning to KR Training as a guest instructor teaching his Combative Pistol 2 course. If that course requires 1500 rounds, I need to get a load worked up and probably aim to load 2000 rounds. I need to get crankin’ on that; even with the progressive press it’s still going to take a while to crank out that many. I should have enough primers, powder, and cases, but I need more bullets. For cases, I’m going to use all the harvested range brass I have; it’s unlikely I’ll recover any brass from this class so I might as well use “throw-away” brass and reloads in the class. Keep all my new factory ammo and then “once-fired brass” for myself and use that at practice sessions between now and then. I tried Titegroup once, and that recipe was really weak, but should provide a good starting point. Titegroup jug says 4.8 grains with a 115 gr GDHP and COL of 1.125″ is a max load, so the load I had was below the 10% less starting point. If say I use my previous recipe with 4.4 grains, the gun cycles, things come out OK, I’ll probably just skip too much experimenting and go with that. I don’t need to spend forever on this one…. just need a load that runs and isn’t too ugly.

If all goes well, I can get all this done in the next week or two. The .223 loads are ready to go. .38 brass arrive this week and I can get a couple hundred rounds going fairly easily. Then do some preliminary 9mm setup and experiments. Once I have a fair lot of each load, off to the range to try them all out and see how things shake. Fun fun fun!

Who knew?

/ hsoi

Had a very draining day at work today. Nothing necessarily bad, just had many things going on at once, lots of things to coordinate, people to wait on, things to do, and was doing it non-stop for a very long day.

After all was done I sat on the couch with Wife and Kids for a bit and talked, then went into the garage. I spent about 30 minutes in there taking 30 pieces of .223 Rem brass. Resize and decap. Trim. Clean the primer pocket. Debur and chamfer the mouth. Prime. Just getting the brass all ready to load my next round of .223 hunting load experiments. I’ll probably add powder and bullets after dinner.

But who knew it would be so relaxing. It was just a nice way to unwind from the day.

Bullet and Case Feeder – oh the joy

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

A guy hooks up both a case feeder and an RCBS bullet feeder to his Hornady Lock-n-Load AP.

Man, that’s awesome production. 🙂 (h/t to foo.c for the video)

I can’t justify that for myself. It’ll probably run around $1000 for both feeders and the additional equipment needed (e.g. feeder plates), and it’s hard to justify the $1000 for the level of reloading that I’m doing. Of course, if I was shooting thousands of rounds a month training for competition or whatever, sure.

Still, one can dream of things for when the money fairy visits me.

My .223 Remington hunting loads – the ladder test

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

Now that the primer investigation is put to rest, I can get back to working up my .223 loads so I can hunt with .223 Remington and a lightweight AR.

I opted to try using the Ladder Test for this next stage of the process.

The load:

Primer — CCI #41

Brass — Remington used (2x fired at this point). 1.750″ trim length, flash holes deburred, primer pockets uniformed

Bullet — Barnes TSX .224″ 62 grain

COAL — 2.250″ (taken from Barnes #4 manual)

Powder — Varget

The big change here is using Varget. I have 30 rounds loaded. There are 10 “steps” of powder, from 23.7 grains up to 25.5 grains in 0.2 grain increments. There are 3 rounds of each charge weight.

I went to the local indoor range to try things out, because 1. it was nearby, 2. I can shoot at 100 yards and not have to worry about wind and other conditions; weather right now isn’t that ideal. Downside is I can’t chronograph things, but I’m not considering that vital at this point. Once I figure where things look accurate enough then I’ll chrono.

Results

I don’t know what to make of the results.

If I look at the pictures from the ladder article, what I should see is the greater the charge weight, thus the more velocity, thus the higher (vertically) the impact should be on the paper; that the holes in the paper should “climb” as I go up in charge weight. That didn’t exactly happen. Shots from the lightest charge weight ended up shooting the highest.

Furthermore, I was unsure about shooting only 3 rounds because inevitably you’ll get 2 good shots and 1 that screws things up, and I certainly got that; two would be close, then one would be off somewhere else. I read that statistically 7 is the best number to use as it best balances giving enough worthwhile statistical data but also keeps the amount of components used to a minimum. I just have to be mindful of my component consumption, plus the ladder test article said to go with 3, so that’s what I did.

If I look at where the shots clustered….

25.5 grains produced a 3-shot 1/2″ vertical group. Note that for this test vertical is what we care about, but even with that the 25.5 grain group was the overall tightest with the 3 shots literally stacked atop each other and touching. I can cover the group with a nickel.

As I read online, I see others shooting similar situations (62 grain TSX, Varget, and even shooting out of 1:9 twist AR’s), that they’ll have good results with 25.0 grains. I’ve also read of good success using 26.4 grains which generated almost 2900 fps from a 16″ barrel, and another using 27.5 grains out of a Bushmaster SS varmint (getting 3400 fps). But note 25.5 grains is the listed max in the Barnes manual and those last 2 greatly exceed that. Of course, they all were shooting out of a 5.56 chambered rifle, so they can handle the additional pressure.

That said, as I look at the vertical window, 25.5 certainly gave me the best overall performance. 25.1 grains looks to also have promise. Anything much below that seems to not provide that great of results. But this appears to be consistent with what I’ve been told, that Varget tends to come into its own when pushed closer to the max. One possible reason? When you get up in charge weight it starts to cause a compressed load, which apparently helps Varget.

What I think I may do at this point is start at 25.1 and load in 0.1 grain increments up to 25.5 (I don’t feel like going past max, if I don’t have to). But this time, I’ll load 5 rounds or maybe 7 depending on my component count. The point being to try to get a bit more statistical spread than what 3 rounds can give me. See how that goes.

In related news, the Varget does feel different from TAC. There’s not a massive difference, but the TAC feels a bit snappier than the Varget. Or it could just be how I was feeling today.

Of course

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

I have a slight problem with the indexing of the shell plate on the Lock-n-Load press. Sometimes the shell plate doesn’t fully advance to the next slot. I notice it because I’m trying to press the handle to seat the primer and nothing goes. A little nudge clockwise and viola, the plate goes into position and things move on.

I call Hornady’s customer service and am told to give the right pawl a small counterclockwise (backing out) turn; say, 1/8th turn at a time. See if that helps. I’m out of .38 brass so I’ll have to try again later.

I go to the range, shoot some of the reloaded .38 as well as some factory new ammo (Magtech). Shoot some 75 rounds total. I come home and reload not just to have a full stock of .38 ammo but also to see if I can get the shell plate problem to reproduce.

Of course, it doesn’t reproduce.

Oh well. I’ll keep on the lookout for it and adjust it if it happens.

In other news, there’s something awesome about just loading up primers and powder, then getting to work and cranking out 75 rounds in a short period of time. Didn’t keep track, but it was basically “in and out” of the garage. If I tried that with the single stage I’d have been in there for a couple hours at least. So nice!

It does suggest to me a few things:

  • Yes, I want a case feeder.
  • I want to get micrometer inserts for the powder drop.
  • Long term when money isn’t an issue, it would be cool to have setups for every caliber I load. So in addition to the standard dies, I’d need another powder cop, I’d want another powder drop micrometer insert, I might even want more power-through-expanders and powder drops. Not sure really. It all depends how much I care for quick change between calibers. Having one of everything per-load is useful since you can set it and forget it (so long as you never change your load recipe), then swapping to another caliber is a piece of cake. If some things don’t change tho, it’s just a matter of some time and work to set things up for the next caliber, but nothing seems to be that much of a pain other than the powder adjustments. Really, this would be a matter of just blowing money on buying unique accessories per load.