But here’s one:
Loafin’
Author: RI Red
Dunno. What do you want to know?
Lawyer, shooter, boater, aviator, etc.
Wad did you say?
A few weeks back I mentioned Wadcutters as a type of bullet. I had a box of same down on the bench, old Speer with the lube wax dirty with age. I loaded some up today. The Book says they do best at 900 fps – that works out to 3.0 grains of Tite Group:
Wow. Not much compared to rifle rounds. That’s barely going to cover the bottom of this new .38 Special brass. Ripe for double or triple charge mistakes. We’ll be very sensitive to quality control.
Before and after.
And does it punch nice clean holes in paper? Yep.
Upper left at 25 yards is 6 rounds out of the 4” barrel of the Taurus; the rest from the 2” barrel of the colt. 842 and 795 fps respectively.
It would have been nice to shoot some 3, 7, and 10 yard groups, but the Action Bays were being set up for an IDPA match.
Lessons learned? Yes, size your new brass before reloading. Pretty tight, otherwise. Live and learn.
Moving on
Since my iMovie-fu is proving inadequate, let’s talk primers.
OK!
I’ve recently been using these in my cannons. And consistency has improved.
Of course, Federal Gold Medal anything seems to be top shelf.
video?
Nope. Still can’t up upload the movie I want. But I just figured out how to add AI!
Of course, the “gunslinger wielding dual Colt .45s” had two right hands …
Home on the Range
Yes, I promised a video. But I can’t get the damn thing to load.
What a great day for a KatNap!
Or two!
🖐🏻 8 👫
Yup, been on a 10-day one. And worse, no shooting! Well, I fixed that today:
The Long Range just had its annual clearing and I may have been the first one to shoot. 76 degrees, humid, density altitude of 2473’, and a left to right light breeze.
I used the opportunity to wring out the Hornady 120 grain ELDM load. After doing the paperwork and weather, I loaded up and got going.
I’m very pleased with the round. It shot flatter than my Applied Ballistics program predicted by about 2 MOA at distance. Hits at 525, 829, 867, 875, 975 and 1,106. The wind did not seem to affect it any more than my standard 140 g loads.
And, after I was done, I did a drone tour of the newly cleared range. I just might post it soon!
Thumper Rule
Yup
Geek stuff – Reloading
This is about what a load of rifle powder should look like.
Well, “powder” is a misnomer. They actually are little cylindrical grains. Here’s one:
Now, serious reloaders trickle the last few of these into a case to make them all weigh the same. You measure your success with a chrono that tells you your muzzle velocity average, the standard deviation, and the extreme spread of muzzle velocity – fastest and slowest.
Standard deviation in the single digits and extreme spread in the teens is the Holy Grail – your rounds are very close to being identical.
I’ve loaded thousands of rounds and, as I trickle the last grain or two, I’ve often wondered what the difference a single grain could make. OK, yeah, very geeky.
Warning, simple math coming up.
I set my balance beam on one tenth of a Grain of powder (note weight unit versus description of a “grain” of powder). For Accurate 4350, a tenth of a Grain consists of 4 or 5 grains of powder. My best load for 120 g. 6.5 is 43.8 Grains, or 438 one tenth Grains. Multiplying that by 5 and 6 grains per tenth of a Grain gives 2190 and 2428 grains of powder per load. Dividing muzzle velocity of 2750 fps by the number of grains in a load gives 1.256 and 1.132 fps. So, every grain of powder contributes something over 1 feet per second.
Not much, huh? Ever hear of tolerance stacking? Remember, there are many other variables, such as bullet weight, case capacity, neck tension and primer capability, just as a few examples. When all those other tolerances are stacked up, that’s when you see standard deviation and extreme spread start to build.
Boy, that was geeky.
KatNap Fever! 