kylethunder380

Does anyone have a load for Solo 1000 with a 115gr cast lead bullet? Thanks, -Kyle

Hey guys, thought I'd share and maybe give a glimmer of hope for those dying to get their hands on some primers. I live in Michigan, and there are two gun shops within 30 mins of my house. As of yesterday, both of them had CCI Small Pistol and CCI Small Magnum in stock. I refuse to purchase ANYTHING at of the aforementioned shops (Guns Galore), and I have read/heard several accounts of people also refusing to ever go there again. Anyways, I went to the other shop yesterday and they had approximately: 10 boxes of Large Pistol, 8 boxes of Small Pistol, and 4 boxes of Small Magnum (all CCI), BUT they were limiting them to 1000 primers per buyer. The previous three times I had been in there, they had NONE. The Small Pistol was $49 ($49.99 at the other gun shop), Small Magnum was $39 and I didn't check the price of the Large Pistol because I don't use them. I decided to hold off and didn't buy anything. Went back today, they had 2 boxes of Small Pistol left, 2 boxes of Small Magnum left, and 5 boxes of Large Pistol left. I am in a wheelchair and shooting is really the only hobby I have. I didn't want to pay $49, and CCI's aren't my first choice in primers, but I figured I would rather get ripped off now and be able to enjoy shooting for a while, versus waiting god knows how long for more to come in and the prices to go back down (while sitting around and not being able to enjoy my hobby of reloading ammo and shooting.) I bought 1000 of the CCI 500 SP primers and if all they had were the Small Magnums, I would have bought 1000 of them. Yes, I could have saved $10 by just getting the Small Magnums but I don't have enough components to afford re-working all of my loads up to where they normally should be. Plus, I like to use very fast powders like Clays and Solo 1000 and my gut tells me not to mess around with the Magnums even though I have read of people on this forum using them without pressure signs (they did have to adjust their powder charges down however). Hopefully this is a good sign of things to come and our precious primers will start pouring in again (and hopefully we will no longer get GOUGED on pricing). Has anyone else spotted pistol primers in their local gunshops recently? -Kyle

I too am in a wheelchair, but mine is electric. I am lucky enough to go to an engineering college where the metal working guys are awesome. He made me a custom "arm" out of aluminum which slides into the hollow frame tube of my wheelchair and locks in with a steel pin. It has a plate attached to it which is where my BladeTech DOH holster attaches, and I can cant it forward or backward. The gun ends up right next to my knee, which is perfect with the drop/offset style holsters that sit lower. With my wheelchair, I can move my controller to either my left or right side, so I can have one hand on my joystick and the other handling the holstering/drawing. If I use my right hand to move, and my left hand to draw, I do lose a little time readjusting my grip when my hands meet in front of my chest (I am right handed). But, there isn't a whole lot of room under/next-to the joystick, so even though I could have my holster AND joystick on my right side, and draw with my right hand after I have come to a stop, there isn't much room to work with over there unless I flip the joystick out of the way, which ends up costing me more time than just drawing with my left hand and readjusting my grip before pressing out toward my target. I have a friend who is in a regular push wheelchair, and what he does is wraps a belt around his legs (below his knees) which has a Kydex OWB holster on it, but modified 90 degrees so it points forward/backward instead of left/right (which would be very dangerous when drawing if you have someone next to you). His gun sits centered between his legs when holstered. His mag pouches are on the belt too, on both sides of the holster. It works for him anyways. I use this "belt" idea around my legs too, but only for my mag pouches. Hope this offers at least a little help. It really does depend a lot on the wheelchair design and the persons arm strength/mobility. -Kyle

Hey guys, I recently got some bullets from a plated bullet mfg whose name I will leave out. The plating seems to be reasonably thick and they are consistently sized. But, the plating (on ALL of them) has several small "dents", randomly spread over the entire bullet. The dents are not deep and if I had to guess, I'd say there is an average of about 15 dents per bullet. They were 9mm 147 grain copper plated bullets which were sized to .357 per my request. I have used the same bullet sized to .356 in the past, and a similar 135 grain bullet, and do not recall them looking like this. Is this going to affect the accuracy I am going to get out of these bullets, or do you think they will be fine? I do not have a camera to provide a photo, but I have tried to accurately described how they look. Thanks, -Kyle

Hey Guys. I am not satisfied with my Lee Auto-Disk powder dropper when the charges are very small- like for .380 and light 9mm loads between 2-5 grains. I have the Lee Adjustable Charge Bar on there out of necessity and it works better than the single disk, but I get a lot of light-drops or even no-drops. I end up weighing almost every load by hand. I would like to get one of the droppers that is separate from the press, so I can fill the cases up outside of the turret stages. Which one is going to give me the most accurate charges for such loads? Is there a cheaper one that gives nearly as precise charges as the more expensive ones? Is there a modification I can do to my Lee setup to make it work better with the small charges? (I have the "Pro" version with the Teflon coated internals, but it is part of the Turret Press system and the case itself activates the drop.) I am using flake powders exclusively and am not going to change powders. What would you guys recommend? I am sick of weighing every single charge because I don't trust it. -Kyle

Mine is the Match too. I think mine doesn't like lead either. I am not happy with the results I am getting. The flat points will not feed no matter what I do as far as length is concerned. I tried everything from just below the lube ring all the way to even with the shoulder, with no improvement. I had a very hard time cleaning my barrel too, and still haven't gotten it perfectly clean after 2 cleanings. I will never buy flat points- these were samples I got to test out. The conical nose ones fed okay but I am not sure about the accuracy or the leading of the barrel. I was using Zero JHP's without any problems and will probably just stick with them, but a heavier weight. I polished my feed ramp even more just to make cleanup easier if nothing else. Thanks guys. -Kyle

That is actually not a bad idea. 9mm mags are not perfect and I use the EAA large frame ones with spacer. Maybe I will try new a new spring in one of them and see what happens. -Kyle

It is an EAA Witness model gun. The gun was not that dirty... I guess I am just used to shooting JHP's which are much cleaner. My barrel and barrel ramp were totally black and I had shot probably around 120 rounds total. Sometimes they would nosedive at the bottom of the ramp, sometimes in the middle. On the latter cases, I could sometimes hit the slide forward and get them to chamber. Yes, I was using a pretty light load. I thought maybe the heavier recoil spring might solve the problem but it didn't help at all, so I put the lighter one back in since I like the feel better. I also had some 125gr conical points which I could seat all the way to the bullet shoulder and still not jam up like the flat points. I'd like to get the flat points chambering reliably, but if I can't, might have to go with the conicals or a heavier round nose. I wonder if anyone on the forums makes or would have any 130-135 grain round nosers with diameter of .355-.356 which I could test out. I wish more bullet companies would offer sample packs so that we can test them out in our particular gun before getting stuck ordering several hundred or thousands, just to get the bulk rate. Midstates Bullets are very good in this regard but of course they don't offer a 130-135 grain round nose for 9mm/38 super (sized to .355-.356). -Kyle

Hey Guys, I have some 122gr FP cast lead bullets to test out and was getting nosedives today at the range. I have no experience loading this style of bullet yet, but I was seating them so that the lube ring was just below visible at the case mouth. It was near the end of my session and my feed ramp was getting dirty, but they were consistently getting stuck into the ramp- this was not like it was happening every so often. Even only just going beyond the lube ring, they are still not very long overall because of the flat point. Aesthetically, it would look best to seat all the way down to the "shoulder" of the bullet but I doubt that would be ideal. Is there a rule of thumb for getting these to chamber in ramped 9mm barrels? I am using a reduced power recoil spring but only one size below factory. Thanks, -Kyle

Just for future reference, what would be the best (least snappy/recoiling) load with the lighter 115gr bullets? If prices keep going up I may have to order the 115gr's for my next order of bullets. Would Clays be a good choice here as well?

Awesome. Thanks a lot guys. I think I have enough info to get started with a few of these suggested loads.

Thanks for all the replies guys. I should mention that I am not required to meet minor power factor for this load, it just needs to be enough to function well in my gun. I would prefer using a cheaper powder than the VV to start out with, this way I can experiment a bit and afford to mess up a few times working with the new press. Yes- lead or moly bullets are fine with me. I am fine with loading out to 1.15 OAL if it means I can use Clays safely. But, are you saying that you can use Clays ONLY with lead bullets?

I noticed that Solo 1000 is sort-of in between N310 and N320, but cheaper- would this be powder be a good choice to get me started at least (with the 147gr bullets) ?

Hey guys, I am a disabled shooter (spinal cord injury) and am going to start reloading my own ammunition. I shoot .380 and 9mm, which is pretty much my limit (I can't comfortably shoot .40sw or .45acp for very long out of ALL guns I have tried). I am looking for a load for my 9mm target gun, which is an all-steel EAA Witness Elite Match (the weight and design of the gun helps me considerably when it comes to managing the recoil). I usually shoot Winchester USA "White Box" 115gr FMJ or their 147gr JHP which I like, but feel like there is room for improvement in the recoil department. I have not purchased bullets or powder yet so there are no limitations on your recommendations other than low recoil followed closely by accuracy. That said, I would like to avoid the 115gr and bump-up to 124gr and 147gr bullet weights. The Win USA 147gr JHP feels noticably "slower" coming out of the barrel but the gun still functions (I don't know what weight recoil spring is in there). If it matters, I shoot steel at 25yds mainly but warm-up at 7yds a lot as well. What would you suggest for powder and bullet combos?