viper8315

Hello again everyone. Thanks to all of you for your assistance. I just wanted to report back with my findings after the recent batch. So I added more crimp to combat the possible setback problem. It's now 0.468", and I made 10 each of 5.8-6.6 gr with it. I started off the session by marking and recording the OAL of 10 rounds of the 5.8. I did not observe any measurable setback, and the speeds were stable in regards to follow on shots. Not like last time with 50 fps differences in follow-on shots. Results: 5.8 gr avg 665 sd 27 es 80 6.0 gr, unfortunately, bad data due to clouds, turned on the infrared LEDs on the chrono for the rest of the runs. 6.2gr avg 728 sd 24 es 67 6.4gr avg 742 sd 12 es 42 6.6gr avg 770 sd 12 es 46 For comparison sake, I shot some winchester white box, it averaged 834, and PMC 230 RN FMJ which averaged 782. I was outdoors at about 36 deg ambient temp. I did notice that once I got to the 6.4, the carbon streaking began to fade, so it looks like the case is actually beginning to seal in the chamber. I'm still not up to a full power load per say, but things have definitely turned the corner. I might also have to wait for things to warm up since I have no idea on the temperature sensitivity of CFE. I've searched, but couldn't find anybody comment about it. Well, just wanted to report back for anyone else's sake. If anyone wants to see the actual data, let me know, I'd be happy to share. Thanks again... Tim

Thank you for the comments. I took screen captures of my data. You can see that a good majority of my second shots were significantly faster than the first. I'm still kicking myself for forgetting calipers to check loaded rounds after a recoil event. So I can't say with 100% certainty that setback was occurring, but in my very limited experience, a 50 fps difference with this recipe of components is 0.4 gr of powder. I'm very meticulous, and I had the powder measure dialed in and throwing consistently what I wanted it to. Well...let me know what you guys think of the data... Tim

Yup, saw that, definitely another variable to play with. Berry's called out an OAL of 1.25 so that's where I started...

Hello everyone, I'm new to reloading, and getting started with 45 ACP, and running into some issues with lower than expected velocities, and signs that the case is not sealing in the chamber upon firing (carbon streaks down the cases). I also might be observing some setback as well (based on the speed data). I'll apologize in advance for the novel I'm about to write, but I figure the more info I give the better. Ok, so here's what I'm working with: 230 RN berry's CFE Pistol CCI# 300 large primers Mixed brass (federal, winchester, fiocchi, aquila, pmc, magtech) Dillon 650 Kimber 5" 1911 I started off loading to a 1.25" OAL with a 0.472" crimp with 20 rounds each of powder values ranging from 5.4 gr to 6.0 gr, following the example of Hodgon's data. My results were as follows: 5.4gr 534 (only 1 shot recorded, battery died in chrono) all 20 rounds did cycle, but this was definitely very soft 5.6gr avg 648 sd 26 es 109 5.8gr avg 685 sd 24 es 106 6.0gr avg 716 sd 19 es 82 At that range outing, I noticed across the board, streaks down the cases indicating things aren't sealing properly. From poking around these forums, found that a crimp of 0.470" seemed to be the more "standard" number. So I immediately figured it was not enough crimp. I decided to pull apart the 5 dummy loads I made at the start, and the crimp looked ok from my reading. There was a slight indentation. I decided to adjust the crimp to 0.470" and made more dummies. I immediately disassembled them, and they took much more force than the 0.472" crimp to knock out, so I figured that was the issue. Once again, the crimp looked good on the bullet, honestly couldn't tell much difference between the two. I loaded up 20 more rounds each of 5.4 gr-6.2 gr with the 0.470" crimp and headed back to the range. Results were as follows: 5.4gr avg 651 sd 24 es 80 5.6gr avg 688 sd 20 es 81 5.8gr avg 702 sd 24 es 91 6.0gr avg 734 sd 26 es 88 6.2 gr avg 749 sd 22 es 73 During this outing, I started to notice a pattern where my second shot was considerably faster (50 fps) or so than my first. So, on my last string with the 6.2 gr, I only loaded 1 round into each of my 5 mags and had a 722 avg, sd of 10, and an es of 29 after those 5 shots. I also still noticed on almost all of the spent cases, carbon streaks. So, at this point, short of crimping more, say 0.468", I figured I'd post up and get some other people's thoughts before continuing. So thanks in advance to anyone for your help. I've attached my excel spreadsheet with my full data. Take note that the thick black borders in the speed columns represent mag changes. I generally did load 1, load 3, load 8, load 8. Ok...looks like I can't attach an excel spreadsheet, well I can email it to whoever's interested. Tim