hamiltonian

38 Super. From a single stack gun, the 38 super feeds better in my experience. I have gotten 9mm to feed in a single stack gun, but I have had to try several different magazines to get it reliable. 38 Super (or variants: 38 SuperComp, 9x23) all feed well with a variety of 38 Super magazines. Double stacks seem to feed 9mm better from their magazines, also.

Interesting! I have been using Dillion case lube and always tumbled the loaded rounds for 30 min to get the lube off. I am going to try 1 shot next loading session with no tumbling to save that step.

The load I use now is 4.8 g Clays under a 180g jacketed bullet loaded to 1.220; that makes 170 PF. I do not know the freebore length but the barrel will pass the plunk test at 1.250 so it is over 0.030.

I was using 180 g jacketed bullets and 5.x g of Clays loaded to 1.230 using WSR primers. We used extra long firing pins also to help reduce primer flow from what I was told from the gunsmith. I never had any breech face erosion. My barrel was prepped to run these with no problems; however, my brother had a Para and he tried these loads without prepping the barrel and had a case head blow. Good thing it was an all steel gun as it blew out the magazine but no permanent injury to the gun or my brother.

I use my open gun for steel challenge but it is a light one rather than the heavier guns popular, now. I experimented a lot with different loads. I found that running at 155 PF with 3N37 and a 115 g bullet gave the best recoil impulse for steel challenge stages.

I also prefer standing while I reload on a 550, 650 or 1050. I also keep my sessions to under an hour, though.

I also have settled on HS6 for 9 major. 3N37 seems to work as well for me, but is more expensive.

In the old days, we ran Clays with 180 g bullets at 182 PF all day long. You had to prepare the gun for it though: the barrel needed to be freebored enough to allow long loads and to give a jump to the rifling to reduce pressure similar to the approach Weatherby rifles uses in their chambers. With the reduction in PF to make major down to 165, Clays becomes even more feasible as a soft powder choice. However, it still requires some care in its use. I have switched to N310 as it is a lot cleaner burning.

If you use a conversion barrel, have it freebored to accept long loaded 40's. Then you can load out to 1.200 or longer if needed to feed from the 10mm magazines.

I use them in my limited and single stack guns out of habit, but I cannot feel the difference if I run without them. I use the Wilson blue ones and have never had a problem with them falling apart.