hkguy Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 (edited) Hi every one, I just acquired a Ruger GP100 i am planning on shooting for SSR in IDPA next year. I have begun to start researching load data and put together a load that is fairly accurate and fairly soft shooting. I have a ton of Tightgroup sitting around that i use for my 9mm loads, so it would be nice to use the same powder, but im not opposed to switching. So, if some of the revo vets wouldnt mind sharing your pet loads or pointing me in the right direction on what powder/bullet weight to use i would be awfully appreciative. I am getting some trigger work done and having the cylinder chamfered, would it be best to use a round nose bullet over a wad cutter? i am planning on running comp-III's. thanks in advance. Edited July 12, 2011 by hkguy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beladran Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 a full wad cutter might slow you down on reloads. i am more of a fan of swc's personally. start at 3.0gr of TG and work your way up. Bullseye and 231 are good powders to look at Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redmanfixit Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Definitely the SWC. Any of the three propellants mentioned should work fine. A classic target load for .38 spcl is 3.5 Bullseye under a 158 gr bullet. Accurate, cheap, soft shooting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DWFAN Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Use a 158gr round nose. Titegroup will smoke with anything lead or coated, but for IDPA the heat in the gun shouldnt be a problem with just 18rd max stages. I used 3.7gr clays and a 158gr BBI round nose to make 134pf( in a 686 357mag rated gun, worked up in my gun). Now that SSR Power Factor has been reduced, I could probably run 3.4 or less of clays. Its very clean. SWC or HBWC/DEWC will not reload near as fast/easy as a round nose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkguy Posted July 13, 2011 Author Share Posted July 13, 2011 with lead bullets would i have to lube them up to shoot them? and are "hard cast" more preferable over a softer lead? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beladran Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 you can shoot lead bullets with no lube... its just not something i would wanna do alot of. you need a lubesizer and if your gonna reload say 500+ a month i would go with a star/magma... easy mode. your alloy depends on the speed limits of your bullet.. soft "virgin" lead you need to keep under 1000fps and certian powders are prown to leading. wheel weights can be pushed a little faster because they are harder. Lyman #2 can be pushed to aout 1400fps. Straight linotype can approach 1700.. after that you REALLY need gas checked bullets.. I put about 6000 rounds of lead down the barrel of my 38 each year and only need to clean lead out maybe once or twice a year. Rule of thumb is that the lower the operating pressure of the load, the softer they alloy you want to use. Truthfully, forget about velocity because it doesn't mean squat because you can effectively develop high velocities with low-pressure loads thus if you look only at the resultant velocity, chances are you're going to be using a bullet that is far too-hard for the loading. Another thing is running cast bullets at 0.001-0.003" larger than the groove diameter, this is kind of a rule-of-thumb however, the higher the operating pressure of the load and the harder the alloy of the bullet you're using, the closer the bullet diameter must be to the actual groove diameter or you run the risk of creating serious pressure spikes that can cause a catastrophic failure of the gun. If you dont want to by a lubesizer you can buy a lee alox kit.. P.S all the speed demons use round nose bullets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anachronism Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 with lead bullets would i have to lube them up to shoot them? and are "hard cast" more preferable over a softer lead? Are you planning on making your own, or buying them? Store bought bullets are already lubed & sized. If you're going to cast your own, there are a lot of guys here that cast & can help you out, so ask away! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkguy Posted July 14, 2011 Author Share Posted July 14, 2011 with lead bullets would i have to lube them up to shoot them? and are "hard cast" more preferable over a softer lead? Are you planning on making your own, or buying them? Store bought bullets are already lubed & sized. If you're going to cast your own, there are a lot of guys here that cast & can help you out, so ask away! for now i am not going to cast my own as of now, i just wont have time or $$ to get that process started. Im leaning towards the 158 gr RN, where are some good places to get bullet from? i typically shoot berrys in my 9mm's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beladran Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 bayou bullets or billy bullets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick B Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 I use 3.4 Clays and a 160 Billys round nose bullet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom E Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 Im leaning towards the 158 gr RN, where are some good places to get bullet from? I use these for ICORE: http://www.missouribullet.com/details.php?prodId=76&category=5&secondary=9&keywords= Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aircooled6racer Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 Hello: Have you tried any of your 9mm bullets to see how they work? I am in the same boat about finding a load in 38 spl that will work for IDPA. I plan on using Tite Group or N320. I hope the 9mm bullets will work since I have lots of those. Let us know if they work for you. Thanks, Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkguy Posted July 22, 2011 Author Share Posted July 22, 2011 Hello: Have you tried any of your 9mm bullets to see how they work? I am in the same boat about finding a load in 38 spl that will work for IDPA. I plan on using Tite Group or N320. I hope the 9mm bullets will work since I have lots of those. Let us know if they work for you. Thanks, Eric you might find they work but thats not a road i will be going down. i have heard of ruger blackhawks having 9mm/.38/.357 cylinders. my 9mm bullets are 124gr berrys and at .38spl velocities that seems a bit to small/light for my comfort. the current bullet im leaning towards is a dardas 158gr SWC and they are running at $74/1000 which are not a bad deal to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSWEAR Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 the current bullet im leaning towards is a dardas 158gr SWC I wouldn't but a bunch of SWC's before I tried them if it's for IDPA. Matt Dardas makes some great bullets but SWC's generally don't make for a smooth reload, a round nose bullet is usually preferred where reloading on the clock is necessary. Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Nesbitt Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 I use the 158 grain round nose Berry plated bullet for IDPA. I use Bullseye powder but several others will do as well. This combination is very clean shooting. I brush my chambers before a match and I've never had to brush them during a match with this combination. Shooting revolver in competition is all about the reload. Don't cause yourself problems by trying to save a few pennies on bullets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g56 Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 If you use a round nose bullet you wouldn't see any advantage to having the cylinder chamfered, my PPC revolver has its cylinder chamfered, but I was shooting full wadcutters, and if you want to shoot semi wadcutters you would most likely want the chamfered cylinder. With practice you could reload extremely fast with chamfered chambers even using full wadcutters, I don't really see any particular speed advantage with round nose compared to semi wadcutters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkguy Posted July 22, 2011 Author Share Posted July 22, 2011 Shooting revolver in competition is all about the reload. Don't cause yourself problems by trying to save a few pennies on bullets. for me its about saving $10/1k. the 158 lnr are 83/k and the 158swc are 72/k. im still debating. i have some LNR and SWC's lying around and ill practice with both and go from there. Im using a LNL-AP press, looking at getting redding dies. I am using a powder through expander on the second stage, has any one had issues using the hornady system? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom E Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 If you use a round nose bullet you wouldn't see any advantage to having the cylinder chamfered, my PPC revolver has its cylinder chamfered, but I was shooting full wadcutters, I shoot PPC with full wadcutters too. There's a big difference between just standing there and doing a reload with generous fixed time limits vs doing on the clock ICORE or IDPA or USPSA reloads, usually done while moving. RN's (or pointy noses) are clearly best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom E Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 for me its about saving $10/1k. the 158 lnr are 83/k and the 158swc are 72/k. I shoot Missouri Bullets 158 RN's, $65/k. http://www.missouribullet.com/details.php?prodId=76&category=5&secondary=9&keywords= My Icore loads puts a cylinder full (6 rds) into 3" at 50 yds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brewski Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 I've been shooting SSR almost exclusively for 3 years now and here's what I've learned: Gun: Get the best action job you can afford and chamfer the hell out of the charge holes. Bullet profile:Use RN or a pointy tipped, rounded truncated cone. Bullet weight: I keep coming back to the 158-160 grain bullets. As Bill N points out (and he's forgotten more about SSR than the rest of us know) it's all about the reload in SSR. You want rounds that will "roll" right into the charge holes. WCs and SWCs will hang up. I'd also add, get your Comp 3s tuned as well - the reloader is just as important as the bullet profile. Tightgroup is fine with jacketed, plated and moly bullets. However, if you want to econimize with no loss of performance, consider lead. Tightgroup will smoke like crazy with lead - it burns so hot it will vaporize a fair amount of the bullet lube, which generates the smoke. Solo 1000 and Clays are cool, fast burning and economical powders that work well with lead - you can produce very accurate, soft shooting loads with little to no leading. A lot of leading occurs when folks shoot improper combinations of powder and bullets that are too hard or too soft. If you want a truly excellent lead bullet for SSR, take a look at Mike's soft cast 160 grain RN. I love 'em. Although I shoot Smiths now, I started on a GP-100; they are very underrated for SSR. Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkguy Posted July 25, 2011 Author Share Posted July 25, 2011 Well i just picked up my GP100 from the smith and got an action job and had the cylinder chamfered. Shot to, and was able to keep every thing on a pie plate at 25 yards shooting mostly contolled pairs. @brewski, what is a load you have found that works well, IDPA just lowered powerfactor down to 105 but i want to keep it at 115-120 to make sure i have enough umph to knock down big steel poppers and other steel targets at 20+ yards. So far i have learned a ton more from this thread and i have in the past week looking around online. Keep it comming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brewski Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 Well i just picked up my GP100 from the smith and got an action job and had the cylinder chamfered. Shot to, and was able to keep every thing on a pie plate at 25 yards shooting mostly contolled pairs. @brewski, what is a load you have found that works well, IDPA just lowered powerfactor down to 105 but i want to keep it at 115-120 to make sure i have enough umph to knock down big steel poppers and other steel targets at 20+ yards. So far i have learned a ton more from this thread and i have in the past week looking around online. Keep it comming. I've been using Solo 1000 the last 20K or so rounds. My current load is 3.3 grains Solo 1000 under a 160 LRN Mastercast soft cast bullet, with a COL of 1.5 and a .374 taper crimp. I use mixed brass (I shoot it till it splits or I lose it) and Federal primers. I was getting inconsistant ignition at 3.2, so even though it made PF, I bumped it to 3.3. It gives me around 110PF in my game guns. You could start there and work up to about 3.6 to 3.8, which is where my old SSR/ ICORE load used to give me 127-130 PF. For Clays, I used to use 3.8 with all the other factors held constant. That was for a 130 PF. For Tight Group, a very knowledgable revo shooter I know used 4.0 grains with 158 Berry's. An interesting thing that we found was that Rugar's tend to shoot 50 FPS faster than the average Smith. So you may be able to bump your load down a bit and still make power factor. Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aircooled6racer Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 Hello: Are any of you guys noticing any tumbling with plated bullets in there revolvers? I ask since I have seen alot of plated bullets tumble in autos. Thanks, Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkguy Posted July 26, 2011 Author Share Posted July 26, 2011 Hello: Are any of you guys noticing any tumbling with plated bullets in there revolvers? I ask since I have seen alot of plated bullets tumble in autos. Thanks, Eric i have shot 124gr RSDS berrys's plated exclusively this year and have not experienced any "tumbling" out of the three guns (P30L, USPc, G17) i have shot for IDPA. my loads have been anywhere from a 148 pf on down to 125pf fwiw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brewski Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 (edited) @brewski, what is a load you have found that works well, IDPA just lowered powerfactor down to 105 but i want to keep it at 115-120 to make sure i have enough umph to knock down big steel poppers and other steel targets at 20+ yards. So far i have learned a ton more from this thread and i have in the past week looking around online. Keep it comming. Sorry - I didn't pick up on this before. Don't worry about not being able to drop steel in IDPA with the new 105PF. IDPA rules require that a load make power in the longest allowable barrel for that division - in SSR, that's 4 inches. But - you can legally shoot that load in a 2" snubbie, which would result in a fair amount of power loss - lets say a 90 PF, which wouldn't be far off actual. The steel must be calibrated to fall with ANY legal gun/ load. Personally, I've never failed to drop steel with a good hit with the 105PF loads. Aircooled - There was extensive discussion around 9mm bullets and fast burning powders being correlated with tumbling. I've never seen/ heard of a problem in SSR. I've seen some problems with 45s in ICORE when folks drop the velocity too low trying to get to the 120PF. Edited July 26, 2011 by Brewski Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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