Short load powder start help

[leadhammer]

Some thing is wrong! How far is the chronograph from the end of your gun? Should be 10-15 feet. .2gn will give you about 35-40fps not 275 & 438. What do you use to weigh your powder charges? Did you check to see if you have bullet set back? How much crimp are you using? too much crimp will make the bullet lose.

The chrono was only 5 ft. I only use about 10-12 ft for my rifle. The 3.4 load was done at the same distance as the 3.6 load.

Weigh load with RCBS 5-0-5. Only 1/2 turn light FCD. And bullet lenght did not change after crimp. Also when I pulled the bullets when testing crimp, the 1/2 turn did not groove the bullet.

Again I will go over everything tomorrow, but really appreciate all the help so far from everyone.

[leadhammer]

Ok, pulled a bullet and the charge was exactly 3.6grains. I went ahead and loaded 10, 3.5grain loads. I am beginning to think the chronograph setup was the problem. Just kinda weird that the factory loads were very close to advertised velocity. OAL was spot on after the light FCD crimp. The bullet that I pulled took 3 good wacks to let loose and no real dent in the bullet to speak of. I know the 3.4 grain loads 'felt soft" so I may load some more of those up as well just to see how they do before the 3.5 load. Maybe the 3.6 load had more blast than the factory loads?????

[leadhammer]

Finally made it out to the range today with more reloads. I will post the results tonight. The first time out (very first post ) the chronograph must have been too close or too much sunlight or who knows. I feel a lot better now that I was not over pressure, but now I need to go higher than 3.8grains!!

[Steve RA]

10 ft is what most of us consider minimum distance from muzzle to chrono. I'm not trying to imply that it is super critical and must be measured to a .10 of an inch, but, 5 ft is a little close.

[leadhammer]

Ya, I was trying to work with what I had at the time since I forgot my tripod. I thought it was working though as my factory loads were registering just fine!

Test results:

3.4grains 906.6

933.8

939.1

3.5grains 915.6

951.2

952.9

958.2

3.6grains 952.0

960.1

982.4

959.8

957.5

3.8grains 991.7

999.9

990.6

1026.0

1011.0

Looks like 3.9, 4.0 and 4.1 for the next test. All of it cycled very well. The 3.4grain stuff shoots soft and ejects only a couple feet away.

[CZ85]

I bet you end up with 4.1.

1050 will give you 130 PF which is what I look for

[leadhammer]

I'm thinking 4.0 for 1050, and 4.1 for my max load. I would like to get 1100 out of it.

[leadhammer]

Ok guys finally more results.

N320 3.9gr

1026

1019

1016

1009

4.0gr

1030

1033

1038

1031

1031

4.1gr

1060

1062

1050

1051

1054

I guess I could go more here but should be a good target load. PF of 131. I really like how close the velocity it to one another, but I really took my time loading for these tests.

[leadhammer]

I also loaded some Unique, with the same 125gr Zero JHP-c

Start 4.4gr

1050

1080

1071

1071

1079 Looks like a good target load. PF of 133.

4.6gr

1082

1094

1118

1106

1115

4.7gr

1105

1105

1095

1121

1135

4.8gr

1120

1138

1130

1143

1123

4.9gr

1123

1144

1137

1128

1154

5.0gr

1150

1182

1196

1170

1177

I think I would stop at the 4.9 as my max load for my Shadow.

Edited October 19, 2013 by leadhammer