40 Minor/Major Load with 165 and 180gr Blue Bullets

[JohnnyD]

I'm picking up a nice Brazo's 2011 this weekend for USPSA.  I'd like to get some more trigger time in at Steel Challenge matches as well and get away with a little less recoil.

 

I've seen people saying to use 155 and 180's with the same powder charge but what about 165's?  Will be using Sport Pistol most likely.

 

I'd like to stick with Blue Bullets as I've found their coating more forgiving and also I order all my other pistol bullets from them.

[motosapiens]

what I do when I shoot steel is just turn my dillon powder measure down 1 1/4 turns. That's enough to still run my limited gun, but noticeably lighter recoil. I suspect it's a signinficantly bigger recoil difference than just using a slightly lighter bullet, but I've never tried that because it's easy to just use less powder.

[JohnnyD]

17 minutes ago, motosapiens said:

what I do when I shoot steel is just turn my dillon powder measure down 1 1/4 turns. That's enough to still run my limited gun, but noticeably lighter recoil. I suspect it's a signinficantly bigger recoil difference than just using a slightly lighter bullet, but I've never tried that because it's easy to just use less powder.

 

How is point of impact vs your major load?

[MikeRussell]

My 180gr Sport Pistol loads are 171pf, same load but swap to 155gr is 142pf. Same recoil spring, no change in sights, etc. 

 

I tested 140gr which was was sub minor at around 120pf but would be a good steel load, however would need a recoil spring swap to function and a sight adjustment for my gun. 

 

 The 165gr test was around 155pf. Didn't bother with it further because the 155 hit the sweet spot for me. 

 

[motosapiens]

5 hours ago, JohnnyD said:

 

How is point of impact vs your major load?

exactly the same out to at least 25-30 yards.

[zzt]

I used 180s and changed the powder charge.  172PF major; 140PF minor.  Same recoil spring and same POI.

[JohnnyD]

Thanks everyone, I guess I'll try the 180's first and see if I can just standardize on that.

[Joe4d]

On 11/30/2022 at 6:07 PM, MikeRussell said:

My 180gr Sport Pistol loads are 171pf, same load but swap to 155gr is 142pf. Same recoil spring, no change in sights, etc. 

 

I tested 140gr which was was sub minor at around 120pf but would be a good steel load, however would need a recoil spring swap to function and a sight adjustment for my gun. 

 

 The 165gr test was around 155pf. Didn't bother with it further because the 155 hit the sweet spot for me. 

 

Basicaly exact same results with a couple different powders and a couple different brands of bullets an STI a SS and a Para 1640. Formula with the 180/155 just works. Same POI, same springs.

[Laughing_jackal]

Most of this year, I ran:

180gr Blue Bullets

4.7gr of N320,

1.185 OAL

WIN brass

CCI 500 primers

 

This load was shot in an Atlas Titan, and averaged 952fps with an Extreme Spread of 15fps.  I was loading at 1.20 OAL, and shortening the OAL helped with velocity consistency and boosted my velocity as well.

 

 I also tried some Alliant American Select, and 4.7gr - 4.8gr gave me 955fps with 23fps Extreme spread, and 1.20 OAL.  This is kind of a flaky powder, so it didn't meter that great, but it worked well enough.

 

Last year, I shot quite a bit of the E3 powder and really enjoyed it.  It became pretty challenging to get a hold of, so I switched.  However, when I was using E3, I used 4.3gr at an OAL of 1.2 and it produced 948fps. 

[vegaspete61]

180 BBI 1.150 oal  4.0 grains TG for 170 pf major...3.0 for 140 pf minor.