"LOADING LONG"

[Scoterbeast]

I BOUGHT A USED 40 LIMITED INFINITY. PREVIOUS OWNER SAID IT LIKED GOOD AMMO LOADED TO 1.220 - I LOAD TO THIS LENGTH AND RUN ALL ROUNDS THROUGH MY CHECK GAUGE. IT RUNS VERY RELIABLY AND I COULD NOT BE MORE HAPPY WITH THE GUN. MY QUESTION IS - BESIDES THE RELIABILITY FACTOR WITH INDIVIDUAL GUNS, WHAT ARE THE REASONS FOR THE COMMON PRACTICE OF LOADING CONSIDERABLY LONGER THAN FACTORY SPECS?

[HSMITH]

Lower pressures and more suitable powders.

[devildogmech]

I know on precision long guns, accuracy hounds tend to load long, so they can get engagement of the rifleing when the round is seated....

Might the same be true of Handguns?

Billy

[dirtypool40]

I know on precision long guns, accuracy hounds tend to load long, so they can get engagement of the rifleing when the round is seated....

Might the same be true of Handguns?

Billy

Yup, I read an article in GUn-Cosmo (AH) where ransom rest guy loaded longer and longer and tested groups. Pressures will go up, but accuracy should come down at least slightly.

Mostly we do it for reliability, and pressure safety. At least that's what I ahve been told.

[XRe]

In the case of handguns, we don't want the bullet engaged in the rifling ala rifle shooting. This is for a couple of reasons - pressures jump up dramatically when the bullet has no freebore to "jump" through, and this may cause various issues in reliability (failure to chamber, if the recoil spring isn't strong enough, or either making the gun hard to clear or leaving a bullet in the barrel).

Loading long gives you a couple of things - in some guns, you get better reliability. It makes the round closer to the intended ammo OAL for the 1911 platform (ie, .45 ACP), and that seems to make some guns happier. And, it allows you to more safely load faster powders in .40. Changes in OAL due to setback and those sorts of things are not as dramatic, and the greater initial volume in the cartridge case will theoretically allow the pressure curve rise to be a little less steep.

[shred]

The main reason to load long in an STI is because the magazine is designed for 45 ACP, 38S and 10mm-length rounds, since it's a double-stack version of the 1911, where, by grace of JMB, pistol ammo was one and a quarter inches long and you liked it.

.40 was originally specced to be about the same length as 9x19. Notice the spacers and other faffing about 9x19 shooters have to put up with STI mags.

SV tweaked the magazine design to help with that issue, but that was long after the loading-long tradition got started, since it was before the STI/SV breakup.

There are other things you can do once you load long, but the primary reason is magazine reliability.

[.40AET]

Yup, I read an article in GUn-Cosmo (AH) where ransom rest guy loaded longer and longer and tested groups. Pressures will go up, but accuracy should come down at least slightly.

If the charge stays the same, shouldn't the pressure go down as the OAL goes up???? I'm not sure about the accuracy thing. Everything that I've put through my SV has been at 1.200" and functioned perfectly. Bottom line, what ever works in YOUR gun is what you should use. Different bullet profiles and oal's will work differently in every gun.

Good luck!

[G-ManBart]

Yup, I read an article in GUn-Cosmo (AH) where ransom rest guy loaded longer and longer and tested groups. Pressures will go up, but accuracy should come down at least slightly.

If the charge stays the same, shouldn't the pressure go down as the OAL goes up???? I'm not sure about the accuracy thing. Everything that I've put through my SV has been at 1.200" and functioned perfectly. Bottom line, what ever works in YOUR gun is what you should use. Different bullet profiles and oal's will work differently in every gun.

Good luck!

I'm pretty sure that was a rifle caliber reference since it was talking about benchrest shooting. The pressures will go down as you load longer until you get the bullet touching the rifling and then they'll go up again the harder they're seated into the rifling. Of course, that's just a generality as some combinations might give you a different result. I used to live near the Alliant factory when they were still Hercules and knew a couple of the engineers there (shot trap with a few of them from time to time). Those guys said that they could usually predict what a combination would do, but even they got suprised sometimes.

[ahtsay]

If you load longer than usual, do you need to increase your powder to get the same velocity? Someone told me this, but I'm not sure if I should believe him. Thanks!!!

[benny hill]

For every .100 you load longer you lose 10 fps on an average.

[Carlos]

Loading long has these benefits:

-lower pressure for a given bullet/powder/PF

-easier on the brass

-easier on the chamber (see: "ringed chamber")

-better feeding in most STI/SV/SPS guns

-lower pressure means faster powder; faster powder means softer recoil

Reality is that at 1.200 to 1.240" (as some chambers can take) the round is really the OAL of the 10mm cartridge.

I would never load, for example, Clays powder to major in the OALs listed in most manuals (1.125") as it would be unsafe. But at 1.240" OAL, the pressures would be so much lower that I might consider it. Same goes for V V N310.

As is, I don't risk using either Clays or N310, because I have gobs of Solo 1000, and Solo 1000 has PUBLISHED data to major with 180s at short lengths, its clean, cheap, works in place of N320, and is soft shooting. Why push it with anything faster?

Edited July 3, 2007 by Carlos

[benny hill]

Besides, if it is built right, it will feed anything from factory to very long so as to use what powder & bullet you want. I personally load to 1.175