revchuck Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 (edited) All - A few weeks back I gathered my nine 4" .38/.357 revolvers, four kinds of ammo and the chronograph and went to the range to satisfy my curiosity. I wanted to get an idea which guns were fast, which were slow, and find out if they all make the 125 PF with the handload I'm using. The results are in the attached .pdf file. Some notes: It was a lousy day to chronograph, but it was the only one I had. It was sunny and windy, and the wind varied by at least 90° at about 15-20 mph. I had to pick my chrono back up about five times after it blew over...the fact that I used an IPSC target as a sun shade didn't help the stability much. The figures in the cells are given as average velocity/extreme spread/standard deviation (number of rounds measured). Not all rounds registered on the chrono, and I didn't have the time or extra factory ammo to make up the missed rounds. The two cells with the asterisks signify problems I had which caused me to have to average the velocities manually. I used to know how to manually compute standard deviation, but that was a long time ago. The Blazer CleanFire stuff ought to come with an expiration date. I've never seen those kinds of extreme spreads so often. Revolver_Velocity_Variations.pdf Edited April 27, 2008 by revchuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Sinko Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 That's pretty interesting. There's a lot of variation but it seems at least the guns were consistent. Something very disturbing happened to me the other day. A guy had a chrono set up and I fired a few rounds of my practice ammo through it. This stuff is right at 165 PF in my Glock 21 and does not make Major in my 625 match gun. I was using my Mountain Gun this time and it read 193 PF! Obviously I shouldn't draw any conclusions from just a few rounds, but this did open my eyes a bit wider. Dave Sinko Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cherryriver Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 I surprised myself, too, the day I brought my 1973 Model 28-2 six-inch along to the club, a gun I rarely shoot anymore even though it was one of the first guns I ever owned. I was chronoing hot .38s for IDPA and was using my Colt King Cobra (then my usual IDPA gun) and Colt .357 Magnum (the predecessor of the Python) four-inchers, along with a 1969 Detective Special. The 28, despite being two inches longer, was significantly slower than than the KC and .357. It wasn't much faster than the Dick Special. The 28's still in excellent condition and looks nearly new; it's not beat up at all. I also had previously tried my four-inch Smith 19 previously and it was the slowest four-inch I had. In general, that old 1959 .357 Magnum is the fastest. I have yet to try the six-incher I recently got, as my chrono has not yet recovered from a heroic attempt to protect the club berm from a particularly fast .38 Super round. The loads were with Berry's 158 round-noses and various powders, including WST and VV320. Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HighVelocity Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 Very good data, Chuck. Thanks for posting. I have two 4" 686's and one of them is about 50 fps faster on average. Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GmanCdp Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 that is good info....just wondering if you should print that off and carry it to a match with you ,incase it does'nt make it...also it would be interseting to check these loads along 2 other different chrono's just as a comparision... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HighVelocity Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 what was the OAL on the 4.1 gr. Bullseye, 158 grain Zero RNL? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revchuck Posted April 28, 2008 Author Share Posted April 28, 2008 that is good info....just wondering if you should print that off and carry it to a match with you ,incase it does'nt make it...also it would be interseting to check these loads along 2 other different chrono's just as a comparision... It was $30 for the Winchester WB alone...I don't think I want verification that much. FWIW, when I run out of that handload, I've got 2500 158 grain RNLs to load, probably over 4 grains of Solo 1000. That goes 808 fps from the M19 and 844 fps from the 681, and smokes somewhat less than the Bullseye. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revchuck Posted April 28, 2008 Author Share Posted April 28, 2008 what was the OAL on the 4.1 gr. Bullseye, 158 grain Zero RNL? 1.45". I've been using these bullets for about nine years, but can get cast bullets much cheaper now. IMO the Zeros are the most accurate RNL available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HighVelocity Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 Ok, so the RNL in your post doesn't stand for Round Nose Lead? That is a jacketed bullet load? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revchuck Posted April 29, 2008 Author Share Posted April 29, 2008 Ok, so the RNL in your post doesn't stand for Round Nose Lead? That is a jacketed bullet load? Nope, it's round nose lead. I just pulled one out to check and it was 1.456". I seat it so that the bearing surface is below the case mouth and roll crimp it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougCarden Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 FWIW.....every Revo is an island unto itself, as far as chronoing goes, due to the charge holes in the cylinder. When we shot pins years ago and chronoed the loads (loading with BlueDot) I though that the loads sucked due to the wide variation, and I had a 610 that one chamber lost over 50fps when chronoing as well. When we bought some Coonans and chronoed the same BD ammo from our Revos we found that the load had a really low SD.......which showed us that you never know if all your cylinder charge holes were bored with a good cutter or one that is almost dead..... Just thought I would throw that out there....... Good stuff! See ya, DougC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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