What did you load today

Loading five each of the 230 grain bullets I bought from Spyderhead to test:
5.4, 5.7, 6.0, 6.2 grains CFE Pistol
4.3, 4.6, 5.0, 5.3 grains W231
6.3, 6.5, 6.7, 7.0 grains Power Pistol

SubGunFan said:

Please post a clear close up of the round where the bullet meets the case.

Click to expand...

The "clear" part is kinda hard.



These pictures are original first, then a cropped close up.

These are images of the amount of flare on the mouth.

On .45 I will measure about 0.010 above the point you see the bottom of the bullet in the case and again about the same distance below the case mouth. I try to keep both measurements the same. This keeps me from over crimping this round. You should have nearly the same meausrement a hair below the case mouth. Your flair is just a tad more than I normally use. I'm loading jacketed bullets so I don't really need as much flair as someone loading lead or plated.

The powder I prefer for accuracy in .45 is Winchester WST. It measures well and burns a little faster than W231. Just one more powder you might want to try in the future. WST is a light gray color and is easy to see in the case too.

I prefer to test accuracy in a pistol load at a longer distance. The minimum would be 15 yards. 25 or even 50 yards when my eyes will cooperate with me. You can get a better pattern size and larger numbers of rounds when you are nailing down what works best of the 2 or 3 best loads will help too.

Sometimes you are limited to what the gun is capable of doing too.

Not matter what results are you should be able to make ammo that is better than the cheap factory stuff.

BM, thanks for the pictures. They do help me.


Looking at this portion of one of your pictures I see issues.
1. It appears to me you might be using a roll crimp die and not a taper crimp die. What dies are you using? Is it a 4-die set? I still see what I think is too much crimp.
2. Looks like some bullet shaving on the left side of the picture. That is not good. From your other pictures, it looks like you are putting enough bell/flare on the case. I bell cases more when loading lead bullets than I do when loading jacketed bullets. The extra bell help stop bullet shaving.

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100 30 carbine LC 51,52 & 53 cases

BasMstr said:

Yes, this is the die I'm using. It has the factory crimp die.
4 Die Set 45acp Carb - Lee Precision

Click to expand...

Backing off the crimp die just a little to get .472 at the case mouth should be as good as it gets. That will give you .001 less crimp at the mouth. I have to agree you probably will like 5.3 to 5.4 grains of W231 powder better. It will be a cleaner load than 5.0 and you will be close to 800 fps.

I prefer a 200 grain bullet but there is nothing to complain about using a 230 grain bullet. The 200 just works better in my pistol. I got lucky since I get more bullets for the same money. I tried 4 different powders and 4 different bullets with a lot of variations to find the load I have been using for the past few years. It might have come out differently with another pistol. Sometimes the chase is more fun. I have less time to perfect a new load now so I hope my component sources never change or go away. Remember to keep all the data of your load testing. You never know when you might need it again. When your favorite powder is in short supply you might need to switch to a backup plan.

Another 200 7.62x25 Tokarev. These are with new Starline brass, 90 gr LRN Penn bullets, AA#2, and S&B primers. Up next will be some full power loads with AA #9 and some Hornady XTP bullets.