Just chrono'd my reloads for my Glock 19 and S&W 1911 pro tonight. Just wondering how these look as far as consistancy? Whats considered awesome, whats considered average and whats poor? At what point do you consider it match grade? ( and what do factory match loads do?)

1911. 200 grain SWC, 4 grains bullseye.
719
744
720
738
709

Avg: 726 FPS

Glock. 124 grain JHP, 4 grains bullseye
1013
1007
1007
994
994

Avg: 1003 FPS


Oh yeah, and any thread is useless without pics! Heres my 1911 and my 25 yard offhand target with the above load. Best target I've ever shot I think... pesky flyers. Howd I do?

That extreme spread looks fine, I would not be disappointed. Honestly I have a hard time calling any pistol round "match" grade, as the average pistol loading is way more consistent than the average pistol shooter at distance. As long as your load is accurate enough for you and the average velocity is what you want, role with it. I save the OCD in my handloading for rifle rounds.

Your average velocities do look a bit low. Nothing wrong with that if you want low recoil, but I like to run my 9mm 124gr at 1100 fps and the 45 a little faster too.

They look pretty consistent. I don't feel like doing math this late but usually 10 samples are more representative and what's your standard deviation and high and low readings?

I care more about accuracy than velocity and from your photo that's excellent.

Others can tell you more about power factor and such, I just like to get on paper.

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Still Running Against the Wind

Im unsure of how to get standard deviation, infact, I dont even know what that means! I just borrowed the chrono at the range. Im happy with the accuracy both give, just wondering how good my load is statistically on paper.

The chrono usually does it. No,not something you want to do long hand although there is a formula but this is supposed to be fun. I hated statistics in college.

Basically it just tells you how consistent you loads are.

If your targets are as good as the picture at 25 yards, then I wouldn't worry about it.

As Dragon mentioned, the actual velocities may be a tad lower than others or even factory but it doesn't matter. Lighter loads usually are more accurate.

Here is the owner manual of my basic Chrony Alpha. It shows what the terms mean.

Scroll down a bit.

Since Standard Deviation is the most important information your chronograph can give you, it is useful to understand the reason for this. At least ten (10) shots are required to obtain a reliable average and Standard Deviation. Fewer shots (such as 3 or 5) are typically "small samples", and are considered unreliable when measuring anything variable.


USER’S MANUAL

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Still Running Against the Wind

With the limited number of shots you have, the extreme spread is a better measure of uniformity than standard deviation. The ES of your 9 mm load is something I would be very happy with. With a larger statistical sample (more shots) the SD becomes the best measure of uniformity. It is a measure of how the individual shots are scattered around the average value and is most useful in comparing two loads for the same gun.

In developing target loads the only thing that matters to me is the group at the target, shot over sandbags. I wish I had a dollar for every shooting report in the gun mags where it was reported that the most accurate load was NOT the one with the lowest SD or ES.

I can't comment on the Glock numbers since I do not have one.

The 1911 numbers look about right for that load. I currently use 5.0 grains of Bullseye behind the 200 grain SWC and get 886 fps out of both of my 5" 70 Series guns. I used to use 4.7 grains and got around 857 fps while 4.5 grains gave me, as best I can remember, about 830 fps. The last load was the one I used in Bullseye shooting while the others were/are all for USPSA. The 4.7-4.8 grain load seemed to have a very slight accuracy advantage, but with me shooting it was negligible. Below are some numbers from my 1979 5" Gov't Combat Model and my 2009 3" STI Escort. (5.0 grains)

5": 887 3": 778
896 769
876 778
876 798
896 797
887 Average =886 782 Average =784

Here's a standard deviation calculator. The chrony can do it but I usually just run this at home if I care to see the figures.

Standard Deviation Calculator - Calculate mean, variance of the numbers

Honestly the results on target are way more important than any SD or ES numbers though.

Well there are not enough "shots" to be statistically valid but with the 5 ,9mm your SD is 8.5 using the above calculator.

Anything in the teens or lower is as good as it gets.

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Still Running Against the Wind