Quote:
Originally Posted by roundgunner
I’m not sure why but I think the IDPA crowd you are hanging around with are doing it wrong.
You seem to like to talk about 40 S&W so we will use that as an example.
40S&W would be used in guns competing in SSP (stock service pistol) or ESP (enhanced service pistol) both of which need to be above the 125,000 power floor.
That means in my case a 175gr TC cast bullet needs to go over 715 fps. That aint much folks. It also needs to have enough recoil to cycle the guns action.
I look up in a couple reloading manuals and come up with a max load of 4.7 TiteGroup.
I start low and work up. See my chart…
So when I get to 3.2 for 755 bingo.... IDPA load way under manufacturers limits. Can’t see why a newb would blow a gun using this.
I on the other hand want a load that is similar to the 995fps I get from my Speer GDHP so I keep climbing the scale towards what the manufacturer said was a safe limit. Presto at 4.5 I get 965 fps a load that feels like GDHP but cost me only about 5 cents to shoot. I’m still .2 grains away from max safe and happy to be able to shoot a lot of ammo and be prepared for zombies.
If the people in your club are doing it like this everything should be OK. The last gun I saw blow up was with Winchester white box. (9mm) |
Yes, in IDPA, 40 is shot minor. In USPSA, it can be shot major & that is where some get into trouble. Also not sure what "manual" you got your loading data from, as a 175gr bullet is not a std wt for the 40. Speer does show 4.7gr as max w/ a 180gr. Depending on the gun, it makes about 920fps. That is pushing really hard when one can easily get 920fps w/ a dozen other powders & have a huge safety margin pressure wise.
THe same is true for "plinking" loads w/ a 300gr bullet in the 44mag. Sure, you can cobble a 900fps/300gr load together using TG, it will be running rather hard there, but can be done. Why? There are again, maybe a dozen powder thast will run the same 900fps w/ a huge safety margin. Match the powder to the task, they all have their place. IMO, IME, TG is a great bunnyfart powder w/ light to std wt bullets going relatively low vel. If you want morem don't push uberfast powders to get there, change to a slower powder. Again powder IS THE CHEAPEST part of a handgun load. Saving 1/3 of a penny, even a full penny, just not as important as safty & performance.
BTW, I agree, safe reloading techniques will limit most mishaps, BUT, one has to be smoking something to tell me it's not easier to determin powder charges, particularly in large case, if one can see the powder charge more easily. That is where all newbs should be thinking, safty first, & anything that accomplishese that is better, regardless of saving as much as 1/3c per round.