papajohn428
Member
I've used Accurate Arms #5 for many years with complete satisfaction, and when other powders were hard to find a few months back, I grabbed several more pounds of it to use in my 38 loads. I train with Plus-P ammo because I want factory-level performance when I train, so none of my loads are wimpy. The bullets I used were standard cast 158-grain SWC's, made by a commercial caster, and I've been buying them for a dozen years or more. I consulted a dozen different reloading manuals, including those put out by Accurate as well as a few others. Most showed a maximum load of around 5.5 grains, though an older AA pamphlet showed a max load of 6.0 grains with a 155-grain lead slug. I settled on 5.2 grains as my load, and made up several batches of them, around 2,000 rounds altogether, loaded on cold snowy days when there was little else to do.
Imagine my surprise when I finally got to the range, loaded up six rounds in one of my trusty S&W M-64's, and rolled back the trigger.
BLAM! Wow, that was kind of um, warm. Let's finish out the cylinder-full, that first one must have been old, work-hardened brass.
But no! They were ALL like that, hot as hades and downright scary to shoot. After examining the primers I decided they were a bit warmer than I liked, and given that my shooting hand was throbbing from the pounding (even with Pachmayrs), I retired my M-64 from the activities, and ran them through my 686. They were still not real pleasant to shoot, certainly close to magnum-class rounds, though the primers didn't look all that alarming. No cratering, just more squared-off than normal.
Upon reviewing my records, I discovered that due to a local primer shortage, I had bought a couple bricks of W-W Small pistol MAGNUM primers, and used them when I had nothing else to load 38 brass with. I've substituted mag primers in 40S&W before and saw almost no change in velocity or felt recoil, but I think I got a hot batch of AA-5, and the mag primers only exacerbated the problem.
I rarely load to the maximum, and thought in this case that the load would be totally normal, I've shot many thousands of rounds in the 90-95% range with no issues, but these loads are downright painful to shoot from the 64's, and I have relegated them to use in my 686 and GP-100 ONLY, I'm convinced that even as sturdy as my 64's and 65's are, these are just too rich for their blood.
Having shot up nearly half of them, I know that some of these loads have standard primers, yet they ALL seem to be a lot hotter than they should be, and it makes me suspect the powder is more the problem than the primers.
Anyone else gotten higher velocities and more pronounced recoil with recent lots of Accurate Arms #5?
Imagine my surprise when I finally got to the range, loaded up six rounds in one of my trusty S&W M-64's, and rolled back the trigger.
BLAM! Wow, that was kind of um, warm. Let's finish out the cylinder-full, that first one must have been old, work-hardened brass.
But no! They were ALL like that, hot as hades and downright scary to shoot. After examining the primers I decided they were a bit warmer than I liked, and given that my shooting hand was throbbing from the pounding (even with Pachmayrs), I retired my M-64 from the activities, and ran them through my 686. They were still not real pleasant to shoot, certainly close to magnum-class rounds, though the primers didn't look all that alarming. No cratering, just more squared-off than normal.
Upon reviewing my records, I discovered that due to a local primer shortage, I had bought a couple bricks of W-W Small pistol MAGNUM primers, and used them when I had nothing else to load 38 brass with. I've substituted mag primers in 40S&W before and saw almost no change in velocity or felt recoil, but I think I got a hot batch of AA-5, and the mag primers only exacerbated the problem.
I rarely load to the maximum, and thought in this case that the load would be totally normal, I've shot many thousands of rounds in the 90-95% range with no issues, but these loads are downright painful to shoot from the 64's, and I have relegated them to use in my 686 and GP-100 ONLY, I'm convinced that even as sturdy as my 64's and 65's are, these are just too rich for their blood.
Having shot up nearly half of them, I know that some of these loads have standard primers, yet they ALL seem to be a lot hotter than they should be, and it makes me suspect the powder is more the problem than the primers.
Anyone else gotten higher velocities and more pronounced recoil with recent lots of Accurate Arms #5?
