Tues, Feb 5th Range Report - Part 2
As I've mentioned in past posts, I like to test any particular load in different guns & barrel lengths to develop my own comparison database and also just because its fun. In this portion of my day in the desert, I shot mostly 158 gr loads of various bullet construction. In 38 Spl I had some LSWC & LSWC-moly coated, a few Berrys 158 plated FP In 357 there were several 158 XTP-FP loads and 165gr LSWC. One bullet I acquired a quantity of somewhere along the road, looks like it could be a 150gr plain base H&G 12Athat weighs 148gr.
During previous chrono sessions, I had neglected to obtain representative velocities from a 4" bbl of a few loads. These are make-ups to fill a few holes in my data. Mostly LSWC and Berrys FP practice fodder. Good thing I included these as there were a couple 1-hole groups to add for future consideration when I move to 25yd testing. (I know, it's tedious and never-ending work).
6" is my normal test 38/357 gun but it seems I can't remember what sights it has. I keep looking forward to using the red dot and planning where I was going find room to move my targets back to 25yds...
Even after all the years of shooting, there were two lessons learned and one ignored that day.
I'm sure some of you will see a couple of the mistakes I made. So the rule I ignored was Slow down and don't rush. I had a lot of things going on and I failed to take my time and look at everything I was doing and THIMK first. Which leads us to the first lesson of the day: Do not shoot a load out of a handgun that was developed for a rifle.
During the course of shooting I came across a single 357 Mag 158 LSWC.moly bullet I vaguely remembered loading. It was not in my load notes but on the case in black sharpie it read 12.uh-oh of AA-5. Without thinking I plopped it into the cylinder and away we went.... the chrono registered 1596 fps and the primer fell out when I got the cylinder to open. As I was looking for a rod to tap the stuck case out it dawned on me I had put that lone leftover together to shoot in my rifle. I was pretty lucky I didn't do any damage to me or the gun but it was almost 3 grains over the book max and had to be who knows how far over pressure. I guess I answered my own question from the other thread as to if the L frame is as sturdy as an N frame.
Thirteen different loads and an oops went downrange. The main focus was on the 5 XTP/FP loads. These were not tuning increments but more like one-off stab in the dark powder tests. As such I started midway+ to max. From here I will refine my loads with the best of this bunch and those from the rifle to have one load usable in both (after adjustments for lesson #2). The load results are:
158 Hornady XTP/FP 9.0gr 3N37 .47"avg grp 1141 fps
158 Hornady XTP/FP 9.0gr AA-5 .36"avg grp 1151 fps
158 Hornady XTP/FP 10.8gr AA-7 .83"avg grp 1187 fps
158 Hornady XTP/FP 13.4gr AA-9 .40"avg grp 1178 fps
158 Hornady XTP/FP 17.0 LilGun .53"avg grp 1253 fps
Looks like at least 4 of these 5 will move on to the 25yd tests... oh what the heck, I'll take em all.
The rest of the loads were various practice loads to help settle on a std load for all the gun so it will be a while before that analyze settles out. In the next thread, maybe tomorrow, I'll cover the rifle results of the above XTP loads and I'll admit to lesson #2 if you guys will go easy on me since I'm old and frail.
As I've mentioned in past posts, I like to test any particular load in different guns & barrel lengths to develop my own comparison database and also just because its fun. In this portion of my day in the desert, I shot mostly 158 gr loads of various bullet construction. In 38 Spl I had some LSWC & LSWC-moly coated, a few Berrys 158 plated FP In 357 there were several 158 XTP-FP loads and 165gr LSWC. One bullet I acquired a quantity of somewhere along the road, looks like it could be a 150gr plain base H&G 12Athat weighs 148gr.
During previous chrono sessions, I had neglected to obtain representative velocities from a 4" bbl of a few loads. These are make-ups to fill a few holes in my data. Mostly LSWC and Berrys FP practice fodder. Good thing I included these as there were a couple 1-hole groups to add for future consideration when I move to 25yd testing. (I know, it's tedious and never-ending work).
6" is my normal test 38/357 gun but it seems I can't remember what sights it has. I keep looking forward to using the red dot and planning where I was going find room to move my targets back to 25yds...
Even after all the years of shooting, there were two lessons learned and one ignored that day.
I'm sure some of you will see a couple of the mistakes I made. So the rule I ignored was Slow down and don't rush. I had a lot of things going on and I failed to take my time and look at everything I was doing and THIMK first. Which leads us to the first lesson of the day: Do not shoot a load out of a handgun that was developed for a rifle.
During the course of shooting I came across a single 357 Mag 158 LSWC.moly bullet I vaguely remembered loading. It was not in my load notes but on the case in black sharpie it read 12.uh-oh of AA-5. Without thinking I plopped it into the cylinder and away we went.... the chrono registered 1596 fps and the primer fell out when I got the cylinder to open. As I was looking for a rod to tap the stuck case out it dawned on me I had put that lone leftover together to shoot in my rifle. I was pretty lucky I didn't do any damage to me or the gun but it was almost 3 grains over the book max and had to be who knows how far over pressure. I guess I answered my own question from the other thread as to if the L frame is as sturdy as an N frame.
Thirteen different loads and an oops went downrange. The main focus was on the 5 XTP/FP loads. These were not tuning increments but more like one-off stab in the dark powder tests. As such I started midway+ to max. From here I will refine my loads with the best of this bunch and those from the rifle to have one load usable in both (after adjustments for lesson #2). The load results are:
158 Hornady XTP/FP 9.0gr 3N37 .47"avg grp 1141 fps
158 Hornady XTP/FP 9.0gr AA-5 .36"avg grp 1151 fps
158 Hornady XTP/FP 10.8gr AA-7 .83"avg grp 1187 fps
158 Hornady XTP/FP 13.4gr AA-9 .40"avg grp 1178 fps
158 Hornady XTP/FP 17.0 LilGun .53"avg grp 1253 fps
Looks like at least 4 of these 5 will move on to the 25yd tests... oh what the heck, I'll take em all.
The rest of the loads were various practice loads to help settle on a std load for all the gun so it will be a while before that analyze settles out. In the next thread, maybe tomorrow, I'll cover the rifle results of the above XTP loads and I'll admit to lesson #2 if you guys will go easy on me since I'm old and frail.
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