Standard Pressure, Heavy .45 Colt Question

Went with a clean gun yesterday. Yes, same OAL.

Silhouette loads were fine, BE-86 had sticky extraction powder back, but fell out powder forward.

Looking like 650 to 675 FPS with BE-86 is where it will be at, maybe 700 FPS with Silhouette.

I think someone abused my 25-5 before I got it, and you can't go hot at all with it. Still shoots pretty well though.

Easily three I would think, I need to come up with some milk jugs. I'll be finalizing things this weekend.

It's official, my GemPro-250 has crapped out/gone beserk. It started the other day after I weighed the water in the case. When I would close the lid, it would read a negative number, it's never done that before. It would read positive if the cover touched the pan, but get the pan right and it would stay at 0.00. I checked it against the Redding R2 a couple of days ago and it seemed ok, but today it got even stranger and did not jive with the Redding scale. It would bounce all over, positive, negative, 0.00, then change again. I finally got it to 0.00 for a few seconds, and got the cover down with it staying at 0.00, but every so often it would change, 2.12, 4.60, 0.00, 3.whatever, seems like every time I go look at it it reads something different, sometimes 0.00, sometimes negative, sometimes positive. *Sigh* Time to start saving my pennies for a better scale. I have had my eye on one for some time.

So I made a note in the log to ignore loads # 66 through # 71. I'd rather throw it all out than trust it.

I logged loads # 72 & 73 as weighed by the Redding R2. I have always logged what scale was used, even when I only had one scale.

Those loads are 6.8 grs BE-86 and 7.8 Grs Silhouette with the 320 gr WFN-GC bullet at 1.566 to 1.568 OAL with a WLP primer.

I will shoot them tomorrow after work, or Saturday if that doesn't pan out. I'm not on call this week.

I have learned a couple of things with these heavy bullets. They really amplify the effect on seating depth changes and powder weight increases.

I am still crimping in a groove, it has two, such as they are, very, very small, and shallow. I am crimping into the top groove to get the shorter OAL. If I had designed the bullet, it would have better crimp grooves.

Little bitty crimp grooves.



Now here are some crimp grooves.

buck460XVR said:

As for the Gem-Pro....don't they have a lifetime/30 year warranty?

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I don't know, might look into it.

buck460XVR said:

Would be interesting once you get done to see accuracy at 25 to 50 yards.

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Yes, I'll do that.

We used to have a steel table I could sit bowling pins on at the range, it was a good 40+ yards from the table/awning setup in the pit, after sorting out something over the chrono with a target at 7 yards I would shoot those, and if I had trouble with them the load was no good. That is gone now, so I often set up a 10" steel plate and use that, if I have trouble keeping shots centered, the load's no good. Good loads just keep hitting where they should unless I screw it up, which I can.

This was after a fun day shooting .32 ACP at 40 plus yards, before the last plate painting.

With .32 ACP pistols I am happy if I stay on the plate at that distance.

Got rained out after work, nice and sunny all day, then boom, in came the rains, will shoot tomorrow.

styles said:

I wish you / someone would experiment with mid pressure rounds this way. I am shooting the 8 gr aa#2 rounds.

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What bullet?

I just got back from the reloading room, I made one round with the 320 and 5.4 Grs AA #2. I guess now I need to make one with the 255 Gr coated LSWCs I have and 8.0 Grs AA #2.

Ok, I loaded two MBC coated 255 Gr SWCs over 8.0 Grs of AA #2.

They look like the ones in the back in this old pic. RMR Match Winners in the front.


Good old balance beam, still going strong. I tried a check weight on the GP-250, and it could not make up its mind how much it weighed. *Sigh*