Do you load hotter or lighter ammo?

[GunAdmirer]

Just curious. Do you typically load/reload hotter or lighter rounds? I tend to load lighter or near factory ammo power. I load lighter for IDPA, practice and plinking. In my mind it lessens recoil, improves controlability and causes less wear on my pistols. I load to maximum levels for my .357 magnum hunting loads.

 

[db_tanker]

I generally load lighter...I don't really feel that a 400 grain slug out of my 45-70 TC needs to crack 1700 fps...I like a nice, sedate 1200-1400 fps...easier on the brass...same goes for my 30-30 and 44 mag, 357 mag, 45 winmag...


I don't really think that the critter your hitting with whatever slug your shooting or that piece of paper your shooting at notices any diffrence.

D

 

[cropcirclewalker]

My mission is to make the penetration of that piece of cardboard that my target is pasted to so hard on the projectile that it falls on the ground behind it.

Makes for lots easier recycling of the lead. Just pick up the bullets behind the target.

 

[anonanon]

I generally load lighter in .357 and .44Mag. I've developed the full power loads I like for accuracy, but seldom use them. Most of the target and plinking I do is with mid-power stuff, using cheap cast bullets. In this sense LilGun is a real miracle powder, as accurate and as free from leading as H110 but more consistent. About 13-14 gr. of LilGun in .357 with the Speer 158 gr swaged semi-wadcutter, or 20 gr. in 44 with 240 Cast Lead SWC, make nice comfortable shooting loads that are accurate and easy on the guns. (OK, and on me.)

 

[Jeeper]

I started out loading pretty hot but now I load on the light end. I still load toward the hot end for hunting loads but accuracy is the deciding factor.

 

[The Bushmaster]

Ditto Jeeper I load for accuracy which puts some of my rounds at the high side and some at the low side. Some I have an accurate load at both ends or somewhere in between.

 

[yorec]

Do you typically load/reload hotter or lighter rounds?

YES.

Depends on the caliber and purpose - I load a wide range of stuff and follow no general rule either way.

 

[HSMITH]

I too started out loading everything to the top end. Now I load considering accuracy first, power second and economy third.

I tailor my loads to the job I want to do with them, some end up very light and some end up fairly hot.

 

[WayneConrad]

No lighter than factory ammo.

 

[bakert]

I use cast bullets for almost all of my reloads. Load them lighter in .357 and 9Mm. Load them hotter in .38 Sp. and .45 Colt.

 

[BigBob3006]

It's all up to what the rifle tells me it likes. Even if it likes 'em hot, I only will go just so far. A little warm is ok, hot isn't. With pistol, it all deprnds on what the load is to be used for. If it's just plinking, I want a load that will cycle the action of my 1911. If it's a serious load, then I load book max with a Hornady XTP/HP. The shotgun shoots what is about the middle of the book, as long as it patterns well.

 

[Six-Gun]

I used to load lighter out of caution. Now, I load lighter out of common sense for my shooting prefernce.

I don't see a lot of use in loading hot unless it's for hunting. Every day at the range, all I'm doing is needlessly beating up my gun with hot ammo unless I am sighting it in as hunting ammo.

If it's hunting ammo I am after, I'll load it as hot as I can achieve reliable accuracy with, but NEVER over book-listed loads. I don't take chances like that...ever.

 

[LAH]

db tanker said: I don't really feel that a 400 grain slug out of my 45-70 TC needs to crack 1700 fps...I like a nice, sedate 1200-1400 fps.

I say: What a man.