Favorite practice loads

[Wing Nut]

Hey all,

What are your favorite practice loads for calibers:
9mm
.357 mag
38 spl.
45acp

the reason I ask Is my friend and I are new to reloading, and enjoy the hobby, as well as the economy it offers. We are having a hard time finding good loads, the bullets we obtain never seem to quite match the manuals, i.e. berry's plated .357 158 gr fp, no C.O.L. listed anywhere I could dig up, nor for a 158 gr FMJ fp. So I was wondering if you guys cared to list your favorite bullets, the data you use, and where it comes from.

I hope to find out the sources you guys use most so I can use them too.
and if you would, I'd like to know where you purchase your bullets, we generally would buy around 1k of each caliber at a time, so obviously the people who buy them wholesale in lots of 25k are going to get a better deal, but where do you folks go for your favorite bullets?

note: I'm less concerned about charges than about bullet type, weight, COL, etc, but I use win 231, HS-6, and Clays. Although I'm open to trying new powders thats just what I have on the bench, and will prolly try and use it up before buying more.

thanks a bunch

 

[Guy B. Meredith]

I use X-treme Bullet's 158 gr RNFP for both .38 spl and .357 magnum. They have a cannelure for crimping so you never have to wonder about length.

My current load for .38 spl is 4.8 gr W231 with a Winchester Small Pistol primer. This results in about 900 fps depending on which revolver I shoot.

For this load I took the values listed for 158 gr cast bullets in the Lyman handbook, started low and worked up to speed. This is listed by Lyman as being very accurate and it does seem to work well with my revolvers.

I have done some reloading of the .357 magnums up to 11.4 gr of AA#7. These give a little over 1300 fps. Lyman says the load can go to about 12 gr with cast bullets, but my velocities are in excess of those listed for a given load so I have not pushed that.

I have not gone into checking accuracy, bullet staying together, etc. I don't shoot enough .357 magnums to dedicate the time to developing a load. When I was competing I had a greater need to produce 1000+ rounds of .38 spl a month and now that I am not competing the same things that take time from competition and practice also limit my time for load development.

 

[JDGray]

Since you listed my favorite powders....

9mm- 6.5gr HS6 with either 115 0r 124gr fmj
45ACP- 3.9gr Clays with either 230gr fmj or 230gr Rainiers

I shoot only fmj bullets now, as they cost almost the same as plated. Try Ghost Products for Zero bullets, best price for fmj and cost includes shipping
http://ghostholster.com/catalog/index.php?osCsid=5240867fa41ac89b2f25e4249616d463

 

[byf43]

What are your favorite practice loads for calibers:
9mm
.357 mag
38 spl.
45acp

.357 Magnum - - -

Hornady 158 gr jhp
Federal cases trim to 1.280" (standard trim-to length)
7.0 gr. Unique
Win SP primer
very SLIGHT crimp on bullet, in the cannelure
This load will shoot the X-ring out at 25 yds. VERY MILD!!!!!


Hornady 158 gr. jhp
Same case and prep.
14.0 gr. Alliant (Hercules) 2400 powder
Win SP primer
Firm crimp, but not overly done.
This load is a GOOD magnum load!



.45 acp - - -

Any brass (I personally don't like Starline, sorry.)
Win 231 powder, 5.7 gr.
200 gr. Hardcast LSWC (H&G #68 bullet)
Win LP primer
TAPER crimp

This load is from an old magazine article about the favorite loads of the top shooters (or something like that).
I've tried many different loads before finding this one.
It shoots right at 907 fps and does NOT leave any lead in the barrel of my Gold Cup.
The only thing done to the Gold Cup was the recoil spring was swapped out for an 18-1/2 lb spring.
This load is exceptionally accurate in just about every .45 that has tried it.
Seat the bullet deep enough to fit your pistol and magazines.

 

[Walkalong]

+1 on Ghost Holster and Zero bullets.

 

[armoredman]

158gr X-Treme plated FP over 3.3gr of AA#2 is a great light, accurate load in my Smith Mod 10-5. For 9mm, the one that works best for me is 8.8gr of AA#7 under a 115gr Remington JHP, sitting in a PMP case, at 1.122 OAL.

Use all info at own risk.

 

[Smokey Joe]

Practice loads

for .357: Light charge of W231 pushing a lead 148 grain double-ended wad-cutter. Works also with hollow base wad cutters, same size.

Nice easy shooter, accurate, not particularly messy (tho' not what you could call CLEAN, either).

You use only a very small charge of 231--check yr manual. The downside to this is you have to be a maniac about checking each case for a double charge, but that can be done. The upside is I get better than 2000 such loads out of a pound of 231--an important consideration for a bullseye shooter.

The above powder charge is so small that my RCBS Uniflow had trouble metering it. Solved that problem by getting a Lyman #55 measure, which adjusts for VERY small powder charges.

Could load the above in .38Spl cases and use in the .357Magnum, but to avoid having 2 sizes of cases I use .357Magnum cases for my target loads.

You probably have a revolver for the .357Magnum--For a revolver, COAL is unimportant as long as the rounds are short enough to fit in your cylinders and the revolver functions properly. You want to be consistent in COAL for a given load, that's all. With wadcutters, they stick out of the case so little that COAL is especially unimportant.

for .45ACP: A larger charge of W231 pushing a 200 grain lead semi-wadcutter. Still a small charge; you still have to check for double-charging. Still get a lot of shooting out of a pound of powder.

Bullets for most .45 autoloaders have to have a nose of some sort; a wadcutter bullet won't feed from the magazine properly. Thus, the semi-wadcutter, with a nose plus a small shoulder. Makes for neater, easier-to-score holes in the paper target.

Lead bullets are cheaper than jacketed. Use the right one for the job and they work just fine.

In my bullseye league more guys use W231 than anything else, for .38 through .45.

Starline brass is the top of the line, for pistols, IMX. Winchester brass next. Everything else next, except R-P brass. (But R-P brass still works fine.) Bottom of the heap, avoid at all costs, recycle it if you ever get any, is Amerc brass. Also do not use steel or aluminum cases. Brass isn't THAT expensive, and it can usually be had for the scrounging.

 

[robctwo]

.45 ACP 3.9 to 4.2 Clays, 200 gr LSWC- Precission, Bear Creek, Mater Blaster, Oregon Laser Cast. OAL 1.23 to 1.26. 3.8 gr Clays under 230 gr LRNFP OAL 1.25.

I've been trying out Clays in 9mm as well. Don't have my load data at work.

 

[IDriveB5]

Ive been shooting:

.357 Magnum
6.6gr W231 behind Berry's 158gr plated RN.

 

[robctwo]

3.2 Clays 9mm 124 Oregon Laser Cast RN 1.09 OAL

 

[mavracer]

i use 231 for 125 rainer in 38 at 850 fps,158 oregon trail hard cast in 357 at 900 fps,115 ww jhp in 9mm at 1100 fps and 230 rainer in 45acp i use hs 6 for 147 rainer in 9mm at 900 fps, 125 rem jsp in 357 at 1400 fps and both my 10mm loads and mid range 44mag

 

[Tom609]

Wing Nut - My favorite practice load for .38 / .357 uses a Speer 148 HBWC over 2.8 of Bullseye. 9mm is 124 FMJ or LRN over 4.0 of Bulleye. I'm new, so take it with a grain of salt.

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I recently bought some 148g Laser Casts and wondered how differently some of you out there load them. What would a light and moderate load be for a Laser Cast compared with the above?
Thanks.

 

[Redneck with a 40]

I load 40 S&W, my favorite loadings so far are...180 grain FMJ with 6 grains of Unique, 180 grain cast lead with 5.1 grains of Unique, and I'm currently loading 165 grain plated TMJ's with 5.8 grains of Unique. All of these loads have performed very well at the range.