Reloading 40 questions and general questions

[rick300]

In my last post I asked for help to get more books. The most recommended was the lyman 49th and It came today. I’ve said before I’m new to reloading (I’ve now got 75 successful rounds off my bench and through my 44 mag) Thanks everyone for that, I love this new obsession, I mean hobby.
So I’m looking for loads for my p229 Sig .40. I’ve got some Rainer 165 gr FN plated and some Berry’s 155 gn FP plated and alliant unique. Along with the Lyman book I’ve got the Speer #14. neither list loads for plated bullets. So I e-mailed alliant and they said load with the 155 gn 5.2 to 5.5 of unique and with the 165 gn load 4.8 to 5.3. OK, so that’s one source I think I can trust, but I’ve heard I should have two.
I’ve also heard that plated loads should be 90% of jacketed loads. Is this a good rule of thumb or a myth? So I looked at lyman for info and they say 5.8 to 6.5 for the 155 gn x .90% = 5.22 gn to 5.85 gn and 5.4 gn to 6 gn for the 165 gn x 90% = 4.86 gn to 5.4 gn. Cool, we’re in the ball park. Then I looked at speer and they are way higher speer’s mins are over lymans maxes. So I looked at other powders and it is the same. Is one lyman more careful than speer? Has any one else noticed this ? Am I missing something? How can these two reputable books be so far off? I’ve also seen posts from a guy that usees 6.3 to 6.5 with Rainer 155gn so he would be at the high end for sure. I’m not gonna start there. I’m thinking so far, to start 5.2 for the 155 gn and 4.8 with the 165 gn (alliant’s advice) First, what do you think of these loads? And second how do you guys interpret these books? Do you do averages? I’ve got enough 40 to last a year so I’m not going to run out to the garage and load these any time soon. I just want some feedback to but into my notes. I’ll keep researching and saving brass till I’m confident I know what I’m doing. One more question… How the heck did you guys learn to reload before the internet? Thanks again Rick.

 

[D. Manley]

Reloading 40 questions and general questions

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In my last post I asked for help to get more books. The most recommended was the lyman 49th and It came today. I’ve said before I’m new to reloading (I’ve now got 75 successful rounds off my bench and through my 44 mag) Thanks everyone for that, I love this new obsession, I mean hobby.
So I’m looking for loads for my p229 Sig .40. I’ve got some Rainer 165 gr FN plated and some Berry’s 155 gn FP plated and alliant unique. Along with the Lyman book I’ve got the Speer #14. neither list loads for plated bullets. So I e-mailed alliant and they said load with the 155 gn 5.2 to 5.5 of unique and with the 165 gn load 4.8 to 5.3. OK, so that’s one source I think I can trust, but I’ve heard I should have two.
I’ve also heard that plated loads should be 90% of jacketed loads. Is this a good rule of thumb or a myth? So I looked at lyman for info and they say 5.8 to 6.5 for the 155 gn x .90% = 5.22 gn to 5.85 gn and 5.4 gn to 6 gn for the 165 gn x 90% = 4.86 gn to 5.4 gn. Cool, we’re in the ball park. Then I looked at speer and they are way higher speer’s mins are over lymans maxes. So I looked at other powders and it is the same. Is one lyman more careful than speer? Has any one else noticed this ? Am I missing something? How can these two reputable books be so far off? I’ve also seen posts from a guy that usees 6.3 to 6.5 with Rainer 155gn so he would be at the high end for sure. I’m not gonna start there. I’m thinking so far, to start 5.2 for the 155 gn and 4.8 with the 165 gn (alliant’s advice) First, what do you think of these loads? And second how do you guys interpret these books? Do you do averages? I’ve got enough 40 to last a year so I’m not going to run out to the garage and load these any time soon. I just want some feedback to but into my notes. I’ll keep researching and saving brass till I’m confident I know what I’m doing. One more question… How the heck did you guys learn to reload before the internet? Thanks again Rick.

To answer last question first, for me it was devouring every page of the few reloading manuals available at the time. Component selection was as limited as information so, you made do with what you had. Luckily (and miraculously), most survived with all their digits. I still cringe at how I used to work up my .357 loads.

As to the plated bullets, you can safely use either lead data or, mid-level jacketed data. They can be pushed a bit harder than a lot of people think but there's no purpose in doing so as they are pretty much target fodder.

The Speer manual seems to consistently list hotter loads than others. Keep in mind, most manuals are bullet specific and I would be very leery of using Speer's upper end data with other bullets. Most Speer bullets (i.e., the Gold Dot & Unicor varieties) are in fact, plated...albeit, thicker than other common plated types. For top end loads, I'd tend to use other data unless loading the precise components listed by Speer and even then, work up very slowly and carefully. When in doubt, I always defer to the powder manufacturer's data.