I've been shooting only my own loads now for about three months.
I started with 115gr fmj using unique. Started at 4gr, and slowly increased to 5gr giving what I thought seemed like a good load.
Finding a shortage of unique I switched to w231 loading 3.8-4.0gr.
Which seemed about the same.
Then, finding a shortage on 115gr fmj, I was forced to settle for 124gr fmj.
Still using the 3.8-4.0 load with w231 I found the gun was not cycling very well.(For my wife that is)
So I increased the load to 4.2-4.4 which is about max according to Lymans 48th edition.
The gun shot well and cycled just fine. (Only one case got stuck when the wife shot it)
So just for heck of it I brought out a box of Fiocchi 115gr. loaded it up and shot.
Holy crap! The loads I was making definitely went BANG, but these were like KA-POW!!!! in comparison.
You could tell velocity and speed difference were much greater.
(so was the recoil)
I think I would have to stuff 7gr. of 231 to even get close. (of course I don't believe you could get 7gr. in the case)
So in summary it appears my loads aren't even close to factory.
Any suggestions for a powder closer to factory?
Lyman suggests either AA#7, or power pistol, of which I haven't tried either of.
I started with 115gr fmj using unique. Started at 4gr, and slowly increased to 5gr giving what I thought seemed like a good load.
Finding a shortage of unique I switched to w231 loading 3.8-4.0gr.
Which seemed about the same.
Then, finding a shortage on 115gr fmj, I was forced to settle for 124gr fmj.
Still using the 3.8-4.0 load with w231 I found the gun was not cycling very well.(For my wife that is)
So I increased the load to 4.2-4.4 which is about max according to Lymans 48th edition.
The gun shot well and cycled just fine. (Only one case got stuck when the wife shot it)
So just for heck of it I brought out a box of Fiocchi 115gr. loaded it up and shot.
Holy crap! The loads I was making definitely went BANG, but these were like KA-POW!!!! in comparison.
You could tell velocity and speed difference were much greater.
(so was the recoil)
I think I would have to stuff 7gr. of 231 to even get close. (of course I don't believe you could get 7gr. in the case)
So in summary it appears my loads aren't even close to factory.
Any suggestions for a powder closer to factory?
Lyman suggests either AA#7, or power pistol, of which I haven't tried either of.