ChristopherG
Member
The local Durham County Wildlife Club (dcwc.net), holds 100 yrd silhouette matches (w/reduced scale targets) on a monthly basis through the summer months. Having recently acquired a 5.5" Ruger Redhawk in .41 mag, and (not coincidentally) started reloading, I decided to try to work up a load for this silhouette project.
I went with Remington's 200 gr. SJHP bullets, 'cause I wanted something flat shooting, and 'cause they're pretty reasonable at Midwayusa.com. Decided to try W296 because it works well especially in the lighter magnum bullet range.
Worked up to (CAUTION: The following post includes loading data beyond currently published maximums for this cartridge. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Neither the writer, The High Road, nor the staff of THR assume any liability for any damage or injury resulting from use of this information) 24.0 gr. of 296 under the 200 gr. bullet. There's a dearth of published data for 200grs., so it involved a little guesswork. I think I could go a bit higher, but don't see any need to. The primers are looking a little flat at this point, but everything else is rock solid. I figure I'm getting around 1500 fps, based on extrapolations of published loads.
The good news was that, when I got it out today for the first time with my (cheap, BSA) red-dot mounted on a (rock solid) Jack Weigand base, it shot well, by my standards. Resting the butt on my range bag, I got typical 3" 3 shot groups at 75 yards, and mostly 5" groups at 100. (Don't even ask what those groups looked like shooting freehand)
I think I could actually bring that down a little with a better quality optic; I'm thinking about a 2x20 scope, now that I've got a load/gun combo that will shoot well enough to merit it. And, I feel like this load is potent enough to do just about anything I'm ever likely to want to do with a handgun--though I could see bumping up 10 or 20 grs (in bullet weight, that is) for some purposes, that would be a small adjustment.
Man, I love this integrated project of crafting and shooting ammunition.
CG
I went with Remington's 200 gr. SJHP bullets, 'cause I wanted something flat shooting, and 'cause they're pretty reasonable at Midwayusa.com. Decided to try W296 because it works well especially in the lighter magnum bullet range.
Worked up to (CAUTION: The following post includes loading data beyond currently published maximums for this cartridge. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Neither the writer, The High Road, nor the staff of THR assume any liability for any damage or injury resulting from use of this information) 24.0 gr. of 296 under the 200 gr. bullet. There's a dearth of published data for 200grs., so it involved a little guesswork. I think I could go a bit higher, but don't see any need to. The primers are looking a little flat at this point, but everything else is rock solid. I figure I'm getting around 1500 fps, based on extrapolations of published loads.
The good news was that, when I got it out today for the first time with my (cheap, BSA) red-dot mounted on a (rock solid) Jack Weigand base, it shot well, by my standards. Resting the butt on my range bag, I got typical 3" 3 shot groups at 75 yards, and mostly 5" groups at 100. (Don't even ask what those groups looked like shooting freehand)
I think I could actually bring that down a little with a better quality optic; I'm thinking about a 2x20 scope, now that I've got a load/gun combo that will shoot well enough to merit it. And, I feel like this load is potent enough to do just about anything I'm ever likely to want to do with a handgun--though I could see bumping up 10 or 20 grs (in bullet weight, that is) for some purposes, that would be a small adjustment.
Man, I love this integrated project of crafting and shooting ammunition.
CG
