Hey folks,
I have a couple of other ideas to add to this mix. In Steve's post, he takes the tack that target loads and self defense loads are by nature different loads, and he thinks it is a waste of money to shoot self defense loads for target practice.
If one accepts the idea that one's target loads are going to be different (less expensive) than one's self defense loads, I would tend to agree with Steve's opinion. I would submit, however, that if a person uses good cast bullets that perform well, then that person can have one load for both target shooting as well as self defense.
I personally do not use hot loads for anything I shoot. If one is going to load any of those four calibers to their hottest potential, I doubt if many shooters could manage to shoot the hot loads effectively unless they spent a lot of time on the range learning to control those hot loads. Steve made it seem that point of aim for self defense ammo compared to target ammo is rather insignificant at 25 yards. I have to disagree with Steve about that. If think if he were to shoot a dozen target loads at 25 yards and then shoot a dozen hot loads at 25 yards, he would notice a good bit of difference in his two groups. Heavy recoil does affect accuracy, and that is why Bullseye competitors use light target loads for best scores. If you want to shoot hot loads with heavy recoil, you really need to practice with that load to learn how to control it. At 10 yards, I would be more inclined to agree with Steve's premise, but again heavy recoil is detrimental to accuracy unless you have practiced and learned to control it. It is not just about how fast you bring your sights to bear on the target after a shot. It is more about not making an accurate shot in the first place because of expected recoil and lack of ability to control same.
Again I go back to the idea that if you have a good cast bullet that you can shoot well and control its recoil, it can be very effective at 25 yards or less, and it is also cheap enough to use for target as well as self defense use. A good hit with a cast bullet from any of those four pistol calibers is obviously far better than a miss from a really hot load.
I would also like to point out that when I used to hunt deer a good many years ago, I used a 150 grain gas checked cast bullet in a 30-06 rifle. My practice was to use hard cast bullets for target use in my hunting rifle, and my scope was set accordingly. When it came time to go hunting, instead of using my regular hard cast gas checked bullets, I used the same mould to make my hunting bullets out of dead soft lead. I normally only used ond of two of the soft cast bullets in a season, so leading the barrel was not really a problem. The soft bullets were essentially the same weight as my target bullets, so they shot to the same point of aim. Every deer I ever shot with one of my soft bullets was hit solidly, and the bullet would result in an excellent mushroom shape. When using regular spitzer hunting bullets, sometimes they will mushroom quite well, and there are many other times the bullet will fragment into smaller parts. Cast bullets can be very effective if used properly.
Best wishes,
Dave Wile
