Chrono readings curiosity

[Eyesa Horg]

18 minutes ago, The Original Lumpy Gritz said:

Hardwire GND your PM to a dedicated ground rod.

Not the house GND......

Thanks, I did that when I set up my room!  Used a 10 foot copper coated service ground rod and # 6 copper wire.

When I did the above 10 loads, I set the PM for 4.9 and then slowly trickled to 5.0

All the drops were right on at 4.9 except one that was 5.1

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

On 10/25/2022 at 7:44 PM, Widder, SASS #59054 said:

A stopped using CLAYS in my pistol and rifle reloads a few years ago.

One sign of inconsistent burning with CLAYS  will be 'bird seed' residue.

 

..........Widder

 

Same reason I quit using it for rifle & pistol.

[Duffield, SASS #23454]

You are using .452" diameter bullets.  A .45 Colt expander may be sized for .454" diameter. 

This results in a rather casual grip on the bullet, even with a good crimp. This can cause the problem you are having.

Try an expander for .45 ACP or even .44 Special. 

[Eyesa Horg]

17 minutes ago, Duffield, SASS #23454 said:

You are using .452" diameter bullets.  A .45 Colt expander may be sized for .454" diameter. 

This results in a rather casual grip on the bullet, even with a good crimp. This can cause the problem you are having.

Try an expander for .45 ACP or even .44 Special. 

My bullets are .452, don't know what the expander is on the SDB, but if not belled enough I will scrape a little lead sometimes. I keep the belling minimal to reduce the stress on the brass.

 

[Duffield, SASS #23454]

I keep belling tò a minimum also.

I ran into the same problem with light bullets in a .44 magnum.  I was using a heavy but not maximum  charge of WW 296. Extreme spread was around 250 fps! 

I experimented with crimps and then tried a .41 magnum expander.  Best results was with the .41 expander and a hard crimp

But I found that Aliant 2400 was much more uniform with the 180 grain bullet.

 

 

 

[Widder, SASS #59054]

Eyesa,

I like to expand the mouth of a case with minimal expanding also.    BUT..... to 'help' keep (and minimize)

scrapping of the lead bullet, try chamfering the inside of your case mouth.

 

Chamfering minimizes sharp edges and gets rid of those unseen burrs at the case mouth.

 

Good luck.

 

..........Widder

 

[Eyesa Horg]

9 hours ago, Widder, SASS #59054 said:

Eyesa,

I like to expand the mouth of a case with minimal expanding also.    BUT..... to 'help' keep (and minimize)

scrapping of the lead bullet, try chamfering the inside of your case mouth.

 

Chamfering minimizes sharp edges and gets rid of those unseen burrs at the case mouth.

 

Good luck.

 

..........Widder

 

And being that I used brand new brass, that is even more of a possibility.

[Bison Bud]

Frankly, these loads are a bit light for my taste, but I don't see a major issue with the chrono results you posted.  Yeah, the ES and SD are a bit higher than I'd like to see, but I'd bet that this is mostly due to the low power factors.  All smokeless powders need to develop enough pressure to burn completely and consistently and that's simply not a lot of powder in those big cases.  In my experience, Clays has been probably the cleanest and most consistent burning powder for use in light loads, but even it has it's limits.  I'd wager that even a slight increase in propellant would probably tighten up those ES and SD numbers a bit and still provide a manageable cowboy load.  However, for what we are doing your present load should serve you well as is and an improvement over the chronograph probably won't make a whole lot of difference in the grand scheme of things.  Good luck and good shooting to all.   

[Kirk James]

If the load goes "ding" every time I do my part it is a good powder and good load.  We have used Clays for over 9 years.  It is more "dirty" sense they changed plants.  When we first got started we asked some of the more experienced shooter's what they shot and tried their loads.  As long as they keep going "ding" we are good. 

Deuce Steven's had a thread several years ago with shooters favorite loads.  There was a great deal of information to be learned.  Chronographs are great to check your loads power factor.

[Billy Boots, # 20282 LTG-Regulator]

2 hours ago, Kirk James said:

If the load goes "ding" every time I do my part it is a good powder and good load.  We have used Clays for over 9 years.  It is more "dirty" sense they changed plants.  When we first got started we asked some of the more experienced shooter's what they shot and tried their loads.  As long as they keep going "ding" we are good. 

Deuce Steven's had a thread several years ago with shooters favorite loads.  There was a great deal of information to be learned.  Chronographs are great to check your loads power factor.

The ding for sure,  and to me, accuracy.   20+ years where accuracy was a must to be competitive (IHMSA), I sill find myself a tad paranoid to small groups.  To me, accuracy is so much in "piece of mind" and confidence to getting that ding. 

Finding Clays so unavailable of recent had me switching to Clay Dot.  In checking loads to meet PF I found CD to be far more position sensitive than expected, especially with 105s.  Crimp, brass, etc did not seem to change the fact of the position sensitivity.  Accuracy was excellent so I am not so concerned with the position sensitivity and I feel CD will have better overall performance in colder temperatures (at least so I read).  

[Smokin Gator SASS #29736]

I try not to bell the cases way more then needed but I'm not overly concerned about trying to minimally bell them. I'd rather have a little too much then not enough. I get very few split brass. With a box of new brass I will chamfer them. Old brass only if I can feel a burr or something.