First time making handgun ammo and would appreciate comments and suggestions on my technique.

Hornady handbook said Unique powder was good for heavy 230 gr bullets but I could only find 200 gr HP-XTP so that is what I am loading. Hornady also said 800fps for best accuracy so I am loading from 5.0 to 6.0 in .1 grain increments ten rounds at each grain step to judge accuracy and velocity.

1). When I measure the speed with a chrony what would be a good fps deviation to gauge if my loading technique is good. I am trickle charging each round. I figure if I get wide velocity measurements that would tell me I am sloppy and need to load more precise. But what is a good fps deviation from each round?

2) What C.O.L. is good. I am using a 1.252 they all fit in my magazines and seem to chamber well. True test next trip to the range. Winchester 230 gr JHP = 1.206
Hornady 230 gr JHP/XTP +P = 1.228
Winchester 230 ball target = 1.259
So how do you choose, I shoot alot of Win ball so I went closer to that size. The max C.O.L. is 1.275"

3) Since headspace for the .45 is on the mouth of the case, Hornady says use little or no crimp. I am using very little and it seems to be good. I chamber a round, extract and measurements show no change to C.O.L. so I should be good right?

Thanks in advance.

quote:

Posted 21 December 2007 23:17
1). When I measure the speed with a chrony what would be a good fps deviation to gauge if my loading technique is good. I am trickle charging each round. I figure if I get wide velocity measurements that would tell me I am sloppy and need to load more precise. But what is a good fps deviation from each round?

2) What C.O.L. is good. I am using a 1.252 they all fit in my magazines and seem to chamber well. True test next trip to the range. Winchester 230 gr JHP = 1.206
Hornady 230 gr JHP/XTP +P = 1.228
Winchester 230 ball target = 1.259
So how do you choose, I shoot alot of Win ball so I went closer to that size. The max C.O.L. is 1.275"

3) Since headspace for the .45 is on the mouth of the case, Hornady says use little or no crimp. I am using very little and it seems to be good. I chamber a round, extract and measurements show no change to C.O.L. so I should be good right?

1; You will be doing good with a 20 fps or so SD. Personally I pay more attention to extreem spread. I`d expect a ES of somewhere around 30-40 fps for a load such as you are building for 10 rds. You will likely notice a difference in both SD and ES with powder charge variation. A tenth won`t change much but 0.3 or more grs probably will.

2; I`d load to the COL listed in the manual for the bullet being loaded. The ogive of different brands, styles, and wgts of bullet varies. This must be taken in consideration when deciding on COL along with depth of the bullet in the case and how the nose contacts the feed ramp to insure positive function. What works with one bullet won`t always work with another of the same brand or style.

3; Yep! If the bullet is staying put and the round chambers OK you ae good.

I`d take a look at useing Titegroup, VV N320 or Bulleye with the lighter bullets. I`ve found for paper punching the faster powders work better in my 1911. Doesn`t mean they will in yours, but something to concider if you find you are not happy with Unique.

Thanks Ol' Joe, I will post results when I get them. My first choice was Titegroup but the store I frequent was out of it.

mega

You may not want to hear this but you're way too anal about loading the ACP. There's no need to weigh each charge. A charge bar type of measure is fine. Chrono only to get your avg velocity (even that's not really necessary). After that, just charge and load and shoot. It's a 45 ACP!

Ray

Yes and forget the chrono for now. Load for accuracy first because the chrono will never tell you what will shoot best.
1/10 gr difference in a handgun will show nothing at all.

I would disagree about using the chronograph because it provides much valuable information, but I would echo the observations about increasing you loads by .1 grain. I'd go in no less than .2gr increments. If you have access to a Sierra manual, or a Lyman manual, I'd look up and see what they list as their accuracy load and use that data as a starting point. Kudude

I use a chronograph, a lot, so don't think I was saying that chronos do not serve a purpose. My comments were aimed specifically at chronographing 45 ACP loads with the goal of accuracy. I shot the ACP for over 30 years in competition and loaded thousands of rounds. It's my opinion that you are not going to find the most accurate combination over a chronograph. You'll find it only by shooting and only after you are good enough to be able to tell the difference.

If you enjoy all the little details of handloading, then go for it. But the ACP is one of the hardest pistols to master and you'll only do that by shooting, a lot. And you're not going to get a lot of shooting time if you're at your loading bench weighing powder charges.

Again, JMHO

Ray

No I do not want to be anal about the .45, like I said this is my first time loading handgun cartridges. After reading the comments and looking at manual I NOW see the difference between 50 fps is only .3 grains. So I will not use .1 steps in load differences and will step them up to .3 increments.

That alone will make things easier for me to find the best combination for my 1911, and this is some of the insight I was hoping to find from you guys, thank you.

All of you have been doing this for a while and things I am running into are very new to me. Heck I was surprised to open the can of Unique and see that is a flake powder. I have only been exposed to 4064, 4895 and reloader 15. Now I am loading 5 grains instead of 40ish for the .308

I am not in love with the chrono so I will do as use bfrshooter's advice.

It costs nothing to run my handloads over the chrono, so I do, but I agree, accuracy is the first criteria, regardless of the SD or ES I am showing. At most handgun distances, the variations are just not going to affect your groups much. I also load in 0.2gr increments when working up a new load. I load the 200grXTP @ 1.20" & it works fine. You will not find a great variation inaccuracy w/ COAL in handgun rounds like you do in rifle rounds. BTW, 6gr of Unique under the 200grXTP easily shoots a small ragged hole @ 15yds in several of my service grade pistols.

What was Hornady using for their data, colt, Springfield, Llama, ect. then what was the barrel length? Standard barrel or match grade? There are so many factors that figure in to how they got their data. My dad gave me some load data and I tried it and wasn't getting the same results as he was getting. So I called him and told him about it and he chuckled and told me it worked for him and that I will have to adjust my load to get the same results out of my gun. Thats when I learned that no two guns usually like the same recipe, you'll still have to work you're own load up. But you have a better idea of where you should be getting the best groups. Work you're load up get you're best group, and then chronograph it and see what the fps. is.