The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - New to pistol reloading, question on first batch.

Misssissippi Dave · June 1, 2013, 11:37 AM

Plated bullets normally come in two flavors. Heavy plating and thin plating. The thin plated ones use the same load information as lead bullets of the same shape. The heavy plated bullets can use jacketed load data up to mid range. Starting data probably will be closer to the mid range to upper end of lead data. It is always best to find data matching the bullet you are going to load.

My first things I do when working up a load is to start at or near the low end of the data I have. I work up 5 to 10 rounds at that point and 5 to 10 more with .1 grains more powder. I continue until I'm about .2 under the max level. The next thing I do when testing is make certain I have a clean target to shoot at. I make certain there is a hole in the paper for each shot fired. When I'm not certain a new hole it in the paper it is time to check the barrel for an obstruction.

Next I test to see if my new round will cycle the gun. If it does this I start looking for the powder level that will give me the best group. I shoot from a rest or at least have something stable to rest the gun on to keep movement to a minimum. I do skip some loads if the gun doesn't cycle. An example is the minimum load is 5.0 grains of powder and won't cycle the gun. The next ones I try will be 5.2 gains of powder. This continues until the gun cycles. At that point I start looking for accuracy. Check the cases to see if they are black for a low charge or very flattened primers normally resulting for pressure.

Once I find a load that works and most of the time it works well plus over a .3 grain spread or better I select the center of that good group of loads to load up 50 rounds. I then shoot these to see how they work over a longer test. If those meet my needs I probably load up quite a few to shoot.

Keep notes of everything you are loading. This means the good and the bad. You can refer to your notes later and keep from making loads that don't work well as well as making loads that do. I always refer to my notes prior to loading anything. My memory tends to make errors.

June 1, 2013, 11:37 AM	#11
Misssissippi Dave Senior Member Join Date: December 5, 2009 Posts: 1,411	Plated bullets normally come in two flavors. Heavy plating and thin plating. The thin plated ones use the same load information as lead bullets of the same shape. The heavy plated bullets can use jacketed load data up to mid range. Starting data probably will be closer to the mid range to upper end of lead data. It is always best to find data matching the bullet you are going to load. My first things I do when working up a load is to start at or near the low end of the data I have. I work up 5 to 10 rounds at that point and 5 to 10 more with .1 grains more powder. I continue until I'm about .2 under the max level. The next thing I do when testing is make certain I have a clean target to shoot at. I make certain there is a hole in the paper for each shot fired. When I'm not certain a new hole it in the paper it is time to check the barrel for an obstruction. Next I test to see if my new round will cycle the gun. If it does this I start looking for the powder level that will give me the best group. I shoot from a rest or at least have something stable to rest the gun on to keep movement to a minimum. I do skip some loads if the gun doesn't cycle. An example is the minimum load is 5.0 grains of powder and won't cycle the gun. The next ones I try will be 5.2 gains of powder. This continues until the gun cycles. At that point I start looking for accuracy. Check the cases to see if they are black for a low charge or very flattened primers normally resulting for pressure. Once I find a load that works and most of the time it works well plus over a .3 grain spread or better I select the center of that good group of loads to load up 50 rounds. I then shoot these to see how they work over a longer test. If those meet my needs I probably load up quite a few to shoot. Keep notes of everything you are loading. This means the good and the bad. You can refer to your notes later and keep from making loads that don't work well as well as making loads that do. I always refer to my notes prior to loading anything. My memory tends to make errors.