Longshot 10 mm loads

[bigarm]

I would like to try some Longshot that I just got with my 200 grain powder coated cast bullets. Hodgden has only fmj load for 200 grain with a starting load of 7.0 grains and max load of 8.2 grains. Where should I start for cast bullets?

[skizzums]

6gr looks like it'll get you around 900fps. I would probably start there and worl up to where I wanted it speed/accuracy wise, checking for leading between .3gr intervals. but honestly if it's a good alloy and sized well, the starting load of 7gr at 1000fps will probably be okay. if it's a semi-auto you may not be able to go too low and cycle well.

[bigarm]

I loaded rounds at 6.8, 7.0 and 7.2 grains of Longshot. 7.2 gave me average velocity of 1043, extreme spread of 61 and s.d. of 21. I then upped it to 7.5 and got 1066 average velocity, 43 extreme spread and 14 standard deviation. I didn't gain a lot of velocity by going up but did lower the extreme spread and standard deviation. All brass looked fine . I think I will stay there for awhile. It was a fairly pleasant load. That was a power factor of 213.

[Bongo Boy]

It seems to me Hodgdon simply tops out their cast loads at around 1,000 fps, for no apparent reason, they 'just do'. I'm curious about what you're shooting those 200s in, barrel length and so on. I just got 8 lbs of Longshot and will be loading with 180-185 gr cast for 10mm, but haven't even gotten started with load workup. I bought it because it 'was there'.

[bigarm]

5" Colt Delta Elite

[Bongo Boy]

I was actually thinking of Hornady load data, not Hodgdon, when I made the comment about the cast bullet data topping out at 1,000 fps in most cases.

Interestingly, in looking at Hornady data for 10mm, their [i]180 gr[/1] load for Longshot tops out at 8.2 gr (making 1,150 fps), with a starting load of 6.4 gr. For the 200 gr XTP, they have a min to max range of 5.7 to 7.3 gr.

I seldom hesitate to just go with jacketed load data for cast bullets, but naturally I start closer to the low end or middle loads. Have never seen any big problem doing that. I would think that, because these 200 gr loads are topping out only just about 1,000 fps, I can't think there'd be any issue with using any of them with most any cast bullet.

Even more interesting about the Hornady load data: with the 180 gr bullets now, the performance of 40SW and 10mm are pretty much the same using the published Longshot loads, with 10mm topping out just 50 fps greater than the max recommended 40SW load with the same bullet. This actually isn't all that surprising--I've found very few 10mm loads so far that didn't get to max long before the case was filled any more than a 40SW case could accommodate.