I chrono'd my reloads today

[Redneck with a 40]

I bought a chronograph on Friday from Sportsmans Warehouse, the basic F-1 chrony. I took my reloads out today to see what kind of real world velocity's I'm getting out of my guns. Here are the results:

40 S&W - test gun is a SA-XD 40 with 4" barrel. Distance is about 20 ft.

Test 1) 155 grain Ranier with 6.5 grains of Unique:
Highest Velocity : 1105 fps
Lowest Velocity : 1028 fps
Five shot string

Test 2) 165 grain Rainier with 6 grains of Unique:
Highest Velocity : 976 fps
Lowest Velocity : 962 fps (These are my most consistent round by far)
Five shot string

Test 3) 160 grain plated with 7 grains of Unique
Highest Velocity : 1154 fps
Lowest Velocity : 1099 fps
Five shot string

155 grain Hornady XTP with 7.3 grains of Unique
Highest Velocity : 1150 fps
Lowest Velocity : 1127 fps
Five shot string

155 grain Speer Gold Dot with 7.5 grains of Unique
Highest Velocity : 1215 fps (These are awesome)
Lowest Velocity : 1165 fps.
Five shot string

357 Magnum - Taurus Tracker 4" ported barrel, distance is 20 ft.

158 grain Rem. JSP with 16.6 grains of 296
Highest Velocity : 1277 fps
Lowest Velocity : 1273 fps
Five shot string

125 grain Rem. SJHP with 9.6 grains of Unique (max load)
Highest Velocity : 1393 fps
Lowest Velocity : 1309
Five shot string

125 grain Rem. SJHP with 9 grains of Unique
Highest Velocity : 1354
Lowest Velocity : 1300
Five shot string

158 grain Ranier Plated with 7 grains of Unique
Highest Velocity : 1078 fps (this is a great target load)
Lowest Velocity : 1030 fps
Five shot string

158 grain 38 spl with 4.5 grains of Unique
Highest Velocity : 864 fps
Lowest Velocity : 811 fps
Five shot string

Ruger 22/45 with 5" barrel
PMC Zapper 40 grain = 1075-1100 fps. This is pretty consistent stuff, price was right too.

What did I learn? Ballistics tables and the real world are two completely different things. Most of my velocites were short of the listed velocities. I'm guessing the ported barrel on my 357 might be costing me an additional 30-50 fps? My XTP and Gold Dot loads in the 40 S&W are pretty close to factory loads, although my Gold Dot load probably beats it by a little, at 1215 fps. I had a great time though, the chronograph is a lot of fun.

Next week I'm testing my dad's 41 magnum, 22 magnum revolver, 9mm, and my SKS.

[Smokey Joe]

Redneck--Chronographing stuff sure is fun, isn't it!

You got some nice results there!

You might want to think about getting the Chrony printer attachment--it gives you the results at the firing line, and does all the math for you for Standard Deviation and Average Velocity, as well as printing up the velocity of each load in yr string. VERY handy!

Standard wisdom is that a difference of < 100 fps is not worth considering.

And IMHO, consistent loads are more to be desired than meeting or beating the factory-load velocity specs. Consistence (therefore better accuracy potential) is where we handloaders can beat the factory.

[Slamfire]

I have been chronographing loads since the early 90's. What I have found is that published loads give a reloader boundaries. I do not like exceeding published loads because I have experienced enough pressure problems to believe that a maximum manual load might be a maximum load.

However that is not true of Accurate Arms data. A starting load could be a maximum load, and at least for AA#5 and the 45 LC, I had to exceed their "maximum" load by several grains to get standard velocities.

Something that you are not doing, but gives an indication of load quality is Std Deviation and Extreme Spreads. You will find during load development loads that have SD in the order of 60 and ES in the order of 200 or 300 fps. That powder/caliber combination is unlikely to be a good one. Shill gunwriters only publish averages, because they have to hock the stuff, but if they published the SD and ES's, you could tell that a couple of the powders they are shilling are not really going to be worth a flip.

I have some very excellent loads with Unique where the SD is a little higher than 20 and the ES’s are around 75 fps. Bullseye is my most consistent SD/ES powder, I was just looking at one load were the SD was under 10 and the ES was 28. In an auto pistol I like tight velocity spreads as it means a consistent recoil impulse to the slide. And I believe that increases function reliability.

I also of the firm belief that the higher velocities represent high pressures. So I keep an eye on the high end velocity and cut loads or abandon loads if I don’t like those high end outliers.

If you shoot enough, and chronograph enough, in enough pistols, you will establish a data base where you set your own “limits”. I just don’t shoot 900 fps stuff in my 45ACP’s, I don’t push magnum velocities anymore, don’t see a need to, I have loads that I am happy with that are very consistent between rifles and pistols of the same caliber

[Redneck with a 40]

SlamFire, I hear what you are saying. My box of Rem. 125 grain SJHP's that I loaded with 9.6 grains of Unique, have a ferocious blast and I get the sense that the gun is getting "punished". I loaded another box of the same bullets at 9 grains, and it was much better in my opinion, the velocity only dropped from 1400 down to 1350. This load will likely be more accurate and is more pleasant to shoot, still has plenty of oooomph. All of my 125's in the future will be 9 grains of Unique.

I was very pleased with my 158 grain JSP's and 296, the velocity spread over 5 rounds was only 5 fps, very consistent.

My 155 grain Ranier's have a little more velocity spread than I like to see, all of my other rounds are pretty consistent, I'm happy with them. They are all accurate.

Another factor is the mixed brass that I am using, that will yield higher extreme spreads than uniform brass from the same company.

I was hoping for stronger velocities out of my 125 grain and 158 grain 357's, but if thats all I get, then so be it. Both are still plenty strong enough to take care of any critter or criminal that I might run into.

I'm a big fan of Unique, in case you couldn't tell. The stuff performs well in a multitude of calibers and its cheaper than some other powders. With the charge weights I'm using, 1# of Unique goes a long way. Compared to 296, which takes 16.6 grains per case, that 300 rounds/pound, gets expensive.

[mc223]

Excellant results. Unique is a very versatile powder, But wait till you get the Vihta-Vouri bug. Yeah it cost a bit more, but the performance is well worth the price.

[Redneck with a 40]

I've read some Vihta-Vouri load data and it looks pretty impressive. I'd be willing to try it.

Another option is longshot, its more expensive, but its capable of pushing a 180 grain 40 at 1150 fps and a 155 grain at damn near 1300 fps.

[mrawesome22]

Longshots working great for me in .40S&W. I load 10gr under a 155gr bullet. 700rnds a pound. And Hodgdon powders are quite a bit cheaper than the Oy powders around here.

BTW I diivided 7000 by 16.6 and came up with 421

[Redneck with a 40]

mrw, I was guestimating. I like to get more than 421 rounds out of a pound of powder, 9 grains behind my 125 grain 357's gives me 777 rounds/pound. At 7 grains on my target load, I get 1000 rounds/pound. Thats why I like Unique, low charge weight, still good performance.

[amamnn]

If you look a little deeper into the art and science of interpreting chronograph data for load development and really all other applications as well, you will find that a 10 shot string is the least number of data required to compute a valid result. Also you get to shoot more.

I learned from a gentleman who used to build and sell chronographs to shoot at least 3 ten shot strings and work with those data in order to prove a load. Ideally, once you get what you think is the best load for a particular firearm, the 3 strings would be shot in different weather conditions. I've made a lot of fine tunings to loads developed that way that proved to be valuable to me later in matches.