- Mar 9, 2011
- 69,716
- 83,211
- 3,635
I cast up a couple hundred of these last week and got to work up a load today. They were cast out of 9 pounds of rendered wheel weights mixed with one pound of 50/50 lead/tin bars into a Lee TL356-124-2R mold. The bullets were water-quenched and the Brinell hardness measures out to be about 23. I pushed them with a starting load of 3.5 grains of HP-38 powder, and up to a maximum of 4.0 grains. They were loaded into Winchester cases trimmed down to 0.750", primed with Winchester WSP primers, and seated to an overall length of 1.164".
They were fired from a rest at targets set at a range of 25 yards, and the pistol was a 1951 Star Model B. 9mm on a 1911 frame. The results were as follows:
Charge grains: 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 4.0
900 958 1024 1011 1033 1040
910 944 972 1024 1038 1061
928 939 1011 1030 1095 1070
946 951 1013 1054 1038 1076
919 937 969 1049 1047 1063
947 955 1018 1024 1034 1061
941 963 999 1039 1034 1094
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Avg, Velocity fps: 927 950 1001 1033 1046 1066
Std. Dev: 18.4 9.86 22.10 15.2 22.3 16.5
The best group was with a powder charge of 3.9 grains. At that charge, the cases sealed fully in the chamber and no carbon residue was exhibited on the cases...
After firing seven round at each increment, I disassembled the pistol to check for barrel leading, with a USB bore scope. No leading was evident in the throat or muzzle...
These appear to work pretty well. I'll probably load up 300-400 rounds just to plink with sometime this week.
They were fired from a rest at targets set at a range of 25 yards, and the pistol was a 1951 Star Model B. 9mm on a 1911 frame. The results were as follows:
Charge grains: 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 4.0
900 958 1024 1011 1033 1040
910 944 972 1024 1038 1061
928 939 1011 1030 1095 1070
946 951 1013 1054 1038 1076
919 937 969 1049 1047 1063
947 955 1018 1024 1034 1061
941 963 999 1039 1034 1094
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Avg, Velocity fps: 927 950 1001 1033 1046 1066
Std. Dev: 18.4 9.86 22.10 15.2 22.3 16.5
The best group was with a powder charge of 3.9 grains. At that charge, the cases sealed fully in the chamber and no carbon residue was exhibited on the cases...
After firing seven round at each increment, I disassembled the pistol to check for barrel leading, with a USB bore scope. No leading was evident in the throat or muzzle...
These appear to work pretty well. I'll probably load up 300-400 rounds just to plink with sometime this week.
