Handgun load testing with the .44 Special, Part I

[Music] welcome back I get a lot of my material simply by looking on the web looking at the various blogs to see what people are asking one of the most popular questions is from people who have got a handgun or just purchased a new handgun perhaps it's a new caliber they've never used before and they want to know what the best load is for well of course if somebody asks that question online they're going to they're going to be filled up with more rinses and they can possibly handle from people all over the world recommending their favorite load their favorite primers their favorite powered bullets elbow block well you know as things go some of those loads can be absolutely lousy someone can be fantastic some of them can be actually unsafe but no matter what they are the person still left with the same quandary that he had when he started out he or she simply has no clue what it is that anybody is you know whether they're whether they're giving a qualified answer or if it's completely bogus and you know the way things go with with the internet you don't even know the authenticity of the person on the other end you don't know for instance if they even know what they're talking about you don't know if they've ever touched a loading die or even a gun in their life you know could be just somebody who likes to sit in an armchair who hasn't got any interested in shooting and who just simply prattling off information that you know he's seen already written by somebody else so these are all these are all things that everybody has to keep in mind I can help you with getting the very best load for your handgun now let me qualify that by saying that there is no such thing as a very best load for handguns because if there were such a thing you wouldn't need to have you wouldn't need to have a loading manual with this many pages and if I any means you just simply have you'd have a list of calibers and you'd have a list of all the very best powders and a list of all the very best loads and I'd be the end of it well things aren't that simple and yet because they're not that simple it actually makes the selection far easier there are a host of extremely good loads for handguns and rifles and shotguns there is a host of them it's an endless combination of extremely good possibilities the best way to determine what the best load is for you is to just simply to just simply test a series how you arrive at a particular test series is pretty simple you determine first of all what category of load you're going to be shooting for instance now this is Mike this is my Ruger Redhawk I'm going to be loading up some test load for you we're going to do that here and then we're going to take them up to the we're going to take a moat to the outdoors and we're going to test those and do an actual load assessment so this Ruger Redhawk is a 44 Magnum and because it's a 44 Magnum it can also handle the 44 special the classical 44 cycle from which the 44 Magnum came was simply a 44 special lengthened by 1/10 of an inch and it became the 44 Magnum because of Elmer Keith's pushing and prodding of the Smith & Wesson company and Remington and they they finally came up with a load that had become the classic 44 Magnum back in the 50s but the 44 special is a terrific cartridge to load for plinking and for just having a lot of fun with you know very economically they're very low cost low cost round to shoot in there you know they're very they can be as accurate as any cartridge in the world for a handgun cartridge they're not necessarily any more accurate than any other cartridge although they can be but they they certainly are among the most accurate revolver cartridges made to some people can very simply reduce the loads of 44 Magnum cases to arrive at 44 special loads now I'll say this you can do that it's not necessarily the best way to go about things because the case capacity is much much larger and powder positioning is one factor which comes in to the accuracy of any hand load the powder should be more nearly matched the quantity of powder that the volume of powder should be more nearly matched to the case capacity as possible so whenever you increase whenever you increase the length of a case by a tenth of an inch you know the low density of a high fasting quick burning powder it's barely a tenth of an inch as it is in a case of that size so when you increase the length of the case by a tenth of an inch you're increasing the volumetric measurement of the case itself and positioning is you know it ruins the positioning so the powder is not as close to the primers or was before now that might not mean that much one thing it does mean is that because the volume of the case is larger it can create less pressure and less pressure cannot oftentimes result in a case which does not expand fully in the chamber and thereby is blow by gases come back wood beside beside the case and can cause a very very [ __ ] chamber and very blackened cases pretty dirty cases and after just a few shots some of that some of that foot can build up on the what's called the recoil plate of the revolver and when you have the recoil player of the revolver getting filled with foot and smut it causes a cause of dragging of the cases the cases will know longest slide along the recoil cake and that can cause death and cause problems with cycling of the rear the revolver cylinder so it's always best whether you're shooting a 357 Magnum our 38 or 44 Magnum Miller you know 44 special its best one possible - I use the appropriate size case for the type of loads that you're going to be shooting so if you're going to be shooting full power load by all means you know put those 357 cases in and the 44 Magnum cases and but if you're going to be intending to shoot target loads and plinking loads use the appropriate size cases which are smaller and designed for that particular velocity and power and not only that but it saves it preserves the more expensive brass for the for the purpose that it is intended now does it cause does it cause any gas cutting inside the chamber no this is a myth there is no gas cutting inside people will look inside and they'll see a ring that's sometimes it's just simply a ring which occurred because of bullet lubricant which has gotten spattered against the end of the chamber and that can be easily removed simply by solvent and things like that in the standard bore brush an oversized bore brush remember if you're using if you're using a bore brush on a 38 or you know 44 special whatever it is you want to go to a next higher sized bore brush for your chamber because your your chambers much larger diameter than the bore itself so you get a more efficient cleaning but no it doesn't cause any gas cutting there's no such thing your pressures so far down the scale on low velocity loads that they're actually not going to cause any gas cutting that's a very very high grade steel so don't worry about that if you're going to be shooting now if you're going to be shooting mixtures of loads you know you want you might want to throw you might want to throw a brush in your in the tool kit and bring it with you when you go shooting because if you're going to be shooting 357 1038 or 44 specials in 44 magnums you probably want to clean the chamber before you start shooting the larger cases otherwise you might get a little stickiness if some of that lubricant starts to adhere to the end of the longer case but those are all those are all little details that I don't want you to be concerned about picking out a good load is as simple as doing this determine the determine the type of usage that you're going to have if you want to have a plinking load if you want to have a standard velocity load or if you want to have a magnum power load and that's basically a that I kind of categorize that in loosely using a standard using a standard weight bullet whether it's 158 grain bullets for instance in the 38 or 357 or 240 grain bullet in a 44 special of 44 Magnum though the standard weight bullets and using those parameters you know velocities that are in the range of about 650 to 750 to 800 feet per second that would be that would be a you know your target plinking loads or just having a lot of fun with there's nothing more fun than just simply having a load that runs around those velocities of 750 to 800 feet per second or even slower you know they head down range fairly slow but they get the job done they can be as accurate as any loads and those those are classically the ones that years ago bullseye targets you have to use three point two grains around about 3.2 grains of bullseye and it 38 specials with 147 grain wadcutter bullets and that that was a class that was one of the classic loads for the short-range target shooter that were shooting out to 50 yards and you know the atactic worked with that those does both going so slow that with the Sun behind you on your site you can actually see that if you're standing behind the shooter you can see the bull's head and downrange so that would be the would be the target that would be the target velocity application and when I say target velocity application I'm talking about not just not your bullseye targets but also you know steel plates and things like that or tin cans or dirt clods or whatever you want to shoot you know targets of opportunity out in the field that anything like that can be very accurate now for loads like that I'm looking at my powder burning rate track here this is from this is from the Lee this is from the lead manual this is to me one of the best powder burning rate trap out there because it's all-inclusive it it includes all the different manufacturers powders and it categorizes them together so in other words you're not just looking at Rajan's powder or Vitter brewery's powder or something like that but if I look immediately I come to a bull's eye powder that's a classic that's a classic you know economical and accurate powder for many many cartridges but in that same in that same room you know you have clays you have tightwad they're they're they're powders which have become very popular for for economy and for oftentimes very accurate competition bullseye HP 38 Winchester 231 and so forth and all those powders run generally up to a round tight group right here and even trail boss which is burning rate number nine and ten so these are these here any one of these can be used for cowboy loads the target little blinking loads and they can be extremely accurate now moving up the ramp then you can get into the the double digit powders or column here this is a powder burning rate number eleven ten eleven you're running up into green dot green dot is a shotgun powder which is very very accurate in many many handguns it's not necessarily a well advertised powder and you hear too much about it but it's an extremely good powder I found for many different loads including the including the 45 ACP but those are one up to I would say around Auto comp and power pistol hs6 these powders up to about burning rate burning rate number 18 or so and and even you know even a little higher but once you get up to about burning rate 18 you're you you this is your full power loads the easier load that will run with standard weight bullets up around 850 900 even up to a thousand feet per second in some cartridges with standard bullets now when you get into blue dot and long shot and these powders here 571 hs7 in the assessing powders with familiar names like Winchester 630 and Hercules 2400 and little gun and eight 110 and 290 62 Magnum these are Magnum powders and those we get those will generally be used only in Magnum sized cases and I say that generally generally used in Magnum sized cases for Magnum loads running up with beyond the thousand feet per second and sometimes much much faster you know up to 1,350 1,400 feet per second and things like that was fairly heavy bullets so once you've determined what it is that you want to shoot the bullet weights and what your velocity range is use the appropriate color for the particular velocity that you're going to be using and the reason I say that you'll sometimes see you'll sometimes see where people will take powders which are say medium medium burning rate powders for handgun they might take they might take HS six for instance see if I have it here I don't have HS six but I have power pistol so fact I think I have yes I have hs6 over of my load matter but power pistol for instance this is this is a powder with your use of generally speaking standard velocity loads that will be that's right up there remember the burning rates I was talking about this is right up there at the top of the medium track this is number 18 that would be number 18 on the on the lead book page and that's what I do with my powders I just put just for a quick reference I put the approximate burning rate so I can just take a look at the powders and if I forgotten approximately what the powders are doing that that will give me that will give me my quick reference so and 2400 has a burn rate of 24 it doesn't it just happens that way it's nothing nothing anybody planned I don't think but if you take a powder for instance such as hs6 and power pistol and you throttle it back and you try to get a low velocity load which you can do you can you can load down those powders and you can achieve you know fairly good accuracy sometimes but very frequently you'll get extremely dirty performance in other words the powder is not the powder is not burning at a rate which will expand that cartridge case fully against the chamber and you'll get people complaining about city chambers and dirty guns and things of that sort because you know when you'll see people who are very very correctly saying you know you have to boost you have to boost your powder charges with that powder in order to get a clean burn and that's true because the cases have to fill the chamber and they have to generate enough pressure in order to quickly in other words that the pressure can build going down the barrel with slow burning powders that's how it works slower burning powders and build pressures it goes down the barrel as the powder burn consume so it more fully the fullest pressures are generated at a longer cycle then quick burn empowered quicker burning powders quicker burning powders such as bullseye and red dot green dot and things of that sort and and accurate number to even accurate number five those powders are quick enough burning so that they expand the case quickly and they get to they get the work done before the bullet gets very far down the barrel that brings up another that brings up another point which is important to remember if you're if you're shooting a if you're shooting a snubnose if you're shooting a gun which has got a short a very short barrel you're you're far better off selecting colors which are in a quicker burning category now you certainly have to keep you certainly have to keep your wits about you you don't want to be you don't want to be driving you don't want to be driving velocities up using quick burning colors beyond the listed maximums because you can easily blow your gun up quick burning powders are very very sensitive to powder charge increases and they can very very easily recognize I have seen in my life a few unfortunate cases where that's happened and entire cylinders blown right into top straps blown off barrels barrels basically just disconnected from a receiver the the frame shears right off is the incredible amount of energy that goes off it's like a stick of dynamite when somebody double charges or triple charges a you know a load of bull's eye thinking that it was you you know unique something like that or 2,400 they they can sometimes get they can sometimes get this way you've got to be very careful to watch your data make sure that you stay within the guidelines with especially with pistols it's really really important it's so easy to it's so easy to triple or sometimes even quadruple charged a case with bullseye or any of those faster powders that you can easily record on so you got to be very sure you always maintain the standard rule that I have insisted on is keep only one pound of powder on the bench at any given time and never you know at your machine when I say on the bench you know I've got a loadmaster over there that workstation is by itself but I keep the pound of powder right over there by the work by the loadmaster and that's the only powder that I'll have out this is a different workstation and whatever powder I'm working with that one is that's when I say on the bench so always keep adjacent to your machine the powder that you're going to be using and don't have any other powders out and available because if you ever there are some powders that have extremely similar appearance a classic example is Winchester 296 and - 110 which are identical powders by the way but still follow the powder manufacturers recommendations but those are the same colors but those two powders will look identical to accurate number 7 the big difference is is that if you would ever load accurate number 7 - the load densities that you typically load h 110 or 296 that's finis gun your gun is done with and it could possibly kill you or or injury so you've got to be very very careful and don't ever assume when you pull both out when you're you know pulling bullets and using powder from within cases don't just discard that stuff unless you're absolutely certain you've marked you know on those loads and you know exactly what's in so in those cases that's the only time when you can read reuse and salvage that powder but unless you are absolutely positive and it's it's loads that you made and you marked those loads and you know that you never that you never mess around with you know changing things midstream that's the only time but you got to be very careful rifle cases unless you're using reduced load with cast bullets most rifle powders are you know very dense they fill a case up quite enough so that you can never double charge in any double track with even a light load will generally overfill a case to spilling over so with pistols that's not Kate that's not the case at all pistols and revolvers there are so many loads that can very easily suppose either without spilling over the case they can very easily accept a second or even a third charge and certainly if you if you miscalculate which powder that you're using you can be in a bad way now your Magnum powders I just want to go back down to the list you Magnum powders make sure that you're using the appropriate primer some manufacturers for instance Winchester just to W the Winchester live picture wlp primer that is a combined usage primer that's I've gone over this I want you to watch my my other videos that are relevant let's see this is this is a Winchester lag pistol primary and you notices or standard or Magnum pistol loads so the wlp is our all-purpose large pistol primer on the other hand the CCI version is a CCI 300 primer for live pistol and they have a 354 Magnum pistol now that I never used I never use any Magnum primers unless it specifically calls for it like want to go back through my primer video and I give a full rundown on that but certain powder such as H 110 and 296 ball powders those those definitely require Magnum primer in order to have reliable ignition and all that all purpose Winchester primers is fine too now there are other companies that have had I can't remember which which of the four companies has the the other all-purpose primer but I think its Remington but in in those cases those primers are more than sufficient you don't have to get a special Magnum primer there did design for that remember those companies Remington was the company that first loaded the 44 Magnum so they know exactly what they're doing with it would their primer you don't have to try to second-guess their loadings okay the loading density make sure that when you're using lighter charges with quick burning powders be absolutely positive that you maintain the correct progression if you're using if you're using a semi progressive press make sure that you're just cycling correctly if you're using it in a single stage mode or a single stage press make sure that you keep your loading blocks always organized so that you are doing one operation at a time be sure that you also have yourself a flashlight so you can look down into cases or have good overhead lighting so you can look I like to use a flashlight because I can actually physically move the light down from case to case before you go putting those if using a single stage your operation before you go to the next stage be sure you look down each of those cases and make sure they all look the same so that way they immediately spot if you have an uncharged case you'll immediately spot if you have a case which is double track and so forth so that you don't have a problem this has been a problem you know when you have a and you have a special powder station whether you're using a bench model one or whether you're using a hand operated color dispenser those are great machines this is how I use this all the time for dispensing powder but it's very easy with pistols to you know turn away you know maybe somebody is calling you in another room with something like that you get distracted very easy to go back to the same case and give it another bump and you end up with a double and a blown-up gun so it's always very good to first of all be in a situation we are not distracted you make sure that you isolate yourself so that you don't have any distractions and check your check the cases and be absolutely certain that they look identical and if there's any if there's any question whatsoever dump it and redo it if you're using a progressive or semi progressive press just make sure you do everything that the manufacturer calls for would that press to be sure that you're progressing correctly and you're not you're not double cycling the handle on the on the press the load master really can't be double cycled like that that power will not release until it's all the way up but just the same you want to be very very certain what you're doing at all times okay but with this particular this particular load test series I want to replicate for you I want to show you how you go through the process of you know first of all selecting powder how to match it to your correct bullet weight the primer and so forth and we just kind of we just kind of do a test series we're going to do an incremental test series and fastburning powders are you know you're dealing with you're dealing with increments that are very very small I have here will see Wolfe turn to Mike 44 special loading data now we're going to be using a 240 green with bullet cast lead bullet that I've made now I've never I've never tried accurate number two with the 44 special but I'm going to do that in this test series so that you're going to be you're going to be with me as we do the loading and we go to the range with it and do our testing so you'll be you'll be witness to this whole process and you'll see how I progress with this and the reason I picked accurate number two would be accurate number two is in that same general powder burning as red dot powder now I've had fabulous results with red dot powder the old alliant get to be Hercules red dot powders and success this stuff right here this is got the identifying flakes in it and stuff I've had I've had extremely good results with red dot powder now red dot powder is very uniform in dispensing I've had no I've had no issues whatsoever with dispensing red color it's a flake powder flake powders on the other hand can have issues with very light charges we're going to be we're going to be charging cases it basically is lessened around about five grains if I Grange 1/10 1/10 of a I should say a hundredth of a charge that's that's only a half it's a half a tenth well none of your none of your loading equipment can accurately try to a half a tenth and that's that's that nobody ever charges to less than a tenth of the grain and it's not necessary to try to lessen a tenth of a green but that tenth of a grain increment is very very important to adhere to with such light load because with on iceycat has arrived here hope she's not going to be a pain with a 240 grain bullet we're talking about a starting charge of 4.2 grains working up to a maximum charge of 4.7 brains of accurate number two so that's 1/2 a grain from bottom to top that's perfect for that's perfect for doing an incremental test series of 5 5 different tests 5 different Lots running up a tenth of a grain of the time that the perfect that's the perfect situation so what I've done here is I've organized I'm going to be running the block I'm going to be running the block instead of my null progression is to move them this way I'm going to be moving the block by tests are going to be one two three four five I'm going to be running six I'm going to be running six charges of each of each lot and why well I I could do it was I could do it with three or four the same as I do with a rifle but with a handgun you know each one of these chambers is a is a potential for a different situation Ruger Smith & Wesson Colt they all make extremely high grade guns and and other chorus and all these other companies they make extremely high grade guns and the cylinders are replicated on machinery that I would I would almost invariably say that they are they're identical without any question but there is there is a particular there is a particular difference that could occur and that's with regard to lock up lock up with a lock up with a revolt or something which I test the lock up little revolvers by making sure that it has the same feel as it goes from one cylinder to the next and it's not supposed to be it's not supposed to be absolutely tight and watch my smith and wesson video where i take a prior Smith and Wesson and go through the process there has to be some slight movement in that in that lock up fail that's why there's a forcing cone here because the very the very ation in that slight lockup taken care of by the forcing cone nevertheless they can be variations in the lock up to a degree which could possibly potentially affect the accuracy of a track so I like to just I just like to fill up every single chamber in the cylinder and do a complete test and that way I don't have to confirm myself whether the the flyer that might come out of the group by a 1/2 inch or 3/4 of an eighth or something like that that flier at least gets a chance to be replicated if it's a cylinder issue would get to be replicated with each one of those with each one of the test Lots and I don't have to condemn a test lot simply because of that particular fly every every every test gets to do the same chamber now there's another way of doing it I could certainly mock I could certainly mark a particular chamber and I could run a test of three loads three three particular modes per watt and I could simply use the same chamber for each feed test but I could do that and that would all I could test the same three chambers or whatever just by marking them with maybe paint that can be removed later you know lipstick or something like that but that Dad I could also do but you know shooting is fun so I'm just going to simply load up 6 / 6 / a lot and again I'm going to be working with a very fast quick burning powder so I'm going to be working at tenth of a grain increment such as low as that's as low as practical and you don't have to go any lower than that a tenth a tenth of a grain increment will give me a surprisingly different shot variation on paper I'm almost confident to say that I have I have sometimes been I've been really amazed by the differences that one in 2/10 of a grain tribe weight can make in a handgun load I have I have frequently been to the range with various handguns doing tests lot series and I will be dismayed by the size of the group at 25 yards it'll be a 3 or 4 or 5 inch group and I'll say this this powder does not work in assistant and all of a sudden I try the next lot and it it just shrinks down to nothing and all of a sudden I've got a one and a half inch group at 25 yards and and the adjacent the adjacent Rises in the block just not working out now that brings up another that brings up another if you're using a if you're using a particular color it's always good to use a powder which doesn't have that particular fussiness this not this not that demanding because a powder which is that demanding can let you down if you have a for instance a case which is over heavy changes case volume if you happen to have a primer which is not the same flash as others so when you're dealing with when you're dealing with or even temperature changes and things like that so I I tend to steer clear of powders that have that degree of fuzziness they can be fun I mean if you have if you have very frequently you can have a powder which will deliver supremely good accuracy with a particular truck and it's it's a nice load to have just when you want to impress yourself and your friends and everything and and have a super accurate load but it's always best to maybe check out a different powder and see if a there's a powder which is not quite so fussy about zeroing in I have found that to be the case with quite a number of powders for instance you know there's so many good pistol powders out there that have been out there for so many years and while that while one particular load might be just perfect for your gun any number of loads with that powder will work I would get to the wall for practical purposes okay so I've assembled I've got my cases and as I say I'm going to be working I'm going to be working the block in this fashion tent to the grain at a time working up just working up that load and I said that I am using a 240 grain load beginning at four point two grains I'm going to be working up to a maximum of four point seven I don't know which one of those load is going to work I'm going to also be using CCI and just happened I happen to have 300 left before I move over to my Winchester primers that I've got a much larger amount but I'm going to use these up it's quite possible that when I change primers that I'll have similar performance but I won't count on it I'll be using accurate number two as I chose you that's going to be the powder of choice today I don't know if it's kind of work and I'm going to be as a 240 green hard cast bullet sees these bullets I have I have successfully driven these both the 1,200 feet per second so they're a little bit they're a little bit on the hard side for you know for light loads but they are they are sized oversize by a thousandth of an H though I shouldn't have any operation problems and they should be just fine and I've got my special my 44 special dies just so you know 44 special dies and 38 special dies these days are the manufacturers so they also do double duty as 357 and 44 Magnum dies however just because I like to set them up and leave them set up I got you know I got a set of 44 special died and a set of 44 special dies that I simply set up as 44 Magnum dies and that's that's all I have to do without having to use a special washer to go back and forth that tenth of an inch that's it so we're ready to begin now these cases here are brand-new they're shiny clean and just by looking at em I can tell they're there's no distortion whatsoever they're Starline cases I love Star Line cases they just just nicely made there they're a subsidiary of ceará bullet company they get to a nice job they're primarily just a straight wall case designs but for a lot of handguns that's that's my case of choice there they're also quite economical you can bind direct from the Star Line company so I don't necessarily have to resize them but because it doesn't require any lubrication it's easy enough to do these are this is a carbide sizing die and by sizing guide doesn't require any lubrication for the case and discipline unnecessary I've got I'm going to put 40 primers in the trade the reason I'm putting in 40 primers even though I've only got 30 cases is simply because the last the last couple of primers sometimes don't drop into the drop into the bin as easily now there's a trick for doing this if you if you take your if you take your primers from your sleeve and never ever I've told you this before never ever you know put these into a bulk packaging like into a jar mason jar or anything like that because they have to be kept independent from each other so they don't blow up [ __ ] highly explosive just do you do that you just expose the number of primers you want to use put your tray on top and flip it over if you have any and that avoids having to flip them if you have sometimes those primers will have a few of the primers inverted so you just simply shake them around and that will orient them make sure your primers are all oriented in the correct position so that you can see the anvils getting started down in the tray in whatever system that you use I really like this I really like this system because I can take it off and get it out of the way when it's not necessary now I'll simply put these primers away I don't like to have anything on the bench that's not necessary and always keep your pistol primers in your rifle primers segregated because it did not the same and they can get into serious trouble if you try to if you try to I use them for the wrong purposes the rifle primers are taller and will sit more proud in the case and can have they can have serious issues with slam firing in you know in certain types of pistols you can have primers that if rifle primers simply will not fire in many handguns simply because they do the cups are thicker and harder and also if they do they certainly cause problems with pressure and over generate way too much wake much flash so we're begin we've got the correct shell holder in here I'm just going to run it up into this I'm going to run it up into the die drop my primer in and it's this is this is why I like this is so easy and drop the primer into the case I've got a nice I've got a nicely primed case and we'll just simply move along with each of those and we'll get back you when I'm done you notice that what I'm doing here is I'm running up the block I'm getting I'm getting my mind oriented towards moving in this direction so that I'm not turning the block sideways and moving left to right because that's how I already had the cases if I'm loading my Lots in that progression but I'm loading my Lots in this progression so I want to get my mind around that rapping I get around that so that's the direction that I'm going to be going so I'll be back when I'm done with this project ok we finished up this priming project let's move over to the power station now the very first thing that you want to do is make sure that your whether you're using a digital scale or balance beam scale like that you want to be absolutely certain that you zero it out and that the balance beam comes to zero or use your test you should test weights or whatever it is is the case make sure that you're on dead zero before you begin because we are working with you're working with highly sensitive pistol charges that small variations can make a big difference so we've zeroed it out we go back to our book and never never relegate anything to memory the first thing we want to do is start out with 4.2 grains so 4.2 grains I just simply move the right up to here 4.2 these a tenth of a grain increments so with this old 502 measure that I've had for I've had this measure for over 45 years it works beautifully and it's just like it was new so I've got 4.2 grain setup this makes a handy just make the handy little scoop here this is a the lis measure I'll simply go into the coders now one of the reasons why I'm trying this putt right I've always had good results with red dot but this is a similar burning rate and it's a very very fine it's a very very fine let's see if I can find this on the camera you see that I'm not sure if that's focusing in on it but that's a very very fine ball power vehicle powder so it's a double base powder I'm going to see if I can replicate the same type of results that I get with a red dot never under any circumstances and I've said this before never under any circumstances presume that just because of power is the same burning rate that it is the same charge weight that's an entirely different thing what I'm doing right now is I'm weighing up you're going to say this is awful tedious it's going to take me forever well I'm waiting up exactly I've got 4.2 grains on my scale so that's not the that's not the way that I'm going to be charging all my charges what I'm going to do now is simply drop it into my into my powder measure and I'll show you how that works now the powder measure I've got my small drum in it if you've used the smallest drum that you have available this is a standard small drum it's not a pistol small drum but it should work fine this the drum has been accurate enough for tracking a light amount of powder so the first thing I want to do is simply drop it into my measure make sure that the measure has been cleared of any previous powder at the bottom you'll look inside and make sure that your powder has flowed into the charge hole turn your turn your piston sideways so under sideways and you have to back your lock ring all the way off quite a ways and screw in the screw in the stem now what I'm doing is I'm turning the stem so that I'm turning the stem so that is sideways okay so I've screwed the stem in until it's touching the powder now my guess is as good as yours as to whether this charging system I sure hope it does I feel hope that this I can I can use this particular tracking system with red dot powder and I've used it with green got power and bullseye and everything so I haven't used it with this spherical powder so I don't know whether this particular drum is going to be sufficiently small for that purpose but we'll see so let's check it out what I did was I simply moved that stem sideways against the back of this the back of this housing and that placed the stem so that is sitting it theoretically at the tragg wait that I desire now it's not going to be I don't presume that that will be finished charge wait again keep the powder close at hand make sure you have no other powders around and I'll be using the scale for each of the for each of the increments but I don't have to I don't have to use the scale for individually tracking them if everything goes well so what you see how this thing goes first of all I want to dump a couple of charges in the pan and return them to the pot all the matter of fact it looks like we're going to be able to do it so I'm going to open this up just a little bit I've got running a little bit light I'm very very close to my watch that balance beam over here now it runs to zero I just I'm fascinated ever since I've gotten this scale 40 some years ago I've always been fascinated to watch the accuracy of these balance beam scales it's just like an old doctor scale you know do you can't you can't mess with weight I mean it just doesn't change I don't have to worry about integrated circuits or anything like that or batteries are just always right there so I've got a good accurate color charge that's repeatable and I'm ready to go now all I have to do is make sure I tried my six cases with this first truck with the with the powder measure let's do that now my strong recommendation is that you don't get fancy yes you can you know this this has got a wide enough bridge here that I could move down the cases and do it like this and try to each one as I go very frequently what happens when you do that is that you'll you'll bump you'll bump your block you'll see color under you'll see powder on your block that you don't know where it came from you don't know where there came from one of the adjacent cases so rather than messing up a whole series it's a lot easier to just simply pick up a case charge it directly now I've got to be sure that I've got the lodge funnel doesn't inverted funnel here this is the small one I'm changing it I'm changing it to the large diameter hole so that's this one right here because I want to make sure that I use the largest in any case make sure I use the largest diameter hole for the purpose all right so I'm just simply going to charge one case at a time it will take me no time at all I'll move down the block and I'll be back with you when I get done with the entire series what I'm going to do is simply adjust my scale open up my powder drum each time for different increments and I'm going to move up one-tenth of a grain at a time it'd be very very simple so when we're all done charging all these cases with a different D five different watts we'll come back and we'll finish up the loading okay we're done with the powder charging I forgot to keep in mind that while we're dealing with 1/2 grain charge weight difference between the lowest and the highest charge four point two two four point seven it actually involves six tenths of a grain inclusive so I've got a separate I've got a separate row up here which it might four point seven grain increment now I'm just going to take one of those cases I want to show you the hazard involved with with this particular low-density powder if you can see inside that case I don't know if you can see inside there but that's a very very small amount of powder and it's very very easy to not pick up even if they're comparing them if I double tried if I double charged a case it barely comes up halfway up that case it'd be very very easy for me to put that down and to look across the cases and if I'm not careful I could fail to observe that that is a over charge I'll show you how many you could get in here I've wrote that's that's the third track I could very easily see the bullet on top of that tribe and I'd have a three a [ __ ] charged case that would absolutely most certainly blow up the strongest handgun made so we want to return that to the make sure I have no power remaining in that case whatsoever I'll retry get with my last increment and by the way I'll show you that that is four point seven there we go four point seven right on the scale - we're all set I can't repeat this enough before I begin I'm loading from a loading block this is extremely hazardous procedure to load from the Logan block if you have a double charged case having a squib load is also potentially dangerous because a squib load is a load which only the primer goes off and no powder charge and the bullet will get lodged in the barrel and if you're firing rapid-fire you may not stop yourself in time and if you discharge your round on top of a large bullet you could easily have a bulk barrel or worse so I will take my flashlight and go along each of these cases and visually inspect them your eye is sensitive sensitive enough to pick up any variations in depth so just go along with your flashlight and I prefer to use a flashlight because that we highlight each one of those cases and you can assure yourself that there are no variations and no double charge as a double charge even with something like 4.2 or 4.3 and will easily show up as a grossly overcharged case now we're going to advance from the case resizing dye and primer seeding operation turn it toward the case multi expanding dye and powder charging dye now we've already we've already tried all these cases with powder so that's not a necessary operation when this dye comes from the manufacturer was packaged it comes with this it comes with this plug right here this particular this particular plug has a hole in it and that also accepts the lead powder foam so I could actually charge I could actually charge my cases directly either with a scoop which is which is perfectly acceptable or I could remove that plug and I could put a one of these any number of different coated dispensing systems on there that are automated so that is i if I cycled this in a semi progressive fashion using me using the progressive advancing stem then I could simply keep on going as I do one round at a time but because we're doing an incremental test we want to just make sure that we're expanding the case most now you can't expand the case most without using this plug because this plug retires and holds in place the the stem which expands the case so this that's this is a double duty plug this keeps that expanding stem in place it's already been it's already been set so that it does a perfect expansion of the case you want to always maintain that the least amount of expansion on the most of the case we'll work too often I see people really Belling that case most you really don't want to have more case Belling than you absolutely need the only the only thing that's necessary the only prerequisite is that it fits into the that the bullet fits into the case readily without you know grabbing the edge which would collapse a case so we're going to do that keeping in mind now that we have powder in each one of these cases we've got to move progressively along we're going to keep always moving in that same progression that I spoke of earlier front to rear and when we withdraw this stem it it's going to want to it's going to want to pop out so we want to be very careful that we push it down and pull it back gently as you can so that it doesn't upset the powder you don't want powder popping up but don't worry about it it's going to be fine now I'm going to test I'm going to test a bullet and make sure that I fits into the case and it does it fits in beautifully so in other words it's just enough just enough of a bell but it's not it's not so much that you don't want it to look like it's a big flare it's very very rare that you have to have such a obvious flare so I'll just work along these and I will carefully bail each mouth and I will return at the end of that operation and again don't just pull them up hastily when when you're doing when you're doing this operation always keep in mind that we're doing a test series this is not there's no hurry involved with this is a test series so that you can determine what the most accurate ride is for your particular gun and then we work from there so we want to try to maintain some sort of uniformity if you really want to get you know extremely uniform then you could certainly weigh your bullets out and be sure that each of your bullets weighs exactly the same but you know that in a practical situation what we're dealing here is cast a bullet that we're going to be plinking with or even doing informal target shooting with and in all likelihood that's not going to be of a big an issue as you might think there's very very little variation between bullets in a cast bullet die and even even variations of as much as one or two grains in handgun bullet is uh is is highly perceivable on paper if at all so when I as I'm withdrawing this as I'm withdrawing it I'll bring back the so you can see gentle is the key and try to support that handle on the way back I'm I'm pulling it up I'm pulling up when it gets to this point here in the resistance that's because that plug that seating that that expanding stem is pulling out of that brass I want to pull back gently so that I don't pop that powder up and down and dislodge the powder and remember this this is also a powder charging die so any powder that pops up drops right back down in but that's what we want to do we want to make sure that it's a gentle as possible so that we don't upset things I've completed my case mouth expansion setup so now we swing them die around to the bullet seeding stem now remember I'm using this as a single station die even though it's set up to be a semi progressive press I've done a little bit of housekeeping first of all I've taken this is the sort of thing that all hand loaders need to do and this is this is very important is to record all your data you can summarize it on a label like this but I also like to keep and I as I have shown in my other loading videos keep a diary will you list on the page exactly what you did in case this is a good setup if you find the correct load you have a written record of it and guess what if it's a bad setup if you have if you have nothing but bogus loads that don't work out your satisfaction keep the page so that you'll know in the future so you don't replicate your own mistake a couple of years later down the line because it's so easy to forget what you've done so I've got my I got my label here with the date 44 special Star Line cases new CCI 300 primers accurate number two powder I'm working with a test series of four point two to four point seven grain increments these are cast Lee 240 grain bullets now I've gone through I've gone through a bunch of bullets and made sure that I have a good selection of bullets that have no wrinkles you know from temperature problems I have no have no bad bases or anything like that because I want to have a verifiable test that doesn't rely on quality of bullets or the bullets are all visually in good shape I didn't bother weighing them there's no there's no need to weigh them for this sort of this sort of accuracy testing they're going to be even if they were within a 1 or 2 range of bullet weight they're going to be this they're going to be the same and it's for my Red Hawk this may not be applicable if I had another 44 special so I know exactly which way at which rifle or handgun whichever it is that I'm testing now I'm going to be working right from the wooden loading block as I get done I'll go right to the I'll put them right into the finished box now I backed off the seeding stem even though I am fairly certain that I had the correct seeding depth to begin with I backed off the seeding stem which is always good practice if you're going to a bullet you're not sure if you've loaded before if you back off the seeding stem you can always add more seeding depth and progressively added but if you can't you can't take it away without pulling a bullet up pulling your bullet out physically now I want to make sure that I have nothing in the way so I left I left the priming setup off it so it's not dangling in the way I don't need to have that so I simply have my bullet in position position that is straight as possible and just guided India die and see it some people have asked me are they concerned about the wiggle factor in this remember the wiggle is consistent it's constant in other words the the deflection is always exactly the same right to the thousandth of a nature can't possibly change it I mean the deflection of this steel and aluminum together and the cast iron nothing changes from one shot to another so it doesn't make any difference how much it jiggles as long as it's always the same jiggle so that's it so now I inspect my I inspect my round and as you can see obviously I'm seated way way long what my goal is is to seat so that my first driving band is visible so my first my first driving ban should be above my crimp that will prevent the bullet from seating deeper in the case when I when I bring that crimp around it'll be inside that first groove so that's my goal so I'm going to I've got witness marks on top of my die of T is simply taking a a felt-tip pen a sharpie and made a witness mark on the top of my stem so I'm going to turn that stem a half a turn just to see how much I want to see how much a half a turn brings it down I'm going to bring it down a full turn because I know that it's going to take at least a full turn to make a major bull effect on that and we'll see how much that moves that bullet into the case okay it seemed to move it in about probably half as powers about two but I'm going to be a little cautious here I'm going to go about 3/4 of a turn try it again I'm going to avoid over over seating I'm very very close if you notice now I'm very very close to having that case exactly where I want so I'll just simply advance it to the just just a snook I want to have a I want to have a place this is a hard bullet I want to have a place for that case to wrap right around one of the driving bins not quite there bring it down just a tiny bit and always make a full stroke with the press that's all there is to it no actually I said I was going to move them right to the red block but that's not really too true because I still haven't yet done my crimping operation so we're just simply going to move along and I'll get back to you when these are all seated and as you can see I'm just a simple matter goats never slam your press never never slammed the press Braham always a smooth operation keep keep things smooth keep your fingers out of the way this will do a nice job of giving you a nice black and blue fingernail so I'll be back in two at the moment alright we've completed our loading block each one of our bullets had been seated to the correct depth now we turn our attention to our krumping operation krumping die but before we do that i'm going to be putting these right directly into the storage box so on each side on the end of it just to right I have a ready reference this is going to be load number one number two number three number four and number five just so I don't I mix the orientation up and on the last one I'm going to put number six just as it is just as it is on the loading block and that will keep everything oriented correctly now whether you have a lead system or RCBS or reading or whomever you use make sure you follow their their die directions for proper bullet crimping it's very important with revolver cases to crimp two bullets off a consistent ignition crimping the bullet means that your case is turned inward into that into that driving Bend it's very important to make sure that you provide a driving band access where that the case must can basically be wrapped around it now you can't do that with 45 ACP s or 40 s from s & Wesson's a 9-millimeter Luger the 380 anything like that because those cases headspace not on the rim but they had space around the case most that case Mouse has got to be blunt so that it strikes the end of the chamber and resists for the seating into the end of the chamber you absolutely cannot do a roll crimp not you know what to worry about because the dies that have provided for those cartridges are made to have the correct type of crimp which is either a taper crimp or with this type of lead I as a factory crimp which post sizes POS T that doesn't mean like a post isn't a wooden stick that means that it's after after the after the the case has been inserted and the hole cartridge is resized it actually sizes down the entire cartridge to fit the chamber to factory dimension so even though you've already done that once does a there's a provision so that that post sizes and it's a really nice the really nice die set up so I'm going to just simply check I should have I should have that turned to my bullet crimping die run it in and check my check my crimp and it should just as you see it it has a nice roll to it you're no longer looking at the dead end of that case the case is buried in the side of that bullet now if you have any wrinkling of your case that means that you probably don't have the driving band groove position correctly and you're being resisted not the case is unable to find a home and as a result it's kind of the case is going to just simply move down in the die in order to find a home for itself and you're going to end up with a wrinkled buckle case so that's the case you're going to have to destroy just get rid of it but you should be very careful as long as you have that driving band position so that there or a crimping groove a lot of bullets are made with a specific crimping groove and these bullets these all pretty much look pretty much the same the the crimping grooves are simply the the various driving bands of lubrication groove so good that you use the top one to position the case and why don't I go around the top of the bullet was very simple because I not only want to resistible and pulling out but I also want to resist a bullet from being pushed in so by having it between the first two driving bands that gives me that perfect security so I'm going to position those in my box just as I just as I mark them and finish this up and we're going to see you at the range so be safe and God bless

Channel: GunBlue490

Views: 37,392

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Id: b9BbRPO2efU

Length: 70min 39sec (4239 seconds)

Published: Tue May 23 2017