most of us learn by making mistakes few of us will admit making them,
back,when I first got into reloading like all new guys to any hobby I made a few mistakes,
I was about 17 at this time,
heres one you might get a grin from,
I got a good scare because I realized that the results might have been far different and it taught me to pay attention!
I got a call from a friend at about 11 pm on a Friday night telling me that he had just gotten access to a friends, private property, hunting area,
that we could hunt that weekend, the only catch it was a HANDGUN ONLY area and we needed to be on the site at 6 am,
I had zero ammo loaded for my 44 mag revolver, so I told the wife about the opportunity,
and ducked into the garage to load 20 cartridges (NEVER RELOAD WHEN 1/2 a sleep)
I looked up my loads in a load manual and set my power scale,
sized and lubed the cases, primed them, flared them,
double checked the powder I was using was correct, and loaded the cases, with powder, seated the bullets and went to bed,
at about 4am I get up, jump in the car and drive out to meet my friends
, by 7 am I'm in a tree stand overlooking a deer trail and at about 8 am there's a legal buck slowly working his way towards me,
when he got into about 35 yards I had the sights dead on his shoulder,
I slowly squeezed off a shot, the revolver gave a muted THUNKPOOFF sound and the bullet arced out and I could see it in flight, as it hit the buck and bounced off, about like a marble from a slingshot
one very surprised buck bounded off, into the brush,,,,, and I sat there in startled amazement,
THUNKPOOFF was not normal ! a CRACK/POW was NORMAL!!
IM reasonably sure velocities were under 200 fps because I had lots of un-burnt powder, H110 needs a certain pressure level to burn consistently.
, unlike BLUE DOT or UNIQUE powder which is better for low velocity loads (not that ID intended to build a LOW VELOCITY LOAD, ANYWAY)
(I was using a shorter barreled 6.5" S&W MOD #29 then,
but swapped to this when I purchased it in the 1980s and never looked back)
after inspecting the bore to be assured there was nothing stuck in the barrel I picked out a large tree trunk,
around about 40 yards away and tried a second shot.....same result.. THUNKPOOFF sound and a bullet bouncing off the tree.
on returning home after the hunt I disassembled to remaining ammo, and weighed the powder, the load manual called for 20-21 grains of H110 powder,
Id screwed up and set the powder scale for 11 grains by mistake,
if I screwed up and set it for 31 grains the case would have over flowed,
and the mistake would have been more obvious with that particular powder,
but I realized that the mistake was major, because if ID set the scale for lets say 26 grains it might have been a HUGE problem,
or if ID used a different powder I could have caused serious problems, as I might have loaded a serious overcharge,
ever since I learned tootriple check both the POWER USED and THE CHARGE WEIGHT SEVERAL TIMES,
AND WITH AT LEAST TWO and HAVING THREE OR FOUR MANUALS CURRENT MANUALS FOR REFERENCE,
IS EVEN BETTER,, you NEED three minimum, manuals because theres occasionally mis- prints, or typos,
that you need to catch,as an example, if one manually were too suggest lets say 48 grains of IMR 4064 under a 250 grain bullet in a 358 win,
and both your other manuals top out at 44 grains you know theres a problem, that you should look into.
you can also check on-line now but back 30 plus years ago that was not an option, but don,t trust ANY SINGLE REFERENCE SOURCE
http://handloads.com/loaddata/default.a ... pe=Handgun
IF YOU DOUBT A HANDGUN CAN BE EFFECTIVE WATCH THIS VIDEO
and yes thats a 44 mag with 300 grain bullets not a larger caliber, as always shot placement is critical and a 44 properly loaded has plenty of power
Ive loaded a hard cast 300-310 grain lyman or LEE gas check bullet over 20-21 grains of H110 powder in my 44 mag for decades , (start with 19 grains and work up a 1/2 grain at a time ) it shoots clear thru most hogs and deer exiting and still going strong so be aware you don't want to shoot a deer with a second deer directly behind the first
http://handloads.com/loaddata/default.a ... pe=Handgun
http://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/i ... 0000690227
the powder scale had three separate movable weights that fit notches on a balance arm, Id placed one on notch off its intended location, causing the problem, I went out and purchased a far more reliable scale after that, similar to this one below
http://www.handloads.com/loaddata/defau ... er&Source=
http://data.hodgdon.com/cartridge_load.asp
http://www.lasc.us/Fryxell44OverWeight.htm
and shortly after I found a great deal on a second scale to use to verify and cross check which I bought and use as its a great way to verify
back,when I first got into reloading like all new guys to any hobby I made a few mistakes,
I was about 17 at this time,
heres one you might get a grin from,
I got a good scare because I realized that the results might have been far different and it taught me to pay attention!
I got a call from a friend at about 11 pm on a Friday night telling me that he had just gotten access to a friends, private property, hunting area,
that we could hunt that weekend, the only catch it was a HANDGUN ONLY area and we needed to be on the site at 6 am,
I had zero ammo loaded for my 44 mag revolver, so I told the wife about the opportunity,
and ducked into the garage to load 20 cartridges (NEVER RELOAD WHEN 1/2 a sleep)
I looked up my loads in a load manual and set my power scale,
sized and lubed the cases, primed them, flared them,
double checked the powder I was using was correct, and loaded the cases, with powder, seated the bullets and went to bed,
at about 4am I get up, jump in the car and drive out to meet my friends
, by 7 am I'm in a tree stand overlooking a deer trail and at about 8 am there's a legal buck slowly working his way towards me,
when he got into about 35 yards I had the sights dead on his shoulder,
I slowly squeezed off a shot, the revolver gave a muted THUNKPOOFF sound and the bullet arced out and I could see it in flight, as it hit the buck and bounced off, about like a marble from a slingshot
one very surprised buck bounded off, into the brush,,,,, and I sat there in startled amazement,
THUNKPOOFF was not normal ! a CRACK/POW was NORMAL!!
IM reasonably sure velocities were under 200 fps because I had lots of un-burnt powder, H110 needs a certain pressure level to burn consistently.
, unlike BLUE DOT or UNIQUE powder which is better for low velocity loads (not that ID intended to build a LOW VELOCITY LOAD, ANYWAY)
(I was using a shorter barreled 6.5" S&W MOD #29 then,
but swapped to this when I purchased it in the 1980s and never looked back)
after inspecting the bore to be assured there was nothing stuck in the barrel I picked out a large tree trunk,
around about 40 yards away and tried a second shot.....same result.. THUNKPOOFF sound and a bullet bouncing off the tree.
on returning home after the hunt I disassembled to remaining ammo, and weighed the powder, the load manual called for 20-21 grains of H110 powder,
Id screwed up and set the powder scale for 11 grains by mistake,
if I screwed up and set it for 31 grains the case would have over flowed,
and the mistake would have been more obvious with that particular powder,
but I realized that the mistake was major, because if ID set the scale for lets say 26 grains it might have been a HUGE problem,
or if ID used a different powder I could have caused serious problems, as I might have loaded a serious overcharge,
ever since I learned tootriple check both the POWER USED and THE CHARGE WEIGHT SEVERAL TIMES,
AND WITH AT LEAST TWO and HAVING THREE OR FOUR MANUALS CURRENT MANUALS FOR REFERENCE,
IS EVEN BETTER,, you NEED three minimum, manuals because theres occasionally mis- prints, or typos,
that you need to catch,as an example, if one manually were too suggest lets say 48 grains of IMR 4064 under a 250 grain bullet in a 358 win,
and both your other manuals top out at 44 grains you know theres a problem, that you should look into.
you can also check on-line now but back 30 plus years ago that was not an option, but don,t trust ANY SINGLE REFERENCE SOURCE
http://handloads.com/loaddata/default.a ... pe=Handgun
IF YOU DOUBT A HANDGUN CAN BE EFFECTIVE WATCH THIS VIDEO
Ive loaded a hard cast 300-310 grain lyman or LEE gas check bullet over 20-21 grains of H110 powder in my 44 mag for decades , (start with 19 grains and work up a 1/2 grain at a time ) it shoots clear thru most hogs and deer exiting and still going strong so be aware you don't want to shoot a deer with a second deer directly behind the first
http://handloads.com/loaddata/default.a ... pe=Handgun
http://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/i ... 0000690227
the powder scale had three separate movable weights that fit notches on a balance arm, Id placed one on notch off its intended location, causing the problem, I went out and purchased a far more reliable scale after that, similar to this one below
http://www.handloads.com/loaddata/defau ... er&Source=
http://data.hodgdon.com/cartridge_load.asp
http://www.lasc.us/Fryxell44OverWeight.htm
and shortly after I found a great deal on a second scale to use to verify and cross check which I bought and use as its a great way to verify
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