Glaciers
Alaska Land of the Midnight Sun
First off this is a new model S&W model 1950 4" 45 ACP 6 gun. The cylinder is .452 the groove is also .452.
I've wanted to go with heavy bullets in this pistol from the start. Some on this forum have used 290 grain bullets which perked my interest. When I ran across this NOE mold at 304, maybe a little heavy but the full diameter was quite long. The idea was for the bullet to be started in the forward part of the cylinder and not jump into a sharp edge. Anyway it fits nicely.
The overall cartridge length I'm loading is 1.383, 50/50 WW & pure, sized to .452, with BLL
Started with 3.1 grains of BE for 489 fps, 3.6g, 4.2g, at 4.8g hit average of 684 fps with a plus or minus of 10 fps. I was shooting in the rain so conditions sucked, but 4.8 grains of BE group well at 10 yards, but like a loads were about 1" high as expected.
This was going well and the 4.8 grain load at 684 about fit what I was looking for. But, I thought I'd look further. I tried 5.1 grains BE just to see how well it would preform. 714 average with a small spread of about + or - 10 fps. Recoil was beginning to be noticeable but not bad. All powder loads were thrown with a Little Dandy measure, checked on a beam scale, and loads were what the rotors produced. I would consider the 5.1g load about tops.
Next step is to try a mix of 30 to 1 lead - tin as the 50/50 mix is about 9bhn which might be a little tough. The bore on this newish pistol has some machine marks so I'm thinking of lapping/polishing a bit. Think I'm going to try PC as well
I've wanted to go with heavy bullets in this pistol from the start. Some on this forum have used 290 grain bullets which perked my interest. When I ran across this NOE mold at 304, maybe a little heavy but the full diameter was quite long. The idea was for the bullet to be started in the forward part of the cylinder and not jump into a sharp edge. Anyway it fits nicely.
The overall cartridge length I'm loading is 1.383, 50/50 WW & pure, sized to .452, with BLL
Started with 3.1 grains of BE for 489 fps, 3.6g, 4.2g, at 4.8g hit average of 684 fps with a plus or minus of 10 fps. I was shooting in the rain so conditions sucked, but 4.8 grains of BE group well at 10 yards, but like a loads were about 1" high as expected.
This was going well and the 4.8 grain load at 684 about fit what I was looking for. But, I thought I'd look further. I tried 5.1 grains BE just to see how well it would preform. 714 average with a small spread of about + or - 10 fps. Recoil was beginning to be noticeable but not bad. All powder loads were thrown with a Little Dandy measure, checked on a beam scale, and loads were what the rotors produced. I would consider the 5.1g load about tops.
Next step is to try a mix of 30 to 1 lead - tin as the 50/50 mix is about 9bhn which might be a little tough. The bore on this newish pistol has some machine marks so I'm thinking of lapping/polishing a bit. Think I'm going to try PC as well