Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Boom Baby


That, is the results of 13 minutes of loading... after about an hour of setup and tweaking that is.

I finally managed to get my case feeder dialed in; and it's feeding at near 100% (only one major issue in 200 rounds). The primer feed is a bit sensitive to dirt and grit, but it didn't really slow me down too much. I ran through 200 rounds in a total of 25 minutes loading time; for a rate of a little less than 500 rounds an hour.

I've got another 300 to load, and I'll be ready for Reno.
UPDATE: Well, now that I've got everything set up just right, and I've got my process working smoothly I've upped the pace to... quite frankly a ridiculous speed. I managed to load 100 rounds in just 8 minutes; for an effective loading rate of 750 rounds per hour... or it would be if I had enough primer tubes and bullets staged.

Gotta get me a primer tube filler, I hate picking up off the tray. Soooo glad I bought a progressive though. I loaded 600 rounds today, and other than setup, all the loading took me about an hour. That same round count would have taken me 4 hours, or more, on my turret press.
Now, the more important results...


That my friends, is what you call a god load. That is a 5 shot 10 yard offhand group, fired as fast as the sights would be reacquired, of .97"; four of which shot into .75". Right next to it is a 1/2" doubletap at the same distance.

Not pictured, are the two ragged 1.5" holes produced by rapid fire emptying of two magazines.

The load is a 10mm 180gr XTP at about 1300fps, producing about 675ftlbs of energy at the muzzle. It's 13.1gr of 2400 over a large magnum primer, seated to 1.250; which is just touching the powder charge. Oh and I haven't chronoed it, that's just an estimate based on published data.

Based on FBI results, I'd guess that load would have no problem with 14" of gelatin penetration through heavy clothing.

When your major power defensive load is also match grade accurate... that's just a beautiful thing.