NH-GP100
NES Member
Ok, so here the deal:
Dad has a sweet reloading setup (he has bought all the stuff, I have built/assembled all the pieces, bench, etc). Sadly this is all in the middle of "Occupied Territory" and several hundred miles away. I head out every few months and do the good son thing (HunnyDo's for mom, swap out the mower deck / snow blower on the tractor, open/close the pool, etc) and, of course, make ammo.
So far I have done a couple thousand rounds of CAS .38 loads (158g LRN over 4.1g Trail Boss and small pistol primers) on the 550b, which is set up for him to crank them out endlessly, so all I have to do is use my own primers and powder, no adjustments needed. This makes dad happy as he hates to make changes to that and only has one tool head setup. This setup seems to give a slight crimp (see attached crappy cell image).
I have also done a number of .357 loads on one of the single-stage presses. For those, so far all I have used is H110 and CCI 550 SPM primers. These are mostly near-full house loads with a heavy crimp.
I currently have in my possession:
1 box each of 110g and 125g JHPs (I have been loading heavier stuff and held off on these)
1 250 ct box of Berrys 158g RNs.
1 Bottle Trail Boss
1 Bottle A2400
500 CCI 550 SPM
1 metric azzload of .38+p range brass
~500 .357 brass, about 1/2 once or twice fired Fiocchi, the rest range brass
And the gun is, of course, my 6" GP-100, sometimes known as "The Tank"
What I was hoping to do was use the Berrys for some kind of 38+p load - something with more punch than the .38 CAS loads, but not the monster .357 loads I have. Basicly an intermediate load.
The .38 CAS loads are super soft shooters in the GP. They have about as much recoil and muzzle rise as my Single-Six with the .22 mags. They are great plinking loads and starter loads for new shooters as we work our way through various guns. Even the .357 factory loads are a big jump up from them, and the thought of actually purchasing .38sp/+p loads makes my New England Old Guy skin crawl.
I know the Berrys have to stay below 1200fps and not have a real heavy crimp, so I was thinking I could just boost the charge on the TB and/or use SPM primers to "get there" - or at least get somewhere between "Mousefart" and "Artillery Fire".
Sadly, I don't have any useful load data for the Berrys (nor, it seems, does anyone else). I see .38 data for TB puts the max charge at 4.2gr - I am at 4.1 now and the case looks pretty full. I suppose I could just go to 4.2 and use an SPM primer. I can't see it going past 1200fps and there is no way in hell I will blow the gun up, *BUT*, I really don't think it is going to be all that big of a change vs the CAS loads, especially since pushing the plateds down the pipe takes more force than lead.
I would like to do the Berrys on the progressive setup since I will not have a huge amount of time. I don't mind having to get the powder fill dialed back in, but I really don't want to mess with anything else on it if I can avoid it. I also plan on running of another 500 CAS loads 'cuz that ammo can is less than 1/2 full, and, well, when was the last time *YOU* looked at your stash and said "I have to much ammo"?
I also plan on loading some .357 on the single-stage as well, but I think I know what I want to do there already.
So, input? From what I have read the A2400 is a good choice for the .357 loads, .38 loads not so much. TB I may not be able to charge as much as I want. Should I look at something like Power Pistol or HS-6 or H4227 (if I can get them...), how about W231? I do plan on picking up some SPP primers as well (CCI-500) since I need them for the CAS loads. May as well get a brick of them I guess.
Dad has a sweet reloading setup (he has bought all the stuff, I have built/assembled all the pieces, bench, etc). Sadly this is all in the middle of "Occupied Territory" and several hundred miles away. I head out every few months and do the good son thing (HunnyDo's for mom, swap out the mower deck / snow blower on the tractor, open/close the pool, etc) and, of course, make ammo.
So far I have done a couple thousand rounds of CAS .38 loads (158g LRN over 4.1g Trail Boss and small pistol primers) on the 550b, which is set up for him to crank them out endlessly, so all I have to do is use my own primers and powder, no adjustments needed. This makes dad happy as he hates to make changes to that and only has one tool head setup. This setup seems to give a slight crimp (see attached crappy cell image).
I have also done a number of .357 loads on one of the single-stage presses. For those, so far all I have used is H110 and CCI 550 SPM primers. These are mostly near-full house loads with a heavy crimp.
I currently have in my possession:
1 box each of 110g and 125g JHPs (I have been loading heavier stuff and held off on these)
1 250 ct box of Berrys 158g RNs.
1 Bottle Trail Boss
1 Bottle A2400
500 CCI 550 SPM
1 metric azzload of .38+p range brass
~500 .357 brass, about 1/2 once or twice fired Fiocchi, the rest range brass
And the gun is, of course, my 6" GP-100, sometimes known as "The Tank"
What I was hoping to do was use the Berrys for some kind of 38+p load - something with more punch than the .38 CAS loads, but not the monster .357 loads I have. Basicly an intermediate load.
The .38 CAS loads are super soft shooters in the GP. They have about as much recoil and muzzle rise as my Single-Six with the .22 mags. They are great plinking loads and starter loads for new shooters as we work our way through various guns. Even the .357 factory loads are a big jump up from them, and the thought of actually purchasing .38sp/+p loads makes my New England Old Guy skin crawl.
I know the Berrys have to stay below 1200fps and not have a real heavy crimp, so I was thinking I could just boost the charge on the TB and/or use SPM primers to "get there" - or at least get somewhere between "Mousefart" and "Artillery Fire".
Sadly, I don't have any useful load data for the Berrys (nor, it seems, does anyone else). I see .38 data for TB puts the max charge at 4.2gr - I am at 4.1 now and the case looks pretty full. I suppose I could just go to 4.2 and use an SPM primer. I can't see it going past 1200fps and there is no way in hell I will blow the gun up, *BUT*, I really don't think it is going to be all that big of a change vs the CAS loads, especially since pushing the plateds down the pipe takes more force than lead.
I would like to do the Berrys on the progressive setup since I will not have a huge amount of time. I don't mind having to get the powder fill dialed back in, but I really don't want to mess with anything else on it if I can avoid it. I also plan on running of another 500 CAS loads 'cuz that ammo can is less than 1/2 full, and, well, when was the last time *YOU* looked at your stash and said "I have to much ammo"?
I also plan on loading some .357 on the single-stage as well, but I think I know what I want to do there already.
So, input? From what I have read the A2400 is a good choice for the .357 loads, .38 loads not so much. TB I may not be able to charge as much as I want. Should I look at something like Power Pistol or HS-6 or H4227 (if I can get them...), how about W231? I do plan on picking up some SPP primers as well (CCI-500) since I need them for the CAS loads. May as well get a brick of them I guess.
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