With the help of forum members here (and Enos) I finally managed to make and shoot some of my own .40SW loads. I got my new LNL AP setup last weekend, with the exception of the powder drop, and just concentrated on making dummy rounds to figure out the COL, crimp, and flare adjustments on the dies. I found myself with some unexpected free time yesterday afternoon so I got the powder measurer (with pistol rotor assembly) on there and went really, really, really slowly making some live rounds. I used Winchester brass, Winchester 180gr TC bullets, Federal small pistol primers, and titegroup powder; and started at the Hodgdon recommended load of 4.2gr but with a COL of 1.135 instead of 1.125. I treated the LNL like a single stage press - I resized each case and seated a primer but then I took the case out of the press and put it on the scale and zero'd out. then back into the press it went to get a dose of powder, which was then taken back off the press and weighed. I then seated the bullet and mic'ed the COL and crimp and then checked in my go/no go gauge. yes, it's extreme but I like both hands and my face so I figure the extra time was worth it. I worked up 5 each at 4.2gr, 3.9gr, 3.7gr, and 3.5gr to see what the HK would like and get a feel for the difference that the different charges made. everything went into the slip top ammo case with a piece of paper that said what was what.
Tonight Private Joker (who just set up his own reloading man cave) and I hit the indoor range at Hopkinton to test things out. We had the range to ourselves so we setup shop on the 7yrd line rather than the 50'. I started with some Federal factory 180gr loads to test the new match trigger Santurri installed for me last week (much better than the stock USP trigger) and then loaded 1 round of the BostonBullets with the 4.2gr charge. the round chambered no problem, good first step. when I took that first shot I must have had a big smile on my face; it went right in the ten ring and felt so smooth compared to the Federals. I told Joker "if this is what the 4.2gr feels like I can't wait to try the 3.5s!". I loaded 2 more into the mag to check the cycling and they both fired fine, then I let Joker try one out and kept one for a final comparison. We followed this same procedure down the line with the different loads and all cycled the HK just fine with the stock recoil springs, and of course they got progressively more comfortable to shoot. as a final comparison I loaded all 4 different loads into one mag heavyest to lightest and put them downrange taking mental note of the difference in feel.
All in all I'm very pleased, everything went well, nothing KB'ed, and I now have a little more confidence for when I get back down to the press. I think the next batch will start with 3.5gr and work down a little more. I need to get a chrono to get a feel for the PF I'm making as one of the goals here is to shoot some IPSC in the coming months. I also need to get a little log book to write all this stuff down, I've just been scribbling it on various pieces of paper....
Tonight Private Joker (who just set up his own reloading man cave) and I hit the indoor range at Hopkinton to test things out. We had the range to ourselves so we setup shop on the 7yrd line rather than the 50'. I started with some Federal factory 180gr loads to test the new match trigger Santurri installed for me last week (much better than the stock USP trigger) and then loaded 1 round of the BostonBullets with the 4.2gr charge. the round chambered no problem, good first step. when I took that first shot I must have had a big smile on my face; it went right in the ten ring and felt so smooth compared to the Federals. I told Joker "if this is what the 4.2gr feels like I can't wait to try the 3.5s!". I loaded 2 more into the mag to check the cycling and they both fired fine, then I let Joker try one out and kept one for a final comparison. We followed this same procedure down the line with the different loads and all cycled the HK just fine with the stock recoil springs, and of course they got progressively more comfortable to shoot. as a final comparison I loaded all 4 different loads into one mag heavyest to lightest and put them downrange taking mental note of the difference in feel.
All in all I'm very pleased, everything went well, nothing KB'ed, and I now have a little more confidence for when I get back down to the press. I think the next batch will start with 3.5gr and work down a little more. I need to get a chrono to get a feel for the PF I'm making as one of the goals here is to shoot some IPSC in the coming months. I also need to get a little log book to write all this stuff down, I've just been scribbling it on various pieces of paper....
