Rounds in the last month

I reloaded 3,300 rounds of .40 S&W last month. 3,206 of those rounds were 180 grain Montana Gold JHP to be used for practice at indoor ranges. 94 rounds were 180 grain Hornady Action Pistol (HAP) bullets. The HAPs were those I ordered last May in response to the President of Hornady Manufacturing Company saying they would not knowingly allow their ammunition to be sold to the Government of the State of NY or any NY agencies.

Yesterday I tested the HAP rounds and found they were nearly identical in the mean standard deviation of the velocity for the same powder charge as what I get with the Montana Gold JHP. The accuracy appears to be better. Here is a 20 round group at 30 feet (1.75” of which some of the error was surely mine):

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The price isn’t quite as good as the Montana Gold bullets but I think I will switch over to the HAP bullets when I finish up the Montana Gold bullets because of Hornaday refusing to do business with New York.

This is by far the most number of rounds I have reloaded in a single month all year. And taking into consideration that I used a lot of my “reloading time” to install and get a new reloading press set up I’m very pleased. I also spent a fair amount of time individually checking the length of about 2,300 cartridges which had the potential to have a double charge which blew up my STI DVC Limited. No double charges found so far but I have about another 2000 rounds to go.

I purchased the Dillon XL650 mostly because of the powder check stage. This gives a buzzer warning if there is no powder or a double charge in a case. This should prevent another blown up gun. A bonus is that the new press with the automatic case feeder gives me almost double the production rate of the Dillon 550B press. This is why I was able to get so many rounds out this month.

Also, if you are a reloader, get the LED lights for your press. They give you a much better view of what you are doing:

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The picture above is of both presses with only the press lights on. With room lights on as well the reloading area is exceptionally well lit which makes it easier to see if something is a little off.

This brings the rounds year to date to 12,228. With the new press it should be pretty easily to meet my goal of getting to 16K by the end of the year. I may even exceed my previous best year of 23,356.

This brings my lifetime reloaded ammunition totals to:

223: 4,813 rounds.
30.06: 756 rounds.
300 WIN: 1,591 rounds.
40 S&W: 90,393 rounds.
45 ACP: 2,007 rounds.
9 mm: 21,641 rounds.
Total: 121,201  rounds

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5 thoughts on “Rounds in the last month

  1. 223: 4,813 rounds.
    30.06: 756 rounds.
    300 WIN: 1,591 rounds.
    40 S&W: 90,392 rounds.
    10mm Auto in 40 S&W case: 1 round
    45 ACP: 2,007 rounds.
    9 mm: 21,641 rounds.
    Total: 121,201 rounds

    Fixed it for you. 😉

    • That’s funny and all, certainly.

      However, I’m betting that a double charged 40, even with two light charges, will greatly exceed the 10mm’s pressure. Hence the explody results. A 40 cartridge loaded to standard 10mm pressure would have gone off without damage, says I.

      Joe’s kaboom experience was extremely similar to the one I documented a few years ago;
      http://blog.joehuffman.org/2015/05/22/pressure-signs/

      In that instance we had a chronograph set up. That particular double charged 40 achieved essentially 44 Magnum ballistics. It’s all in the report linked above.

    • 🙂

      It made me smile but Lyle is making a safe bet. The max load for the same weight bullet and powder in 10mm is 7.6 grains. I was intending to load the cases with 5.5 grains and probably ended up with 11 grains. Which, obviously, is well over the max 10mm load.

  2. Everything that I load could be weighed to detect a double charge easily and for certain. I suppose that a light powder charge plus the use of mixed cases would render that technique problematic.

    Would it be worth standardizing on a single headstamp? Switching to a less dense powder, such that a second charge would overflow the case or at least be much more obvious, is another option.

  3. Pingback: Hornady 180 grain HAP review | The View From North Central Idaho

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