black mamba
New member
I tried something different this week. As a long time reloader and load experimenter, I had accumulated a bunch of bullet leftovers that were not in large enough supply individually to load a batch of cartridges. So I conducted an accuracy experiment with six different 45 Colt bullets from 200 to 255 grains. I used two different 454 Casull chambered revolvers to shoot two separate 5-shot groups out of each handgun at 15 yards off sandbags. The handguns are a stainless BFR 5" with an UltraDot 30 red dot sight, and a Raging Bull 5" (ported) with iron sights.
Now, for the loads I settled on a medium charge of a medium speed powder, 8.5 grains of Alliant Herco in Winchester brass with CCI 300 primers in each of the six different loads. Only the bullet and seating depth were different. The six bullets were:
1) 255 grain cast SWC @ .453"
2) 250 grain coated RNFP @ .452"
3) 225 grain coated TC @ .454"
4) 200 grain coated RN @ .452"
5) 200 grain coated SWC @ .452"
6) 200 grain plated SWC @ .451"
At 64 years of age, my eyes aren't good enough to shoot for accuracy past about 15 yards with iron sights, so that was my distance. Here were my groups, measured center to center:
1) Raging Bull with bullets 1-5 = 2.06"
2) Raging Bull with bullets 2-6 = 2.83"
3) BFR with bullets 1-5 = 1.82"
4) BFR with bullets 2-6 = 2.24"
Obviously, bullet #6 opened up both groups, but even with it the overall average was just 2.24 inches. I'm surprised the results were that good. Your thoughts, please!
Now, for the loads I settled on a medium charge of a medium speed powder, 8.5 grains of Alliant Herco in Winchester brass with CCI 300 primers in each of the six different loads. Only the bullet and seating depth were different. The six bullets were:
1) 255 grain cast SWC @ .453"
2) 250 grain coated RNFP @ .452"
3) 225 grain coated TC @ .454"
4) 200 grain coated RN @ .452"
5) 200 grain coated SWC @ .452"
6) 200 grain plated SWC @ .451"
At 64 years of age, my eyes aren't good enough to shoot for accuracy past about 15 yards with iron sights, so that was my distance. Here were my groups, measured center to center:
1) Raging Bull with bullets 1-5 = 2.06"
2) Raging Bull with bullets 2-6 = 2.83"
3) BFR with bullets 1-5 = 1.82"
4) BFR with bullets 2-6 = 2.24"
Obviously, bullet #6 opened up both groups, but even with it the overall average was just 2.24 inches. I'm surprised the results were that good. Your thoughts, please!