Rate my first SWC

C

chris in va

New member


Lee 452-200, for my CZ97b. 6gr Universal powder and seated to 1.240" which is the longest it'll pass the plunk test. I have a slight taper crimp as well.

They seem to chamber fairly smoothly and I plan to test them tomorrow for accuracy.
 
If you cast that bullet yourself, a strong B+ for the casting. A little rounding at the shoulder. Grade might change if the base is funky.

For the cartridge as a whole, A-. There appears to be no real taper crimp, and lead bullets in semiautos can get set back on feeding.

A personal preference, to be guided by the pistol's feeding AND accuracy (if it even makes a difference on those when changing the seating depth), I seat them with about half the amount of shank showing as you did. Long time ago, a lot of people seated them totally flush. Most of them were softball loads using standard springs, so I suspect that forward slide velocity might have been less than that for more stout velocities.

But seating flush gives nothing really to crimp into, and you don't want to roll crimp over the shoulder like you could with revolver ammo.

Trying to vary seating depth finer than cutting the exposed shank by half is slicing the pie too thin--meaningless precision.
 
interesting I'm wondering why 6.0 grains to start? Hodgdon list a 5.8 starting load and only .5 grains from min to max. Overall looks fine, just a little hot to start IMHO.

load data from hodgdon:

Starting Loads Maximum Loads
Manufacturer Powder Bullet Diam. C.O.L. Grs. Vel. (ft/s) Pressure Grs. Vel. (ft/s) Pressure
Hodgdon Universal .451" 1.225" 5.8 889 13,900 CUP 6.3 962 16,800 CUP
 
Looks good.
I use a taper crimp that is the same as a factory load when viewing from straight down on the cartridge from above.
 
It's not a REAL H&G #68, and not talking about BANDAI GUNDAM.
Do what others do--polish it with a rag first so it becomes SHINY. Shiny is very important.
Other than that, it looks good.
 
Alrighty, had a chance to fire a few today.

I started with 5.8 because it's been my experience Universal doesn't burn completely at lower charges and spits grains all over the place. I don't have Bullseye yet, so this'll have to do.

One in four wouldn't seat fully. They passed the plunk test at home but...not so much in practice. I asked a knowledgeable RO about them and he suggested seating nearly flush with the shoulder and a healthy taper crimp, which I'm doing as we speak. CZ has a super short leade and frankly I'd like to get that reamed out a bit.

Accuracy was good off my rest, the best being the 6.2's. It was absurdly cold today so I'll try again next week.
 
CZ's like short OAL's, but only results count. SWC's are hard to feed thru any semi autos, short of Glocks, but there are many other choices that feed better.

Missouri 225 TC's

MB_225_2.jpg
 
They passed the plunk test at home but...not so much in practice.
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Goodness. I always regarded the plunk test as the gold standard but live and learn. I thought your lead SWC rounds looked great but you gotta do what you gotta do to get 'em to function in your particular gun.

Good luck.
 
Looks OK to me. For my 45 ACP reloading, for 2 pistols, the taper crimp is not noticeable. I just "deflare" (I do not "crimp") with a taper crimp die and neck tension holds all my bullets in place. Shoot 'em up and report your results...
 
A hint of tin in your melt will fill the mold out a little better.6 to 8 inches of lead free solder .
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I would not make any assumptions about how well the mold filled out until I looked that the mold and compared it to the bullets it cast...there may be a little radius at the juncture of the nose and the body of that bullet.
 
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SWC's are hard to feed thru any semi autos, short of Glocks
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Could you clarify that statement? I feed my Springfield Range Officer 185 and 200 grain SWCs exclusively and have never had a misfeed in thousands of rounds.
 
A 1911, with a good magazine, will generally feed anything, including empty cases. I have NEVER had a problem feeding a L-SWC in any handgun--
9x19: 1932 and 1936 P-08 "Luger," Walther P-38, Browning Hi-Power, S&W 6xx (something), CZ-75, CZ-85,
.40S&W: Tanfaglio, Para .40,
10mm: Colt Delta Elite 10mm, or
.45 Auto: S&W 645 or ANY 1911—
as long as they were long-nosed SWCs like the H&G 68. Most button-nose SWCs have fed find also.
COL is name of the game, just like all bullets.
 
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