I just loaded some 90gn "Lehigh Defense" rounds (the ones shaped like a star or cross bullet). A friend wanted to try them (he's a major feral pig hunter) so I told him if he got the bullets and gave me his 9mm Ruger for doing the "plunk test" I'd give 'em a try.
Got the bullets and I have 9.5 lbs of W231 so I figured I'd use that. Checked my Lyman manual, Hodgdon/Winchester online, one of those load books specifically for a certain caliber and another online source. Data for powder was fairly disparate!
Where one showed starting at 5.1gn another showed 5.1gn as the max load. Another was 4.1gn to start and as that seemed reasonable, I loaded 5 each at 4.1 and 4.2 gr for him to try. He hasn't had chance to try them but I told him to let me know how they worked and I'd either go up a tenth of a grain or two or go down as needed. But this is the first time I've had this issue.
My sources have usually agreed within a 10th of a grain or two so it wasn't such a big deal. But one saying start at 5.1 and another saying not to exceed 5.1 was a fairly large difference.
Those star-shaped Lehigh bullets are solid copper so I used 90gn FMJ data. I figured if I stayed on the low side to start, FMJ would be about right. But what's the best way to reconcile a load when the sources are that far out of agreement? I thought reducing by 10% would still be too hot so settled for the lowest of all. Now I need my boy to go find some feral pigs!
Got the bullets and I have 9.5 lbs of W231 so I figured I'd use that. Checked my Lyman manual, Hodgdon/Winchester online, one of those load books specifically for a certain caliber and another online source. Data for powder was fairly disparate!
Where one showed starting at 5.1gn another showed 5.1gn as the max load. Another was 4.1gn to start and as that seemed reasonable, I loaded 5 each at 4.1 and 4.2 gr for him to try. He hasn't had chance to try them but I told him to let me know how they worked and I'd either go up a tenth of a grain or two or go down as needed. But this is the first time I've had this issue.
My sources have usually agreed within a 10th of a grain or two so it wasn't such a big deal. But one saying start at 5.1 and another saying not to exceed 5.1 was a fairly large difference.
Those star-shaped Lehigh bullets are solid copper so I used 90gn FMJ data. I figured if I stayed on the low side to start, FMJ would be about right. But what's the best way to reconcile a load when the sources are that far out of agreement? I thought reducing by 10% would still be too hot so settled for the lowest of all. Now I need my boy to go find some feral pigs!