|
Post by HRFunk on Nov 17, 2017 9:19:58 GMT -5
Hi all! I've had some 180 grain 10mm Hornady bullets sitting around on my loading bench for several months, and this week I got the urge to stuff them into some cases and see what they would do. Most of my 10mm ammo is loaded to, more or less, .40 S&W velocity as I only use it to kill paper targets and the occasional gatorade bottle (and of course a thumb-tack here and there!). For this batch of ammo, however, I thought I'd try loading it to true 10mm ballistics. My Hornady manual shows AA #9 as achieving the highest velocity with 180 grain bullets, and 14.9 grains of that powder is their maximum load. Out of the 4.25" barrel of my 1076, I was hoping to reach at least 1250fps with the 180 grain bullets. Dutifully I started with a 14 grain load and worked my way up.
Yesterday afternoon, I made it to the range and fired up the chronograph. My loads consisted of 10 rounds with 14.0 grains; 10 rounds with 14.5 grains; and, 10 rounds with 14.9 grains. All were loaded to an OAL of 1.260", and all were sparked by Winchester WLP primers. When the gun-smoke cleared, I was fairly happy with the accuracy of the 14.5 grain load (about 2.5"@25 yards), but I was somewhat underwhelmed by the velocities I registered across the board with these loads. The 14.0 grain load averaged 1165 fps, the 14.5 grain load was at 1187 fps, and the 14.9 grain came in at 1202 fps. Extreme spreads and standard deviations with all loads was pretty good. ES was running between 30 and 55 fps, and SD was between 10 and 15 fps. Still I was hoping for a bit more horsepower from these loads.
For any of you who handload the 10mm, I'm curious what you're running and what kind of velocity your seeing. Maybe I just had my hopes set too high.
Thanks, Howard
|
|
|
Post by CXM on Nov 17, 2017 11:13:48 GMT -5
Howard, if you have any old reloading manuals around you can find 10mm data from about 1989 or so... The 10mm was loaded to higher velocity back then (the Norma factory load exceeded 1300 fps.) The cartridge was downloaded not because it was unsafe to load high velocity loads, but rather because police agencies who were adopting the 10mm were discovering that lots of their small people could not manage a 10 mm ( I have no idea why, the 10mm isn't that bad to shoot)and could not qualify. This of course brought complaints from women and hispanics principally that the requirement to qualify with the issue pistol was unreasonable, sexist, and probably fattening... Anyway, the using agencies wanted a lower velocity 10mm round and the ammo companies gave it to them... the 10mm was loaded down to about where the 10mm is today... which in turn led to the 40SAW round which could be loaded in a medium frame pistol (remember small hands?) This ultimately led to the rise of the .40SAW and it's ultimate decline (if the 40SAW is ALMOST as good it must be ok... and later on if the 9x19mm is ALMOST as good as the .40SAW it must be good... you can see how this slippery slope works.) You should be able to surpass the 1,200 fps mark if you carefully work up loads for the 10mm. I like either Alliant Powder Pistol or Unique for this cartridge... if you happen to have any of the now discontinued DuPont 4756 that is even better. I can probably dig out some old data if you need it... let me know. V/r CHuck
|
|
|
Post by ruber on Nov 17, 2017 14:50:34 GMT -5
I got some power pistol on accident, but have really started liking it.
Right now, I load max power pistol in new brass then reload with a medium/warm dose of blue dot (which is always fun at indoor ranges).
I tried AA9 with my G20, and you did better than me. It was accurate though, some of my tightest groups with that gun. Just somewhat lackluster...
|
|
|
Post by HRFunk on Nov 17, 2017 21:59:22 GMT -5
Howard, if you have any old reloading manuals around you can find 10mm data from about 1989 or so... The 10mm was loaded to higher velocity back then (the Norma factory load exceeded 1300 fps.) The cartridge was downloaded not because it was unsafe to load high velocity loads, but rather because police agencies who were adopting the 10mm were discovering that lots of their small people could not manage a 10 mm ( I have no idea why, the 10mm isn't that bad to shoot)and could not qualify. This of course brought complaints from women and hispanics principally that the requirement to qualify with the issue pistol was unreasonable, sexist, and probably fattening... Anyway, the using agencies wanted a lower velocity 10mm round and the ammo companies gave it to them... the 10mm was loaded down to about where the 10mm is today... which in turn led to the 40SAW round which could be loaded in a medium frame pistol (remember small hands?) This ultimately led to the rise of the .40SAW and it's ultimate decline (if the 40SAW is ALMOST as good it must be ok... and later on if the 9x19mm is ALMOST as good as the .40SAW it must be good... you can see how this slippery slope works.) You should be able to surpass the 1,200 fps mark if you carefully work up loads for the 10mm. I like either Alliant Powder Pistol or Unique for this cartridge... if you happen to have any of the now discontinued DuPont 4756 that is even better. I can probably dig out some old data if you need it... let me know. V/r CHuck Thanks Chuck, I’m pretty well acquainted with the history of the 10mm having watched it rise in the 1980s; fall in the 1990s; then rise again from its own ashes in the 2000s. I’ve owned my 1076 for several years, and I really like it. As I mentioned above, I’ve kept my 10mm loads fairly mild, but I always liked the idea of being able to step on the gas if the mood struck me. Oddly, when the mood DID strike, the performance didn’t quite measure up to my expectations. I don’t think I’ve ever tried Power Pistol, maybe I’ll give that a whirl. Thanks for the reply. Howard PS Did you receive the response I sent to your last email? I’m not trying to rush you, I’m just asking because sometimes my email does strange things.
|
|
|
Post by HRFunk on Nov 17, 2017 22:01:05 GMT -5
I got some power pistol on accident, but have really started liking it. Right now, I load max power pistol in new brass then reload with a medium/warm dose of blue dot (which is always fun at indoor ranges). I tried AA9 with my G20, and you did better than me. It was accurate though, some of my tightest groups with that gun. Just somewhat lackluster... Yeah, I’m thinking I might have to give Power pistol a try. Thanks! Howard
|
|
|
Post by rock185 on Dec 7, 2017 22:20:47 GMT -5
Hello HR, just came across your 10MM thread here. I started reloading the 10 as soon as dies became available, and had a couple 1076s as well as 1006s,1026s,etc. With factory and reloaded ammo, I found it was not unusual for my 1076s to produce approx. 50 FPS less velocity, sometimes a bit less sometimes a bit more, than the 5" guns. I used several different powders, to include Power Pistol, but found for top velocity at safe pressures, AA-9 was the way to go. The faster Power Pistol did achieve respectable velocities with 165 grain bullets, but with signs I interpreted as pressures becoming unsafe, i.e., flattened primers,and worse yet, "smilies" imprinted in cases where feed ramp met the chamber. This, even though the S&W 10MM chambers are well supported. I would not have cared to shoot the Power Pistol loads at all in the Delta I used to have, that had lots of unsupported brass hanging out over the feed ramp. With lighter bullets, I suspect Power Pistol might produce impressive velocities at safe pressures, but I didn't pursue loading this powder with lighter bullets.....
|
|
|
Post by CXM on Dec 8, 2017 10:37:30 GMT -5
Losing 50fps for a 1" drop in barrel length sounds about right. Back in the days before affordable chronographs, re-loaders used to plan on a 40fps per 1" of barrel drop. Once we got chronographs, that rule of thumb proved to be pretty accurate. Though DuPont SR4756 is now discontinued, I still have quite a bit of the stuff on hand. I'm thinking based on it's great performance in other rounds, it would do well in 10mm too... back in the 1960s (before lawyers started write reloading manuals) there were some very high performance rounds listed with SR4756... FWIW Chuck Hello HR, just came across your 10MM thread here. I started reloading the 10 as soon as dies became available, and had a couple 1076s as well as 1006s,1026s,etc. With factory and reloaded ammo, I found it was not unusual for my 1076s to produce approx. 50 FPS less velocity, sometimes a bit less sometimes a bit more, than the 5" guns. I used several different powders, to include Power Pistol, but found for top velocity at safe pressures, AA-9 was the way to go. The faster Power Pistol did achieve respectable velocities with 165 grain bullets, but with signs I interpreted as pressures becoming unsafe, i.e., flattened primers,and worse yet, "smilies" imprinted in cases where feed ramp met the chamber. This, even though the S&W 10MM chambers are well supported. I would not have cared to shoot the Power Pistol loads at all in the Delta I used to have, that had lots of unsupported brass hanging out over the feed ramp. With lighter bullets, I suspect Power Pistol might produce impressive velocities at safe pressures, but I didn't pursue loading this powder with lighter bullets.....
|
|