Heavier bullet but no data? (.25 acp)

[Ron3]

My Hi-Skor 700X seems an appropriate powder for .25 acp.

Hodgdon recommends 1.0 to 1.1 grs using a 50 gr FMJ bullet.

Well, what about the 55 gr FN-TC lead bullets I have?

I'm thinking I can still start at 1.0 grs.

I know, I need to start an account at a forum specific to reloading, but I'd like to improve our knowledge base over here. For all the people coming to M4carbine for .25 and .32 reload data...

[Bimmer]

I'm thinking I can still start at 1.0 grs.

Agreed... That's Hodgdon's starting load, right?

I mean, you might try 0.9gr, but if your powder thrower is like mine, then it's ±0.1gr, anyway.

[Uni-Vibe]

I'd start at 1.0 grain. If you have a powder trickler, use it to make some test loads.

[gunnerblue]

1.0 grain should be fine. Remember that the lead bullets require less force to engrave upon the rifling than jacketed, so increased pressure shouldn't be a problem.

[Ron3]

I made 18 rounds with 1.0 gr.

Yes that's the starting load for a 50 gr fmj.

The first few had shorter OAL than I'd set up for some reason. Minimum with 50 gr bullet is .900 IIRC. I wanted 9.15. I ended up with one at .875 (pulled that one), .895, .900, and the rest are .910 to .915.

I separated the .895 load from the others and will fire it if the others arent hot.

With these truncated bullets they are just a little long for the chamber and touch the rifling enough to stick past .910.

So that's really my target OAL if the pressure/velocity is reasonable.

I'm going to fire the first batch from a Beretta M950 because some parts, especially a slide, are more available than M21A parts. (In .25)

Thanks for the advice.

[Ron3]

I have a beam scale and trickler. I found the Lee .17 cc dipper that came with the die set to be pretty accurate. I weighed every charge and checked OAL on each.

Cci SPP and PPU cases.

[Ron3]

Well, not great. Fired from a Beretta M21A .25.

First shot was read 838 fps. Misread? I dunno. Next highest was 773 fps.

But for 10 shots, including the two above:

H. 838
L. 681
Avg. 735
ES. 157 (Throwing out the 838 fps reading would lower this to 92)

The one load that was shorter than the others at .895 OAL gave an average reading. So to me this means I can load them all to what fits best in the chamber which is .900.

Surprisingly I had no feeding issues or stoppages of any kind even with my wild ES and truncated, lead bullets. Accuracy was excellent! Good pistol.

Some PPU fired the same day (80 degress) gave me this for 5 shots:
H. 770
L. 744
Avg. 760
ES. 26

I'm not sure if I should continue with 700x in this .25 or try CFE Pistol. perhaps the larger range of powder (1.1-1.3) would mean less variation?

I'm also not sure if the variation in velocity was powder differences or the fact that my OAL's varied a bit. (.895-.915) (but seemed to settle down as I loaded)

[gunnerblue]

Reloading is all about eliminating variables. Try another group with all the rounds as consistent as possible (to include OAL) and see what kind of readings you get. Then start experimenting with charge weight. Also, don't try and address more than one variable at a time.

[Bimmer]

+1 Eliminate variables.

Use the same OAL and change the powder charge, or vice versa.

On such a small cartridge, a 0.020" difference in OAL is a BFD.

Otherwise, it seems like you're right in the ballpark, velocity wise (it's just that your loads are inconsistent).

[Ron3]

Ok. Thanks.

I'll make another batch and focus on getting the OAL right. Same powder charge.