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- Mar 13, 2023
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Well, I thought I had it dialed in but I guess not. The 26.5 gr H110 with 147 gr 9mm bullets from RMR seemed ok for the 3 shots; no pressure signs I could see. The speeds were a bit faster than the commercial 145 gr Winchester. The Winchester 145 gr FMJ averaged around 2264 fps and mine averaged 2393 fps. I pulled 3 of the Winchester bullets and measured their mass and powder charge mass. The bullets averaged 144.6 gr and the powder charge averaged 27.0 gr. COAL was 2.207". The powder did not resemble H110; much finer grained and duller in sheen. They also were not crimped in very tight as just 2 or 3 whacks with the kinetic puller did the job.
Anyway, to make a long story short, I loaded up 25 bullets with 26.5 gr H110 and the 147 gr RMR bullets and headed to the range. I shot 3 and inspected the casings and didn't see any problems so I loaded the rest in the magazine and proceeded to shoot. I had a jam on the 19th shot. Upon clearing the jam, I noticed the casing had a blown primer and was badly bulged at the base. I emptied my brass catcher and inspected all the casings and found 2 more with blown primers and bulged cases and one with a bulged case and an intact primer. It looks like 26.5 gr H110 is still too much to be safe. 3 out of 22 were clearly overpressure and that is 3 too many. How much should I reduce the charge do you think? I am thinking maybe a grain less and try again.
Does anyone know what Winchester uses for powder in their 145 gr FMJ loads?
On the upside, the gun seems to shoot those commercial loads very well. I shot a 3 shot group at 100 yards that was 0.636 " center to center using a 3x Nikon P-223 tactical scope.
Anyway, to make a long story short, I loaded up 25 bullets with 26.5 gr H110 and the 147 gr RMR bullets and headed to the range. I shot 3 and inspected the casings and didn't see any problems so I loaded the rest in the magazine and proceeded to shoot. I had a jam on the 19th shot. Upon clearing the jam, I noticed the casing had a blown primer and was badly bulged at the base. I emptied my brass catcher and inspected all the casings and found 2 more with blown primers and bulged cases and one with a bulged case and an intact primer. It looks like 26.5 gr H110 is still too much to be safe. 3 out of 22 were clearly overpressure and that is 3 too many. How much should I reduce the charge do you think? I am thinking maybe a grain less and try again.
Does anyone know what Winchester uses for powder in their 145 gr FMJ loads?
On the upside, the gun seems to shoot those commercial loads very well. I shot a 3 shot group at 100 yards that was 0.636 " center to center using a 3x Nikon P-223 tactical scope.