First off, hello from a new member. Been browsing for awhile and looking forward to sticking around here.
New to reloading 10mm and only have experience with .45 ACP and 9mm. With reloading I like to be extremely cautious so just wanted to run a few things by you knowledgeable bunch.
Had fun getting the new dies (Lee 4 piece) dialed in yesterday. Have things about where I want them and had to pull a few rounds in the process. I noticed these are REALLY difficult to pull. Tons and tons of tension on them, I suppose due to the shape of the bullet. I pulled a factory round for the hell of it and noticed the same thing. Is this normal? Bullets show little to no crimp after their being pulled so I know they're not over crimped. Case mouth post seating and crimp is 0.4225 and my manual shows .423 as max.
I have flaring down to a reliable minimum and am barely kissing the cartridges with the FCD.
I'm using 180 gr RNFP's (with heavy plating and a concave base) http://www.xtremebullets.com/10-40-180-RNFP-HPCB-p/xc1040-180rnhpcb-b0500.htm.
I don't intend to push these anywhere near the 1,500 FPS their supposedly rated for but didn't mind spending a few extra bucks over the normal RNFP.
I intend to use Unique for some low to mid range loads. I'm aware there are better powders out there but with the current state of things I only have Unique and Red Dot on hand.
I have Lee and Lyman manuals and neither show data for 180gr flat points using Unique and have also done quite a bit of searching here for data.
Lyman shows a starting load of 5.8gr for 180gr JHP @ 1018 fps (21,800 pressure) with a max load of 6.7gr @ 1064 fps (28,100 pressure).
Lee shows Unique used with a 180gr XTP with a starting charge of 7.0gr @1015 fps and a max of 8.0gr @ 1,138 fps.
Very different parameters. I'm truthfully not sure how the XTP shape differs from the 180gr JHP but I'm surprised at the great difference in recipes.
Starting load will be 5.5 grains at 1.26 OAL (light considering this is what I often use in 9mm and .45 ACP, but per Lyman info above). I may also try a few loads loads working up to 6.5 while looking for any type of over pressure signs in the brass and primers. These will be shot from an RIA 10mm 5" 1911 (once it's replacement arrives from RIA) and I do NOT have access to a chrono.
I also intend to load up some dummy rounds and check for setback since I'm running the crimp lightly to begin with.
For the sake of thoroughness I've attached a photo of some pulled bullets. Round on the left is a 165gr factory HPR round (notice all the crimp). If you'll ignore the round second from the right, the other two are bullets loaded and pulled per the parameters above.
Thanks in advance for any and all input.
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Here is some Alliant data, they show the Unique...
(http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j441/_The_Shadow/Alliantpg44.jpg)
I used 5.5 grains of Red Dot with 180
Shadow,
Thanks for the data. I have come across that info in my research but unfortunately the Unique data is for a 180gr JHP instead of the RNFP I intend to use.
Any idea how or if the charge weight applies for JHP vs RNFP? The Xtreme bullets are also plated but that's a 5-10% adjustment I'm familiar with.
The 7.0 grains of Unique should be fine with the shorter RNFP which would be similar to an FMJ style, because the JHP's are usually longer because of the hollow cavity for the same weight bullets. The 100% copper are even longer still because copper is lighter than the lead filled core of same weight.
That being said you will likely see a less peak pressure than the 35,700 psi but very close to the 1125fps. The Xtreme plating should do very well being under the 1200 fps mark. They would be a good target practice round and easy on your brass at those pressure value given.
Just started using the Xtreme 180's Heavy Plate Concave Base heads too.... much cheaper than the remington fmj I normally use.
They work great in a stock g20 and are very accurate with Blue Dot.
Things I noticed; 1) the avg weight of my batch runs about 180.2 and 2) they are abit shorter that the remingtons or similar fmj I have , due to prob more lead.
They should work fine with Unique
Thanks for the input and suggestion on loads. Interesting on HP likely being longer, suppose it makes since but since I never load HP's it's never occurred to me.
Can anyone comment on the difficulty of pulling 10mm rounds vs other calibers? These things take a lot of wacks...
Quote from: TightLines on August 15 2014 12:04:44 PM MDT
snip..
Can anyone comment on the difficulty of pulling 10mm rounds vs other calibers? These things take a lot of wacks...
One of the tests I make when setting up the taper crimp is the 'push test'... I measure the aol and then forcefully press it against my bench, then measure again to make sure there's no change. (Just don't make it so tight that its deforming the bullet)
Of course then the opposite is the same ... it takes 3+ wacks of the inpact puller to free the head.
Your brass is holding tightly be glad! As you work them over and over they can/will loose their hold as the sizer die is shaping them they can spring back due to the brass getting less malleable over many uses. This can be different for each type of brass based on its original malleability.
In a recent pull down test it was found the some reloaded cartridges showed setback issues due to the poor brass malleability, even as I rand them back through the sizing die, these brass would spring back and not hold the bullet. As part of this experiment I deprimed then annealed the cases in flames till they discolored then water quenched them, then resizing allowed them to hold their resized setting. See this post...http://10mm-firearms.com/factory-10mm-ammo-pull-downs/lax-180gr-fmj-plated-(ic-51714)-pull-down/ (http://10mm-firearms.com/factory-10mm-ammo-pull-downs/lax-180gr-fmj-plated-(ic-51714)-pull-down/)