G20-SF; 180gr Where I'm at so far Part 2.. 2012

[RDub01]

Hello
Here is the second 10mm project that got lost in cyberspace.  Thanks.

Continuing to explore the parameters of this G20-SF, I acquired some Hornady 180gr FMJ and Hormady 180gr HAP bullets.  Ran out the Speer TMJs.   Starline brass used throughout. 
Going to check out a few more powders this time.

N-350
True Blue
BE-86
CFE Pistol

I was curious who these might do in a 10mm.
As with any load data you find on-line, do not accept anything here as safe in your guns.  Always start low and work up.
Also started using more CCI 300 primers instead of the Rem 2½.

First up True Blue using the Hornady HAP bullet and CCI 300 primers;



Started out well with 7.9grs, but not much after that.  I should have stopped at 9.4grs as 9.7 produced smileys, as did 9.4grs.
   True Blue looks a lot like AA #2 and meters the same.  With the exception of a light plinker 'FBI Load' True Blue doesn't show much promise in this gun.

Next, N-350 with Hornady HAP bullets and the CCI 300 primer;





This powder turned out to be quite useful, not for top velocities, but a good all-round load. Other than a little anomaly at 8.0grs, Standard Deviations were low and groups very acceptable.  Even at 9.2grs, which proved to be too warm for this gun, accuracy was good.

The VIHTAVUORI powder burn table shows N-350 to be slightly slower than 3N37. I don't believe this is the case.  I believe it is just the opposite, 3N37 being slightly slower than N-350.

Power Pistol and N-350 track closely.

BE-86;

Alliant's data indicates they got 1265 fps with a 180gr jacketed bullet and 8.5grs of BE-86. Seemed like a pretty remarkable claim for 8.5grs of powder..  So assembled some rounds with the Hornady HAP bullet and following their recipe with Fed 150 primers;



Well 1265 fps wasn't quite achieved, but not bad..
After miking the brass, it was clear this wasn't a very hot load. So I assembled a few more rounds at 0.2grs increments.



Well, case expansion wasn't what I was expecting, but we must be careful here.. This was done in rather cool weather, so we might get something totally different in warmer temperatures.

Did this again using the Rem 2½ primer;  Slightly warmer temps.



So BE-86 did Ok..  Not as good as N-350 in this gun.

CFE Pistol;

IMR lists 7.6grs with a 180gr bullet, so shot some with Hornady 180gr FMJ and CCI 300 primers.



Case expansion was minimal, so this can be taken out some more..

Shot three more groups using the Rem 2½ primer.



CFE Pistol was Ok as well..  8.4grs was knocking on the door of the .4340" mark so I stopped there.

When working with the .40 S&W with CFE Pistol and BE-86 and 180gr bullets, I found them to track each other very closely.  Here, if I had loaded  8.4grs of BE-86, the two velocities would have been very close to each other. So it would seem this is the case with the 10mm as well, at this pressure level.  However, I ran into pressure sooner here with CFE Pistol as the charges increased.

Shot some more groups with the Hornady 180FMJ making some comparisons against the Speer bullet.



This target indicates the gun's continuing dislike of N-105... (The 357Mag loves it!)

Here is one using the stock spring and the ISMI 22# spring;





And lastly, one of my favorite loads;



That's all I have for the Hornady bullets.
Here is the data for part 2;





A graph of the project;