Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Finally, some accurate loads foir my 5.7 FN

Up until now, I haven't been impressed with the accuracy I've getting from my 5.7X28 FNH pistol with handloads. Groups running 3-5 inches and 3-4.5 inches high at 15 yds. were not impressing me.
On top of that, I had two failures to fire with my handloads.
Cleaning the gun, something hadn't been done for quite a while, fixed that. Apparently these guns come with a pretty generous chamber. So, if the extractor isn't working properly, the firing pin strikes are too light. A good cleaning and a little oil took care of that problem. Even the rounds that previous would not fire after a couple of tries, fired normally.
I tried another approach. I loaded the next lot of ammo to as close to the factory velocity of 1729 fps. for the 40 gr. load as I could estimate. That was 5.2 grs. of Ramshot's True Blue over a 40 gr. Sierra Hornet bullet. That's .4 grs. under the starting load for that bullet and COL ( 1.456 ) recomended by Ramshot.
That load went 1 3/16ths of an inch for three at 15 yds. and right at the same zero for the factory 40 gr. load. Heck, the factory 40 gr. V-Max load shoots 2 inches at that distance.
Even better was the 45 gr. Sierra Hornet bullet. 5.5 grs of Ramshot TB went 1/2 of an inch for three rounds. That load is .1 grs. over the starting load for that bullet. It's COL was 1.490 inches.
The brass used was new factory stuff that I had pulled the bullets from. Factory primers, which might be rifle primers. E

I get a lot of satisfaction whenever a good cleaning or simple lube provides a fix or noticeable improvement.

Is there any worries with loading under the recommended minimum for pistols? Like a double ignition? I keep within the limits but some of my best rifle loads are at or about the minimums.

congrats E.

Thanks.
As to double or erratic ignitions, Ramshot's True Blue is recomended for use in low pressure cowboy action loads, so there should be no problems with it. Since the 5.7 operates in the 45,000 psi range, even these loads shouldn't be low pressure ones.
Not all powders are like that. I understand that in rifle powders, one should not use anything slower than IMR 4350, and certain pistol ball powders, like WW 296, should not be used for reduced loads. E