Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Loaded my first handgun rounds

Yes.

I get drunk and make them in my garage.

But if you want something similar, check RimRock. I've been using their 260gr "Keith" and I like 'em a lot.

No, they are not "true Keith's" but who gives a schit. They shoot great.

http://rimrockbullets.net/



Travis

Naw, I shoot up to the .500 JRH at 10 to 12 cents a round. Free lead. Only the primer and powder. Brass pays for itself.
I never used Titegroup so can't comment but it should be cheaper.

leomort....u r welcome... If you have some Unique that is about the best all-around powder there is. I know that Mackay uses 10.0 for a full load and 8.5 for a target load in all his .44s and uses the same boolit that Travis does.

2400 is the traditional Elmer Keith powder and is usually best if one wants higher velocity loads.

I use just a smige more crimp than Travis does but as long as the casemouth is well folded over into the crimp groove as close to the front driving band as possible it will work... A lot of reloaders don't like a tight crimp because they feel that they get case mouth splits...I get far more body splits than casemouth splits and even those are rare. I am still using .38 Super brass from the 1980s and .41 Magnum from the 1970s...

Bob

If you were using factory hornady 240grain swaged bullets, they don't have typical lube in the groves, they have kind of a checkering design on the bullet with a waxy coating i best describe as found on .22lr bullets. I have a bunch of them, and they are also soft lead. I don't know what your load is, but sometimes that smoking you refered to is from too light a load. As i remember those bullets don't have a crimping groove per se like a keith bullet, i would have to go look to be sure.
As to the amount of crimp, i tend to like taper/collet crimps better than rolled crimps for some applications. But i have been doing recently in addition to checking that the crimp is actually holding the bullet, is to use a guage on the finish product and compare to a factory found for diameter just behind the case mouth. Also trying for fit in the barrel prior to getting to ambitious to make sure they fit properly. On a really tight revolver like a ladyhawk i run reloads through now and then, just a little bit out of wack and they won't fit in the cyclinder.
On those big cases i might add a bulky powder like unique or 2400 makes me a lot more comfortable, i like heavy case density with powders for various reasons.
on those hornady's, I got a deal on a store liquidation a few years ago, and got 1000 of them for like 25bucks. I only use them in .44special, too soft i think for .44magnum.

I might add like rjm, i like tight crimps, important when throwing heavy caliber bullets out of big bores particularly.
And a little aside, rjm convinced me i needed a 657 mountain gun a couple of years ago, his saying was one of the better .41's made. It's taken me a couple of years to figure out he was right, but i have to bow to my .41magnum pimp. Sure glad i bought that revolver.

RoninPhx,

Yes, those are the hornady 240gr swage swc. They have no groove but checkering designed as you mention. These are soft lead with horndady reloading manual saying to keep them 1,000 fps or slow.

Using titegroup with these bullets the hornady manual starts at 5.2grains and goes up to 6.6 grains.

I used 5.6 grains. I did not get real aggressive with the crimp.

I checked by turning the loaded ammo upside down and tried pushing the bullet on the benchtop and it didn't budge.

I can increase the charge on the next batch and put tighter crimp this time.

I'm enjoying shooting a revolver as I get to keep ALL my brass to reload!!!