2ndwind, thanks for the link, it is a fair good read. Glad to find another equally infected with this malicious virus. grin Have to admit it never would have occurred to me to pursue this by modifying .25 ACP brass. Oh, the tedium.........

Went for round 9 yesterday and it was a bit of a curiosity. Revisited 800X and pushed the envelope with WW231. The latter brought for a couple of vicious cracks that made the squirrels hide.

Numbers are on the target, with the first foulers shot at the 8 o'clock position and proceeding clockwise from there. Group size is circled and I must say that .58" seemed a popular spread.

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Couple of comments on the endeavor. I am puzzled a bit by the Norma TAC deciding to not one hole it before or after, but hey, stuff happens. Seems the ~50 fps/.1 grain of charge change is a relatively predictable metric. There is some minor deviation, but not enough to get fired up about.

One of the side effects of a suppressor as best I can determine, is that it magnifies variations within the interior ballistics world, and perhaps this comes from a change in barrel harmonics. Just speculating on that, but if you'll note the 1.1 charge of WW231 target at 2 o'clock you will see three in one hole and two outliers, one in the 25 ring. Those two shots were first and last in the string, both supersonic. Likewise for the 1.0 grain charge of 800X at 10 0'clock. Two groups adjacent and perfectly correlated to the velocities. Two on the right are from the "800s" and those on the left from the "700's". 'Tis a puzzle I doubt I'll be able to sort out, though the hint is that if I can get the velocity spreads under control I might put this to rest. Finding it amusing that a significant velocity change generates a shift in group placement as well. See the 800X target in comparison to the others. This has been going on from day one.

On the latter point, and I think properly illustrated by the previous round, powder appropriate to the task is necessary if anything close to match grade accuracy is the goal. I've had fairly consistent results with a variety of powders, but none did quite so well as that salvaged from the Wolf MT rounds when this project started. I think the WW231 has done as well as any of the others, better than most. I will dabble with a few others perhaps and most certainly bump up the charge of 800X because it seems to offer some potential AND there is room remaining in the case. The 1.1 grain solo round was ballpark 90% load density and I suspect potential for up to 1.3 grains before compression begins to occur.

Tools......yeah, I need to start working on that. I mentioned earlier that this has been and exercise in innovation if you recall. Couple of things are engraved in stone at this point. Shoot from a single gun and don't hold your expectation terribly high for precision and you don't need tools. Period. Having gone thru 9 load cycles at this point w/o case sizing makes the point in my opinion. I knurl with a file, wipe some lube on that and have yet to experience any leading whatsoever. "Crimping" with a tapered size die provided by a friend is not precise by any measure, but seems to have a somewhat positive effect. Notably, the bullets will not fall out when handling for transport and loading. My point is for purposes of simply plinking, training or pursuit of small game at modest ranges, tools are not really required. Hammers and a punch seat primers just fine. A shell holder is convenient, but not required for decapping.

So here I sit and being occasionally beset by a desire to conquer minutiae I'm going to do the following. 1) modify specs very slightly on the bullet mould and 2) have Hornady make a set of dies for purposes of illustrating that conventional loading methods enable use in multiple guns (chambers), facilitate precision and, uh, just because. Following discussion with Steve Brooks I anticipate a 3 cavity mould (Thanks to the Gods), and based on experience with Hornady's custom dies will be making one hole groups. :Dr

I will dabble with this somewhat while awaiting such things, little more powder here, different primer brand there, but in the main this project will rest until those things arrive.

And yeah, I'm going to have a CF bolt made for one of my repeaters. God help me.........

Dan

I am..........disturbed.

Concerning the difference between man and the jackass: some observers hold that there isn't any. But this wrongs the jackass. -Twain