(Part 1 starts here and part 2 starts here)
My order of 0.312" 115gr bullets arrived today, so after dinner it was down to the basement to do up some loads for testing. I set up the dies in the Lee Turret Press without the indexing, and put a #13 rotor in my RCBS Little Dandy. This gives a 3.2gr charge of Trail Boss. Others have recommended 3.5 and 3.7grs, but after looking at the pressure data for Trail Boss in similar cases I decided to start a bit lower.
Before making up live loads I did a test run with no powder or primer, and discovered right off that I had to set the bullet a hair deeper than I thought to get under the 1.5" OAL. Just a bit too long, and the protruding bullet won't rotate past the forcing cone of the revolver.
Once I had the length right, I set the dies and proceeded to load. Because I was using a stand alone powder measure, rather than the Lee mounted on the charging die, I inspected each visually after charging:
From there the loaded case and bullet went into the press where the bullet was seated (but not crimped) with the .32-20 seating die and crimped with the .32-20 Factory Crimp die.
I made up 21 loads for test. Why 21? It's a 7 shooter. If these don't show any signs of excessive pressure (difficulty extracting fired cases, etc.) I may try 3.5 and 3.7gr.
(On to Part 4)
No comments:
Post a Comment