Differences in cartridge case thickness...the depth of the bullet seated...even when the mouths of the cartridge cases are squared up after many reloads we have to be careful...making them a coupla'thousandths shorter will add to the pressure....

Naturally the kind of powder and the amount used is one of the two major situations that impacts on pressure. The other is the bullet weight and hardness. You may have a top load with a cast bullet and a certain powder...switch to the same weight bullet but jacketed and you could easily go over pressure. So always start with ANYONE else's load 10% below and work up....that goes especially with mine because I tend to get the full potential out of my loads and firearms.....

I am going to quote certain strings of loads that I have tested for velocity and pressure. It is incumbent to understand that Winchester with 296 pistol powder advertises that the consumer not go below advertised loads by 10%. They apparently are afraid of pressure excursions with this powder in large capacity cases. I’m not, if a little pillow stuffing is holding the powder to the primer...but you have to make up your own mind.

My guns obviously are different then yours even if they are the same make and model...so my figures can only be general information...but at least they will be strong ball park.....

45 Colt Loads....

Using a 350 grain bullet, cast hard and ApacheBlu lube....18.5 grains gave 1130 fps from my Ruger 45 Colt...pressure was at the top for this gun...7 and ½ inch barrel....went to 454 FA 20/2400 same bullet gave 1200 fps....this a comfortable load but is one hell’va killer...21/2400 gave 1265 fps and 22/2400 jumped it to 1340 fps and the recoil was beginning to be felt...23 grains went 1375 fps and 24 grains hit the magic 1400 plus fps......in the Ruger 14 grains gave 990 fps and 17 grains gave 1065 fps....all loads loaded in 45 Colt brass (WIN) and WIN primers for standard&magnum loads.

With 300 and 310 grain cast bullets 6 grains of Bullseye gives 800 fps in the Ruger...7 grains gave just over 900 fps....8 grains gave 1000 fps and 9 grains was over pressure in my gun.....Be Careful with Bullseye and WW231 and other fast powders....we went to 8 grains of Bullseye and kept increasing the bullet weight in a Ruger SA back about ten years ago testing bullet weight and pressure....at 460 grains plus cast bullets the 8 grains of Bullseye blew the cylinder into three pieces....Estimates on pressures were at around 80,000 psi.....

16.5 grains of 2400 gave the 300 grain bullet the great 1000 fps....a 300 grain bullet at this velocity is really a fine load with over 600 lbs. of punch. Very easy on the hand and wrist and very accurate in every gun I used it in including Colt SA clones. 18.5 grains/300 cast is a Ruger SA load with 1190 fps...another killer load on large game. I once shot a 300 grain NEI Giles cast hard (blunt..very blunt roundnose) thru a range bull that topped 1500 lbs. with this load 18.5/2400. Went thru the left shoulder and exited out the right ribs, not only was it fatal...but this big bag of meat was shocked to his knees. 20 grains gives this bullet 1240 fps and is the top Ruger load for my gun...while 21 gives 1290 fps...and again the 22 grain load is a big jump to 1385fps...

I found 8 grains of Unique near 800 fps...nice load for my old Colt 45. 9 grains of Unique will go about 50 to 60 fps more....21/H4227 goes 1160 fps with this cast bullet...22/4227 goes 1255 fps...23 goes 1280 and 24 went 1325 and they seemed safe in my Ruger....LBT makes a mold that drops a 330 grain bullet, the one load I tested that in was 18.5 grains of 2400 and got just under 1200 fps...nice from the Ruger. It will harvest large game up to small elk very well.

45 ACP.....

I have a very best favorite 45 ACP load. Long ago I needed a street load that I knew would be hammer blow anywhere on a criminal’s body. I found 10.3 grains/HS7 under a 260 grain cast 1 in 20 Keith bullet and 900 fps, was more then deadly..it had what I called ‘elephant punch ratio’. I had a reloading company make up thousands and had DEA purchase them for my enforcement agents that carried the great old 45 ACP in Arizona. That way they weren’t considered reloads because they came from a ammo manufacturing company and were not against DEA policy. Some of the guns had to have their chamber ramps polished a little...but no big deal.

One of my guys shot a knife wielder in the arm with this load...the Keith went in the bicep in the front and took out so much bone and meat while exiting the back of the arm, the doctors had to amputate what was left. I had occasion to fire one thru the driver’s door of a Buick Wildcat...the Keith went thru the door and the window that was rolled down, on across the laps of the two miscreants sitting in the front seat into the passenger door, thru the arm rest. Funny how fast their palms stuck to the roof of the car...and I didn’t even say ‘hands up’..... I carry this load to this day...even in my little 45 ACP AMT Backup. The pressure by the way is only 20,000 psi...low pressure +p. My Daly 45 ACP 5 inch barrel groups them into one ragged hole at 25 yards. 9 Grains of HS6 will do the same by the way....Out of an old 6 ½" S&W mod 25...they still do the 900 fps and accuracy is generally excellent. A friend has one cut to 4 ½ inches...round butted and Mag-Na-Ported....it’s a nice rig.....

I’ve popped a number of called coyotes with this load..it never fails to exit..even long ways. I have had ‘yotes partially spin at impact with shoulder hits...elephant punch ratio at work. Also I have found that HS7 gives the highest velocity without raising the pressures to unacceptable levels or leaving a lot of unburned powder...

The question is always asked of me...and I’m sure of Jim Taylor, John Taffin, Jim Wilson...and others...if we only had one gun or one caliber what would it be. I agree with Taffin....I can’t conceive of a world where that would happen. I’d give myself a headache thinking on it. But the guns I most often carry is somewhat different. They change from year to year of course but right now it’s a five inch slide 45 ACP Daly...with the above load I have made up by an ammo company so it’s not a reload. And a 357 magnum S&W Mountain gun, a seven shot beauty that was a gift from Lynn Thompson of Cold Steel knives. In looking up the string of velocities in my shooting records, with the 357, I got curious as to the velocity loss between the 7 and ½ inch test gun and the S&W mountain gun. What I found was that the average loss per inch of barrel is 35 to 40 fps. Remember the loss with the barrel gap was averaged at 100 fps per thousandth. Want to get long barrel velocity from your short barreled handgun...have the barrel set back to a minimum. I like them under two thou...and my S&W is now well under that...

357 Magnum....

I don’t like the 158 grain bullets in the 357...I much prefer the 180 jacketed Remington scalloped hollow points and the Hornady 180 XTP HP. Also I like the 173 grain Keith cast as the lightest cast bullet...but prefer the RCBS 200 grain 35-200 GC rifle bullet in the handgun...it has a flat point and a super long range profile....saying this I must also say that while in Federal Service I carried the famous Winchester gilded 160 grain Keith shaped solid....it would give approximately 1300 fps from four inch barrels and was deadly in serious social situations. One heroin dealer got one of these Winchesters from a mod.19, 2 ½ inch, S&W...in the hip bones from the side. It made a mess of the bones and joint/hip/leg connection. He went down immediately at the shot...and now has enough steel pins in there to set off the airport security alarms. Of course if my memory and math are correct, he won’t be able to get near an airport for at least another 14 years before he’s out of his present housing contract.

So my feelings about the 158/160 grain bullets are just that my feelings...so to give some chronological velocities with the 158 grainers, I used a Keith hard cast 158 grain bullet....I again quote 2400 powder. But remember the progression with 4227, 296, H110 or any other slow burning powder per grain will be on a similar gradient....these are surprisingly from my tight gap S&W 4 inch. A simple 10 grains of 2400 gave 1145 fps...while it took 12 ½ to get to over 1200 fps (1205). 13 grains went 1333 fps and a big jump at 14 went to 1442 fps. Surprisingly 15 grains only went to 1464...but 16 broke 1500 fps. And that’s near 800 ft.lbs. of muzzle energy and close to what the original 357s were getting from 8 plus inch barrels...I wouldn’t recommend anyone going over 14.5 grains of 2400 in any handgun other then the heavy frames like the N-Frame S&W and the SA Ruger. Because the S&W Mountain gun is a seven shooter it has the cylinder bolt cuts between the chambers not over the top of them like the six shooters. Mine seems to take these 16 grain loads without problems. But then I rarely go to that pressure with this frame size.

Using B52A shotgun powder 9 grains under this bullet gives 1185 fps...10 jumped to 1280 fps...11 grains dropped to 1266 fps (not an uncommon happening sometimes...but not usually this big a difference) 12 grains gave 1361 fps and it was tops in my gun. As a control load I used Federal’s 158 gr. jacketed F/Softnose it went 1360 fps. I give velocities for the heavy bullets in my last article Heavy Slugs in the 357.

30 Carbine/32-20 (in strong guns)...

The 32-20 and the 30 carbine loading data for strong guns is very close to each other. Since this article is looking at velocity trends I lump the two together. But you can look for my articles on these two individually on sixgunner.com. This is another misunderstood and maligned caliber. Over 80 years ago, Keith killed deer and one elk with the 32-20...he did say that there were much better calibers for the job...but the little 30s still did the job. Today the components we have for reloading these two make them into much more formidable killers then they were then.

The brass in the 30 carbine is very strong and lasts forever practically...in the 32-20 Starline is producing some excellent and strong brass, and the R-P nickel brass is also fairly strong....all the rest is just like the original stuff...weak.

First the control loads...Federal sofnose 30 Carbine from my Ruger 7.5 inch barrel...gives 1441 fps, and Rem P 110 softnose gave 1450 fps...the WW 110 Hollow Point went 1413 fps...all extremely accurate. 1982 Military ammo ball-c went 1410 fps and the 1968 military ammo went 1480 fps. In the very late 1950s in Southeast Asia...we used to cut the bullet’s full jacket nose off the military 30 Carbine ammo...so we had a small flat nose. It still wouldn’t expand from the M-2 Carbine I had...but it was a heck of a lot more effective than the full patch.

Using the Speer 110 grain hollow point 308 bullet...once known as the Varminter 9.5 grains of 2400 gives 1206 fps..with 10 grains hitting 1240 fps...no where near the 1500 Keith thought this load generated...even with a cast bullet of the same weight it only reached 1280 fps. 11 grains goes to 1320 fps and 12 grains hits 1448 fps and equals our control commercial loads. 13 grains breaks the 1500 fps level and 13.5 is tops with 1602 fps. Now this will be raising eye brows....but in the 32-20 chambered Colt clone by EMF I have had since the early 1980s I have been using 14.5 grains of 2400 and the Speer 100 grain half jacketed soft round nose bullet known as the Plinker...for just under 1700 fps! Case life used to be terrible but Midway brought out the R-P nickel brass and that made it much better and then Starline brought out their tough 32-20 brass and that made this load perfect for handgun varmint shooting....I’m still using it in the clone with no ill effects to my gun. As I said every gun is different...a 14.5 gr. load of 2400 should be over pressure limits...but not in this gun.

The only heavy 150 grain cast bullet I have been able to stabilize in these Ruger Carbines and the Colt clone 32-20 has been from the Lyman flatfaced 311440 mold. This is the quintessential cast heavy weight for the 30/32s in handguns. At 1300 fps plus it shot into a 1.75 inch group at 25 yards.... with 13.3 grains of 296 I was able to get it just over 1430 fps. My....my...that sounds a lot like the 357...only the drop figures are much better.

Just as an aside...in the 32-20 leverguns...I use the 123 grain jacketed soft nose bullets made for the 7.62/39mm. They fly very well and still give some decent expansion...of course the rifles puts them well over 2000 fps. I snip the nose off so they have a small flat for the loading tubes of the leverguns...nice deer load.

45-70 in short barrels shows us something...T/C and the new Magnum Research Revolver....

In the short barrels we have to use somewhat faster powders then what we would use in rifles. Reloader 7 for example would not do well in a 7 and ½ inch revolver barrel.....

31/2400 under a 300 grain jacketed hollow point...gives only 1380 fps....33 grains boosted it to 1500....36 gr. went to 1570 fps and 38 which was a top load went to 1675 fps....my short barreled 454 FA single action does much better then this...in a much smaller handgun, using a third less powder....again an example of cartridge size and it’s influence over velocity...so velocity has a lot of variables and as reloaders we must find the correct balance for us.....for what we want our gun and load to do...for what our handgun or rifle can take.....testing is what it’s all about.