Shotgun logic

From a parallel experience....A shotgunner told me the difference between " oh shit " and "oh wow "was 2 grains of powder.

In a similar vein here, uber light loads may perform well in a machine rest but are difficult to shoot well in real world competition .

Also a light(er) bullet with a slower powder like 231 can be problematic in light charges as l recently re-discovered.

What puzzled me was shooters who could do well with them. Perhaps high level shooters can tolerate them whereas the majority, can not.

A topflight shooting athlete told me for the 45, the first digit in your load weight must be a 4. While I had good results with less, I think the consistency wasn't there.

Thoughts?

Opening a can of worms are we?

There probably is a target velocity where both cartridge/pistol accuracy and “total” accuracy (cartridge/pistol/shooter) accuracy merge. The former has likely a fairly wide set of combinations. The latter will depend a lot on skills and techniques. The 6 inch 45s and the S&W52 reputation for being a “master’s” gun(s) are examples.

There are shooters who have mastered the techniques to shoot these guns very well. The only way to tell is to try it. When I shoot my 52 I shoot my normal score, ish, sorta. It sure let’s me know when I have a trigger, grip, or follow through issue though. So I shoot it often. Just to test. Round groups well centered? Yup shooting well today.

I could leave my hopper set up to drop 4.2gr BE and load great loads for 45, 9mm, 38Super and 38 Special. I would have to change to make the 52's best load and the 9 likes Power Pistol best but I can see your point.

I don’t know if this answers any questions, but the top photo is 3.7 gr of N310 and the bottom photo is 4.0 gr of N310.  Both targets were sandbagged at 25 yards.  The bullet was 160 gr SWC.

Well if you get a tight custom pistol and a heavy dot like a 9000SC you have no option but run a bunch of powder. Two birds one stone. You need the velocity to cycle reliably and you get a bit more accuracy due to the velocity. I refuse to go lower than a 10 pound spring. I'm running 4.6 WST with 160 grain bullets which is about 800 FPS and 4.1-4.4 for 185's depending on which bullet it is. Also a heavier slide mount dot keep the recoil low, at least less snappy.

Been getting oh wows and decided to use up some softball leftovers, My oh sh12 was well deserved.

Back to oh wows now

Joy2, yup!

Thomas, you need to update your NRA Classification, on the site. Don't be shy.

Vociferous wrote:Thomas, you need to update your NRA Classification, on the site.  Don't be shy.

Thought I would wait until it is official, which is later this month.