New to Service Pistol - 230gr Blue Bullets

Hello! I am new to the Bullseye world and starting with Service Pistol. I have been shooting action pistol for years and have thousands upon thousands of Blue Bullets 230g RN that I have used in my 45 loads. I notice people, typically, no longer use 230g in the sport. I noticed the accuracy demand between the two sports is wildly different and I'm getting erratic groupings on the bullseye that I wasn't noticing shooting for the Alpha/Down Zero zones (makes me wonder about the past though). Bagged, I am getting a 2-4 inch shift in groups at the 25yd line. I don't have a ransom rest but my S&W Victory .22 holds the x ring easily with federal automatch so I'm confident in my trigger squeeze capability. 

I'm running a Les Baer Custom Concept III with VV N320, 1.230 COAL, and, mostly, federal/cci primers, @ approx 750FPS.

Does anyone have any experience with this combo to yield the best results for bullseye until I deplete this stock and get to my home cast 200g RNHP supply? It's a vague question but I will take whatever advice I can get since I am just starting out.

Well, the very FIRST thing I would do is to shoot it WITH known ammo.    Atlanta Arms, ASYM, LoaderMonkey, Federal Gold Medal Match 185 grain.  All of these ammos will hold the Xring at 25 from a rested hand held position.  If the gun won’t hold 6-7 shots in the x ring and ALL in the 10 ring, then the gun is part of the problem. You may add an optic for this.    If the gun is not capable of holding the x ring at 25, it won’t hold the 10 ring at 50.  The gun needs a re-do.  It might get you to Master if it can hold the 10 solidly but you’ll need more accuracy to get much further.  

As for using up your 230 grain bullets, you’ll need to start T&R drills and practice.  This consumes a bunch of ammo.  Loaded down to 700-750, the recoil should be tolerable.

If when you say Service Pistol you mean the CMP EIC Service Pistol, I do believe your blue bullets (not being jacketed) are not compliant with the rules of competition per section 6.6.2.

Wobbley: thank you for the response! I could have added that I have proofed the gun with factory ammo. My apologies there. The practice advice was going to be a question I asked in the training forum; however, I seem to have gathered that countless T&R reps at the 25 is the way to go with the occasional 50yd validation.

Andrew: that is definitely good to know. I just looked that up in the rule book. I’m glad you mentioned it as I am shooting a match next month and thought I had read the relevant rules sections. I do have enough factory ammo on hand and 500rds of hornady 185 XTPs from the get loaded promotion a while back.

Thanks again guys, any other advice is always welcome!

IMHO it is a waste of good primers to load up your 230 blue bullets. Sell or trade them for some bullets proven to be suitable for Bullseye. Brazos offers very reasonably priced coated 200, 180 and 160 LSWC that work fine with N310.

But as Andrew rightly points out, you need to use JHP's for EIC Service Pistol. Zero JHP185 is the best choice available at present AFAIK.

RoyDean: I’ll likely try and see if anyone local wants to trade around for them; however, keeping them isn’t the worst thing ever as I still shoot action pistol enough to make them worthwhile.

Is there any reason I see N310 as the predominant powder over N320? I have about 10-12lbs of N320 and 10-12lbs of Clays due to their popularity on the action pistol side of the house.

I'll leave it to Wobbley to answer your powder question in detail. But I'm sure there are good recipes for N320 and Clay's out there.

RoyDean: sure thing. Thanks for the info above. I already started scouring around for the clays(primarily) and N320 recipes. I need to use those powders up. I do despise the clays metering abilities though.

jam0066 wrote:RoyDean: I’ll likely try and see if anyone local wants to trade around for them; however, keeping them isn’t the worst thing ever as I still shoot action pistol enough to make them worthwhile.

Is there any reason I see N310 as the predominant powder over N320? I have about 10-12lbs of N320 and 10-12lbs of Clays due to their popularity on the action pistol side of the house.

N310 is a proven accurate powder in 45 with a 185 or 200 grain bullet.  As are Bullseye, WST, Titegroup, AA#2 700X.  N320 and Clays have a following but I don’t have much experience with them.  They CAN work and work well.  If your gun likes them.  N310 is THE powder in the Atlantic ASYM and LoaderMonkey ammo.  It shoots!

Wobbley: thanks for the helpful info! I’ll have to keep an eye out for it to replace my stock of clays as it depletes. I appreciate the help! I was able to find some Zero 185s on targetbarn to start with.

You might find this article of interest. . . 

https://www.shootingtimes.com/editorial/loads-for-the-bullseye-shooter/99418

A note on the Hornady 185 HAP bullet. It’s seated out .040 because the parallel section is shorter. If seated the same as the zero it will get forced into the case when removing any belling.

S148: thank you for the awesome article!
James: that’s good to know. I’m probably going to start the learning curve with the 500 XTPs that I have before delving into the Zeros I ordered. I’m trying to parse out or use a lot of the “random lead” I have accumulated over the years. It’s a PITA to move every time a PCS comes up

Moving a metric tin of ammo is no fun either (ask me how I know)…

A couple of ideas.  You can continue to shoot 230 RN cast… but maybe you could trade them off for cast coated 200SWC.?  Even if you had to trade them 3 for 2?  Me, I’d just shoot them at 720 fps in training.  You’re gonna need to train a lot so I’d shoot them up training.  Don’t forget that a lot of pistol matches don’t have “EIC service pistol” matches but they do shoot CF and 45 where you could get some good match practice.  

As for being in the military and moving and all that…. I’d load 500 maybe 1000 “Service pistol ammo” which would be 185 JHP.  (500 will fit in an ammo can for M240s).  Then I’d load 2000 rounds with 200 cast SWC for 2700 and training.  All my other brass would be kept as fired brass in USPS flat rate medium boxes.  This size box holds about 2000 rounds of fired brass.  Then I’d buy powder by the pound (1500 rounds per) and primers by the 1000.  Bullets by the bag or box of 500  from either Magnus, Brazos, Zero, etc.  Don’t stock more than 500 of each.  These ideas should keep the pain of a PCS.

Wobbley, that is sound advice that I wish I had followed! I recently came across more than 1,000lbs of cast and cleaned lead for around $200. With the components shortage, I was an early bird on noticing what was happening and have several thousand 230gr RN and 124gr TC for my action pistol hobby. Primers…. I have a few lol. Luckily they are lightweight and pack nicely as opposed to lead.

I’ll probably continue to load my cast lead while looking for local folks to trade based on value for jacketed 185s.

No matter what, I think partial DITY moves are in my future… Or, selling some lead lol