Working on Steel Valley .45 ACP

[Brick]

DucatiRon was good enough to send me a sample of his 200 gr. RNFP. I requested them sized UP to a 0.454" diameter to fit the oversized chamber mouths(?) of my old S&W Mod. 25-2.

So today was a busy day! Testing 40 rnds of 6.5 Swede and 80 rnds of .45 ACP. So all the conditions shown for the Swede's tests apply here. Some basics on the bullets; measured diameters varied slightly, leaning more to 0.4535" which should do just fine. Weight of several samples average out to about 195 grs. so a velocity of 846 fps would be required to equal the old IDPA power factor of 165,000. Since I'm not shooting strict IDPA anymore close is good enough, but I still like to equal the requirement if possible.

I tested the bullets with 4 powders; A#2, Ramshot Silhouette, A#5 and Hodgdon's CFE-Pistol. NONE of the powders made the cut with the charges tested. Silhouette performed so poorly I'm not even going to bother retesting it. The other 3 require charges at or very close to maximum and I much prefer to keep charges in the middle of the weight range. I really had high hopes for A#5 since that has been my "go to" powder for years and I've been shooting Penn's 200 gr (actual 212 gr) cast lead RNFP with 8.0 grains of A#5 as a standard load though I've recently reduced it to 7.9 grs.

Anyhow I'll be retesting the A#2 with 5.7 grs., A#5 with 8.6 grs and CFE-P with 8.0 & 8.2 grs. once I get a resupply.

BTW Bang, I set the screens at 5 yards.