I recently started reloading again after several years of shooting only factory ammo. I was looking for a cheap, accurate load to shoot in my EDC, a Gen3 G17 with a Wilson Combat barrel.
I had several pounds of an older version of Unique on hand, so I stuck with that as a propellant. In various tests, 124- and 147-grain Montana Gold bullets shot well enough. The 130-grain WW bullets meant for the 38 Super, which are impossible to find right now, shot a little better. But the 124-grain Hornady XTP over 5.5 grains of Unique turned in enough 3” five-shot groups at 50 yards to win the palm for accuracy. Unfortunately, they're expensive and can be hard to find around here, so they were only a partial answer.
Then I tried cast bullets, and my troubles began in earnest.
I started with a commercial cast 0.356" round-nose that was sold for use in 9mm pistols. It keyholed at 25 yards and would not stay on a 20x21” target at 50. I thought the charge may have been too hot, so I cut it to 5.0 grains. I also experimented with seating depth. No luck—the bullets still keyholed.
Conventional wisdom says that cast bullets should be 0.001-0.002” over groove diameter, so I slugged my barrels. Turns out the WC barrel had a groove diameter 0.356”, or about the same size as the bullet. Wrong answer. Then I slugged the OEM barrel, which had a groove diameter 0.355”. That gave me 0.001" over groove diameter, so I tried the RN bullet in the OEM barrel. It still keyholed. I didn’t want to order (and have to wait for) custom-sized bullets that might not work, but I had seen some 125-grain truncated-cone cowboy bullets from the same manufacturer that were 0.358” diameter, so I bought 500 of them.
The charge was in the middle of the range, so I left it alone. I loaded the first batch to the same OAL as I had with the 124-grain XTP. This bullet shot nearly as well as the XTP, not just in the Wilson barrel, but also in the OEM barrel. In fact, the cast load in the OEM barrel shoots almost as well as the XTP in the WC barrel.
Great joy ensued when I chronographed the loads.
Ten rounds of 5.5 grains of Unique under the 124 XTP averaged 1,196 fps in the WC barrel, with an extreme spread of 65 fps.
Ten rounds of 5.0 grains of Unique under the 125 cast bullet averaged 1,187 in the OEM barrel with an extreme spread of 55 fps.
Ten rounds of 5.0 grains of Unique under the 125 cast bullet averaged 1,166 in the WC barrel with an extreme spread of 60 fps.
So basically I have two accurate loads that are the moral equivalent of NATO Ball. The cast load leaves a bit of lead fouling, but most of it comes out with a few passes from a Glock OEM nylon bore brush and the rest comes out with a few passes of a copper bore brush.
Initial 100-yard group and drop tests look good, but I won't have time to get into them in any depth until after deer season.
Your mileage may vary. Let me know if you have questions.
Okie John
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by okie john
