Standard Deviation handloads vs commercial ammo

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Morne
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Standard Deviation handloads vs commercial ammo

Post by Morne »

Today I broke in my Ruger Blackhawk 7.5" barrel revolver chambered in .30 Carbine.

Yeah...it's loud. :lol: :mrgreen:

But, since the barrel length is roughly half of what the old WWII era M1 Carbine had I was rightly curious about the velocity I might get from this revolver. So out comes the chrono, which usually only sees my handloads running across it. I had a box of "American A-Merc 110-gr C3" ammunition to try out. I put the first 2 cylinders across the chrono, 12 rounds, and got the following:

All units FPS
Average = 1427
Extreme Spread = 111
Standard Deviation = 38.6

Now, if this were one of my handloads I would be heading back to the drawing board. That is a simply AWFUL spread of velocities. But this is commercial (factory) ammo, shouldn't it be better than this?

Now admittedly, even a little bit of internet searching will yield horror stories about this brand of ammo. Indeed, I had one round from the box that wouldn't ignite no matter how many times I dropped the hammer on it. I am intrigued and want to collect more data on factory ammo.

I guess my point is that just because something is "factory ammo" doesn't mean that it is good. And I intend to continue to hold my handloads to a high standard. I am sure some of my handloads will come in with tighter SD than comparable factory ammo.
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Sevens
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Re: Standard Deviation handloads vs commercial ammo

Post by Sevens »

Simple process of elimination tells us that “there can be only one!”

Do you realize that you seriously found -THE- worst factory ammo ever made and sold?!

Astute handloaders won’t even use their brass.

The good news is that these fools have been out of business for at least a decade.
I like to swap brass... and I'm looking for .32 H&R Mag, .327 Fed Mag, .380 Auto and 10mm. If you have some and would like to swap for something else, send me a note!
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Sevens
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Re: Standard Deviation handloads vs commercial ammo

Post by Sevens »

I should have mentioned that I also have the 7.5” barreled Blackhawk in .30 Carbine. It is not the most enjoyable handgun that I’ve ever handloaded ammo for, I’ll tell you that.

The brass will sometimes grow in length and if you aren’t on top of that, you’ll load a piece that chambers in the Blackhawk but only until it makes it’s way around the rotation— and then it locks up the cylinder and you must pull the cylinder pin to un-do the stoppage. The brass obviously requires trimming but you must be extremely careful because if you trim them a bit too short, the firing pin won’t reach ‘em.

My particular Blackhawk also seems to suffer from rough chambers… full loads of factory ammo often do NOT want to extract/eject.

It’s an accurate revolver and loud. Ballistically, it’s quite similar to the .327 Federal Magnum, but the .327 Federal is far more enjoyable to load and also has a better component bullet selection. The .327 runs 5kpsi higher pressure also.

Interesting trivia of little value:

Ruger put the .30 Carbine Blackhawk on the market before ever offering a Blackhawk in .45 Colt!
I like to swap brass... and I'm looking for .32 H&R Mag, .327 Fed Mag, .380 Auto and 10mm. If you have some and would like to swap for something else, send me a note!
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