Fritz

Hello,

here the results and the conditions of my visit to the range today:
- Gun custom Ruger GP160
RugerR2L.jpg
6" polygonal barrel with Williams Fire Sight, Trigger Job "according to Iowegan"
- temperature 24°F (-4°C)
- distance of target 25m (27.3 yard)
- measured with a Beta Master-Chrony
- Shot DA only
- Bullet Remington SJHP 180gr 357magnum

Numeric results (m/sec):
Load (gr) Lo Hi Av Es Sd
13,5 378 397 386 19 6
14 379 394 385 15 5
14,5 374 399 386 26 8
15 387 404 396 17 6
Groups in ascending order of load 13.5gr / 14gr / 14.5gr / 15gr:
(Hodgdon load data says minimum 13gr and maximum 15gr)
20100109LilGun135.jpg
20100109LilGun140.jpg
20100109LilGun145.jpg
20100109LilGun150.jpg

The recoil grows substantialy along this string of loads. But also the hottest load is easy to handle in a Ruger GP160.

With the Williams Firesight, primarily inteded for fast target aquisition, and shot double action these groups are well below what the gun would be able to give, but it gives a general idea of the loads quality.

The load should be for my backup gun when hunting wild boar. Primary arm is a rifle.

My first thought is to go for the "weakest load" load or the "hottest load". Both group well and have not the maximum Es and Sd.

But then I tend to go for the weakest one, just to spare my gun from premature wear. Penetration through the skull of a wild boar should be possible for both loads, as it is a SJHP the slower one is not neccesarily worse. If you hit the central nervous system, both loads will kill equaly well. And if you only hit say the heart or other vitals of an attacking animal, you will have a problem with anything below a .50BMG.

Trying to improve the loads is not worthwhile for my purposes. Even if it looks promising, given the significant differences in function of the load choosen.

What do you think of these loads? Any comments welcome.

Fritz

razadp

So, 400 metres/second * 3.28 = 1312 feet per second.

I'd think anything it that region is fine, just go for whatever you shoot most accurately.

Fritz

Just for the sake of comparison the data of a
S&W 686-3, 6 shot at 25 m / Ransom Rest; v2 by Mehl BMC 17.

180 Remington SJHP FP .357“
Load(gr)
OAL (mm)
v2 (m/s)
es (m/s)
energy (Joule)
precision (mm)

11,5 Hodgdon Lil’Gun
PMC / Fed. 200 / RC
41,5
313
20,9
571
33

11,9 Hodgdon Lil’Gun
PMC / Fed. 200 / RC
41,5
322
18,2
605
22

14,7 Hodgdon Lil’Gun
PMC / Fed. 200 / RC
41,5
364
19,5
773
24

16,0 Hodgdon Lil’Gun
PMC / Fed. 200 / RC
41,5
387
23,4
873
27

16 Hodgdon Lil’Gun
PMC / Rem. 1 ½ / RC
41,5
390
15,5
887
23

Test was conducted by the german gunner magazin "caliber" (see here in German http://www.vsms.org/Forum/caliberFAQWiederladen.pdf)

They went 1gr above the hodgon max load. This is OK, as they rest below the CIP pressures, Hodgdon follows the somewhat weak SAAMI-recommendations.

Yet it yielded about 10m/s less than what my Ruger does. Precision I (me) got was about 55mm DA without a rest.

My conclusion: My Ruger is ways better than their reference gun!

They repeat the common wisdom that LilGun's performance is only worthwhile next to max load.

So, contrary to the conclusion of my first post, I am more and more inclined to go for the 15gr.

Fritz