Dot Tracking an Open gun with a High-speed camera

I’ve wanted to do this for a long time, as many people have been talking about dot tracking in open guns and how to tune a flat shooting gun. I thought I’d try to take high-speed video of the dot in my open gun while shooting various loads of .38 Super Comp that i’ve pre-loaded. To see how the dot jumps and settles back into view. The dream pattern, is for the dot to jump straight up without leaving the lens, and settling back down in the middle. As you can see from the video, that’s definitely not what I see. My dot goes up to 12 o’clock, drives all the way down to 6 o’clock, then back to 12 and settling in the middle.

I tested the following loads :

1. 115gr Montana Gold CMJ, 11.0gr N105
2. 115gr Montana Gold CMJ, 11.2gr N105
3. 115gr Montana Gold CMJ, 11.3gr N105
4. 115gr Montana Gold CMJ, 11.5gr N105
5. 124gr Montana Gold CMJ, 10.0gr N105

 

I don’t see any noticeable difference in the dot movement between all the loads except feeling a "softer" recoil in the 124gr CMJ loads.

Caveat: I had to shoot in a slightly weird stance because I had to position the scope in front of my Casio Exlim FH100 camera to align it properly. That definitely affected my recoil management capabilities.

I’ve also tried shooting at a man-sized target at 200yards and was amazed at how accurate this gun was. That’s in the bonus section at the end of the video.

I hate picking up brass!!!

Can’t wait to get my barrel “re-barreled” for 9mm Major. This 38 Super Comp thing is pissing me off. I spend 80% of my time on the range looking down on the ground looking for my brass. UGH. I hate it.

This is what I see most of the time. DIRT.

I’m so done with picking up brass. Either I man up and stop picking up 38 super comp brass and shoot new brass, or I switch to 9mm Major. what do you think?

More 38 Super Comp rounds loaded. 115gr

I have about 400 rounds of 115gr Montana Gold CMJs left so I thought I’d try the difference between a 124gr and 115gr. In order to make major factor using a 115gr bullet, I’d have to load in at least 11gr of Vihtavuori N105 powder. Since my open gun has a compensator, sometimes it is better to load it hotter at a higher Power Factor. The reason for doing so is to give the compensator a lot more gas to work on managing recoil.

Here’s how 11.5gr of N105 looks like :

srsly! That’s so close to the top I had to carefully index the shellplate or risk vibrating or jolting the powder out of the case. In the past, I’ve been loading .45ACP and to make major power factor, all I had to use was 3.7grs of Hodgdon Clays. That’s barely visible inside the huge 45ACP case. Very different from reloading 38 Super Comp.

The good thing about this is, I will never ever have a undercharge or overcharged case. That doesn’t mean that I can still be lazy, but it’s good to know that it’ll be safer.

Here’s 90 rounds of 38 Super Comp I loaded today for Chrono.

1. 11.2gr ( which is very popular with shooters on the BENOS forum)
2. 11.3gr one of those (I FEEL this is going to be good) loads
3. 11.5gr – Just to see how the gun reacts

 

Now all I need is time to head to the range.

Chrono Data Updated

Shot a few more reloads through my Open and Revolver and got the following results.

1. 11.0gr N105 + MG 115gr CMJ = 174.7pf ( 7.97 SD)
2. 10.0gr N105 + MG 124gr CMJ = 175.0pf (13.67 SD)
3.   3.7gr Clays + BC 230gr Moly = 169pf (14.42 SD)

 

Great!! I got my loads right for Open and confirmed my Revolver power factor for my big Area-1 Match coming next month.

38 Super Comp Chrono Results

To summarize, I’m perplexed.

	SV Open Gun (115 CMJ)
	10.2gr	10.4gr	10.5gr	10.6gr
1	1430.0	1440.0	1410.0	1451.0
2	1466.0	1469.0	1443.0	1439.0
3	1430.0	1452.0	1457.0	1442.0
4	1415.0	1455.0	1436.0
5	1414.0	1423.0	1450.0	1415.0
6	1417.0	1452.0	1463.0	1458.0
Ave	1428.7	1448.5	1443.2	1441.0
PF	164.3	166.6	166.0	165.7
SD	19.67	15.55	18.88	16.36
	SV Open Gun (124 CMJ)
	9.8gr	9.9gr	10.0gr	10.1gr	10.2gr
1	1379.0	1391.0	1384.0	1358.0	1413.0
2	1397.0	1418.0	1388.0	1413.0	1402.0
3	1400.0	1404.0	1401.0	1408.0	1418.0
4	1346.0	1402.0	1381.0	1383.0	1388.0
5	1413.0	1390.0	1407.0	1396.0	1394.0
6	1411.0	1394.0	1424.0	1396.0	1418.0
Ave	1391.0	1399.8	1397.5	1392.3	1405.5
PF	172.5	173.6	173.3	172.6	174.3
SD	25.18	10.59	16.43	19.83	12.80
	- Failure to Eject
	- Old Brass

The FPS hardly changed when adding more powder. According to my gunsmith, John Larson of JPL Precision, the powder I’m using, Vihtavouri N105, could be hitting a plateau and adding more powder won’t make a difference. What I also don’t understand is, using a 115gr bullet with the same charge didn’t give me the increase in FPS that is supposed to happen.

Here’s what I’m using :

• Montana Gold Bullets 115gr and 124gr
• VV N105 Powder
• Winchester Small Rifle Primer
• Starline 38 Super Comp Brass (and some range pickups)
• 1.240” COAL

 

I also had four “stove-pipes” (marked red in the table above) that looked like this :

and in mid recoil  :

think I’m not holding the gun down enough.

and the primers after being fired :

the 2nd one from the right looks like it’s over pressured. Right?

New 38 Super Comp loads ready for chrono

Just spent two hours switching my Dillon 550B over to 38 Super Comp and loaded 90 rounds.

Various Vihtavouri N105 powder charge from 9.8 to 10.6 and two bullet weights, 115gr and 124gr.

Now to look for some time to go to the range with my Chrony to see which load works best.

Here’s why you need to case-gauge.

Case gauges are made for one very important purpose when you’re reloading ammo. It ensures that whatever you load will feed in your chamber. Case gauging will not only stop you from experiencing failure-to-feed malfunctions, it also catches torn or split cases.

When a case is split, it enlarges the case somewhat, making it out of “spec”. Here’s a picture of one I caught today :

It didn’t fit into the case gauge easily, it will if I pressed down on it but that’s not what to do. In this case, when I looked at the bullet, guess what I found :

Some of you might say that it’s still fine to shoot as the gun’s chamber will enclose the entire shell and keep it from tearing apart. Me? No way in hell I’m putting that in my gun.

Pulled the bullet, saved the bullet and powder, deprimed, tossed the case and primer.

Phew! A potential disaster avoided thanks to the Dillon Case Gauge!

38 Super Comp Shellplate & Case Gauge

Getting closer to finally being able to reload 38 Super Comp. Two things arrived today from Dillon Precision.

.380ACP Conversion Kit for the #3 Shellplate which is designed for the 38 Super Comp smaller rim.

and the 38 Super Case Gauge to make sure the reloads are properly made so I can ensure that each round will chamber. Sometimes bulging cases or cracked ones will creep into my reloading batch and with the case gauge, I can identify them.

Gonna head over to Kesselrings to pickup some Montana Gold 115gr and 124gr CMJs.

The Bomb! Vihtavuori N105s for my 38 Super Comp loads

Just got 4lbs of this powder from PowderValley Inc.

Now all that’s missing is the Montana Gold 115gr JHP bullets and I’m ready to load some rounds. My recipe is :

• 10.5 gr N105
• MG 115gr JHP
• Starline Brass
• Federal SPP

 

That should give me a ton of gas to work the compensator.

As good as gold!

Just got my first box of Starline 38 Super Comp brass ready to be loaded. New brass is just so fancy to look at. Now I don’t really feel like loading and shooting them.