I’ve been using the Frankford Arsenal Vibra Prime primer filler for a while now and I swear by it’s use. It’s the best time saving investment I’ve made after buying the Dillon 650XL case feeder.
here’s a quick video I put together that talks about the benefits and share some tips on how to use it effectively.
The Vibra Prime will decrease your reloading time & make it more fun to reload ammo.
You can get one on MidwayUSA for a very reasonable price ~$44.00.
Chrono results for 9mm major using Hodgdon CFE Pistol.
124gr Montana Gold CMJ
various brass
Winchester Small Rifle Primer
1.165 OAL.
Top result is using 8.1gr Hodgdon HS-6 bottom is using Rainier Plated 124RN
Guess I can back it down to 6.6 or 6.8.
ShockBottle Case Gauge by BanksBullets.com is a tremendously useful reloading/handloading tool. It takes the drudgery of case gauging or chamber checking every single round before putting them away. In this review, I show you the two major benefits of the ShockBottle Case Gauge.
Checkout : http://banksbullets.com
Recently picked up Rainier Ballistics as a sponsor and got a load of 124gr RN plated bullets to try out in my Open Gun. Brought it out to the range today to test and I was very disappointed. They didn’t perform as expected but found out the problem later when I went home.
here’s the two groups of 5 shots that I made comparing Rainier 124gr RNs to Montana Gold 124gr CMJ Jacketed bullets. These are shot with 8.2gr Hodgdon HS-6, Winchester SRP, Various once fired brass at 20 yards.
as you can see, the Montana Gold bullets group really nicely whereas the Rainier’s are all over the place, if they actually hit. I only managed to get 3 out of 5 shots on paper.
I’ve also measured the sizes of the plated bullets vs jacketed and the MG Jacketed bullets (out of ten) come in at .355 consistently while Rainer’s come in mostly at .3545.
I consulted my panel of experts and was asked to pull the bullet to see if I’ve over crimped the bullets. Jacketed bullets have a harder shell and are more resistant to crimping, while plated is a soft coating and very easy to dent.
here’s how the bullet looks like after pulling it, as you can see, severe dent from over crimping.
I readjusted my crimp die and now manage to crimp the bullet without marring the bullet.
I’m now looking forward to testing this new batch of ammo to see if I can get as good a group as the Montana Gold jacketed bullets. I’ll be a happy camper if it works!
This is an update to my first reloading video I published a few months ago using my Dillon 550B. I’ve since upgraded to the progressive Dillon 650XL to reload 9mm major for my USPSA Open Gun.
Here’s the finished 9mm Major top end that John from http://www.jplprecision.com built for me.
Just took some different 9mm Major recipes with me to test. They were :
I started with a 8.5gr load and worked up to 9.0 but we didn’t need it. If you look at the chart below, even 8.5gr of HS-6 was wayyy over the required powerfactor.
John’s load is a 7.6gr Silhouette behind a 121gr IFP round.
| 8.5gr HS6 | 8.6gr HS6 | John’s | |
| Ave. FPS | 1450 | 1467 | 1476 |
| PF | 180 | 182 | 183 |
The new KKM barrel is tight and very fast. Looks like I have to dumb down my loads to probably 8.2 or 8.3 gr of HS-6 powder.
I got a few PMs and emails requesting for information regarding reloading ammo for competition and have been wanting to make this video everytime I walk into my reloading room. Never got to do it but this time, I had a few hours to burn so brought my camera out and recorded everything I did.
In this video I show you my lenghty process of reloading 38 Super Comp ammunition for my USPSA Open Division race gun.
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?
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.
Now all I need is time to head to the range.
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 :
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?
Gunbot! 