NEW! - Jeffersonian

HANDGUN RELOADING
Continuedfrom page 28
"Consistency," says Frank, "is really the name of
the game. I rely on Hornady Bullets because round
after round, lot after lot, they are consistent. Hornady
accuracy is always there, whether I'm shooting my
Wichita with the 30 cal. 168 boat tail, the Contender
with the 7mm 154 and 175 spire point, or the 44 mag
240 jacketed hollow point." Howell is the current
Florida State Champion and thus far in 1982, he's won
the Florida Sun Shoot and posted the first Florida
Production 40 . He's a member of the President's 100
and 140 Club.
P.B. He also uses a pair of Pacific 00-7's
to load much of his ammo.
.,-
, Join the
Illor:n.adyTeam
Hornady Mfg. Co., Dept. AH-1, Box 1848, Grand Island, NE 68802
I
"It used to tickle me to see the constant
questioning of the Gold Cup's durability.
My Colt has had just shy ofone ton oflead
run through its barrel and I'll be damned if
I can see a whole lot ofdifference in it from
when I bought it. And my figures do not include
hundreds ofrounds ofmilitary hardball
fired through it. A Colt .45 ACP is
plenty tough. You won't wear one out, ifit's
taken care of properly."
I'll back Murbach's testimonial in behalf
of Gold Cup durability. Mine has
been in constant use for more than 20
years and, except for periodic cleaning and
oiling, I've devoted little time doing anything
with it but shoot.
Jack Imsdahl of College Station, Texas
has some comments on reloading. This
time, the potential of DuPont's relatively
new SOOX is the object of some preliminary
testing.
He writes: ''The stuff seems to be a
whisker faster than Unique and much superior
to PB for low- to mid-range loads.
Loading 3.6 grains behind a 250-grain
round-nose in .45 Colt brass yields a pleasant
cl..:an-burning, though slightly smoky,
load that shoots really well. Three grains
behind a 160-grain fiat-nosed slug is a fiile
load for .3S Specials. Interestingly, no excess
smoke was noted in the smaller cases."
Also tested was a load of 3.2 grains of
SOOX in the 9mm Parabellum, using a 115­
grain full-patch bullet. lmsdahl comments,
"This one would not, for reasons unknown,
function well in a Smith & Wesson
Model 39, but it shot fairly well when it
fed. Approximately one round in 20 misfed.
I think the load might have been too
light."
Too light is right in this instance. Du­
Pont's new SOOX is said to be of the same
basic chemical content as their long-used
700X. The flake size of SOOX is, however,
somewhat larger than that of700X. For
this reason, SOOX takes more time to burn
and release its energy. Imsdahl might have
increased his starting load of SOOX with
the U5-grainer about SIlOths ofa grain (to
four grains) for more consistent functioning
of the Model 39.
Looking at data that reveals 940 fps for a
200-grain jacketed bullet in the .45 ACP
with a charge of S.3 grains of SOOX, it is
obvious that SOOX burns more slowly than
700X. For example, I've found that it takes
but 4.7 grains of 700X to net just over 900
fps for a 200-grain jacketed bullet. Accuracy
is good with 700X loads, but SOOX
promises to gain a lot of popularity, because
of its versatility in a broad range of
handgun cartridge reloading. We'll be
looking forward to sharing more information
on SOOX.
30 AMERICAN HANDGUNNER . JANUARYIFEBRUARY 1983