Accuracy Testing Handgun Reloads

[jm1827 284]

Just curious if anyone does any extensive accuracy testing with handgun reloads and if so, what is your process?  

I typically don't, but I started wondering if this is another rabbit hole worth going down.

 

[Mr.Stu 1,922]

I am only really concerned with a relatively consistent muzzle velocity that makes power factor for the competition division I'm loading for, and that the bullets don't keyhole. So long as they are good for 4" or so offhand at 25 yards, I'm fine with them.

[124gr9mm 859]

1 hour ago, Mr.Stu said:

I am only really concerned with a relatively consistent muzzle velocity that makes power factor for the competition division I'm loading for, and that the bullets don't keyhole. So long as they are good for 4" or so offhand at 25 yards, I'm fine with them.

Agree.

Definitely not a rabbit hole that would yield a great return on investment...

[10X 3,298]

1 hour ago, jm1827 said:

Just curious if anyone does any extensive accuracy testing with handgun reloads and if so, what is your process?  

I typically don't, but I started wondering if this is another rabbit hole worth going down.

 

I do a lot of precision pistol shooting, so I do a bit of accuracy testing.  Generally from the bench, indoors, at 25 yards.  I use one of these:  handgun rest  which is a far cry from the gold standard Ransom Rest, but much cheaper and easier to work with.

I occasionally dabble in events that require a minimum power factor, and then I'll break out the chronograph, but for me that's a rarity.  For most of my gun games, group size is all I worry about.  This assumes, of course, that the ammo feeds with absolute reliability.

All of my handgun practice ammo is mixed brass, but for competition it's all single-headstamp, either Starline or Federal.   That eliminates some variability.  Better still would be using brass all from a single production lot, but I don't go that far.

When I'm testing, it's usually one or two bullet types, usually a single powder, or rarely two, and I'll vary the load in .3 gr increments from really light up to maybe the middle of the load data range.  That's plenty of variables.  I don't test primers as part of load development, I use CCI for most everything, Federal if I have a gun that requires a softer primer.   I'll often label the ammo lots at home with a number, which allows for kinda-blind testing since I rarely remember what load corresponds to what number once I'm at the range.  You don't want bias to convince you your 'pet' load is the best, when in fact there is another one in the mix that works better.

I shoot 5, 5-shot groups of each lot, and measure and record the 5 shot, and best 4, groups c.t.c.   Fliers called when the shot is fired can be excluded, but once the target comes back it is NOT acceptable to ignore a wild shot just because it makes the numbers worse.

Looking at averages for the 5 5-shot groups usually gets me to a load the gun is happy with.  It's a little tedious, but once done it pays dividends for a very long time.