Hammer

Anything I make starts life as a .458 straight out of the die. The easiest thing (least work for me) is offering them at .458 but most guys here voted .452 because they smooth form their bullets. That means that I have to step them down through two dies to get them there. Right now based on poles I figure about 30% of bullets will be .458 and 70% will require drawing down to .452. I have shot them both ways now. I have shot .458 full-form, .452 smooth form (obviously sized through another die; my Swinglock smooth), and .452 full form (sized in a .451 full form die). One of the draw dies leaves them at .454 so I guess if a person wanted them that size I could offer them that way too. I would just need a heads up so I could set them aside after the first draw because I don't intend to keep any on the shelf at .454" and I have not tried full forming any at .454 for my .458 barrel.

Today was overcast so I hit the range again to re-chrono those loads since I got garbage readings the other day:

FF bullets were shooting 2687fps with an SD of 16fps
SF bullets were shooting 2655fps with an SD of 9fps

The SF bullets shoot slower but have lower deviations (the ES for the SF bullet was the same as the SD for the FF bullet) but I would assume that has largely to do with my sizing and seating consistency. The SF also shoot a little bigger groups (.625 MoA compared to .3-4 MoA for FF) but who really cares.

Did anyone get me a LabRadar for X-mas?