mikejonestkd
New member
I just finished some testing of .45ACP target loads and had some questions and observations about my testing. I was attempting to determine if the OAL had any major effect on the accuracy of one of my colts. I have experience with many rifle rounds in which the seating depth/ OAL greatly affects the accuracy of the rifle, and I wanted to see if it would have a similar effect on a handgun.
Handgun- Colt Gold Cup Trophy, series 80, with a trigger job, and a 9 lb wolff spring. It is capable of consistently shooting 1.5" groups at 25 yards off the bench with my favorite handload. ( I know it can do better in the hands of a more talented shooter but that's another story )
Load - 3.4 grains bullseye under a 200 mastercast.net SWC. It functions 100% in the gun and is very consistently accurate, so I used it as a good test load with which to work.
Variable - Loaded up 25 each of the same load in 6 different lengths. 1.220", 1.230", 1.240", 1.250" and 1.260", and 1.270". In the past I had always just loaded them at 1.225" and didn't worry about it.
Results - 150 rounds down range today and I could not determine if the OAL had any impact of the accuracy of this particular colt. 5 shot groups averaged between 1.5" and 2" all morning long, with no clear trends to favor any of the above OAL of the handloads. I did notice that the longer rounds had a slight change in POI, which I expected due to the reduced pressure and associated velocity of the loads, but the change was very minor.
So, in conclusion, this colt seemed to like them all equally.
Questions: Is this atypical, or it is normal for a goldcup to shoot all loads so well? Does anyone have experience that is similar to this, or testing that showed a clear preference for a particular OAL in a handgun - especially a 1911? I'd love to hear anyone's experiences that either support my findings or contradict them.
Thanks in advance
Handgun- Colt Gold Cup Trophy, series 80, with a trigger job, and a 9 lb wolff spring. It is capable of consistently shooting 1.5" groups at 25 yards off the bench with my favorite handload. ( I know it can do better in the hands of a more talented shooter but that's another story )
Load - 3.4 grains bullseye under a 200 mastercast.net SWC. It functions 100% in the gun and is very consistently accurate, so I used it as a good test load with which to work.
Variable - Loaded up 25 each of the same load in 6 different lengths. 1.220", 1.230", 1.240", 1.250" and 1.260", and 1.270". In the past I had always just loaded them at 1.225" and didn't worry about it.
Results - 150 rounds down range today and I could not determine if the OAL had any impact of the accuracy of this particular colt. 5 shot groups averaged between 1.5" and 2" all morning long, with no clear trends to favor any of the above OAL of the handloads. I did notice that the longer rounds had a slight change in POI, which I expected due to the reduced pressure and associated velocity of the loads, but the change was very minor.
So, in conclusion, this colt seemed to like them all equally.
Questions: Is this atypical, or it is normal for a goldcup to shoot all loads so well? Does anyone have experience that is similar to this, or testing that showed a clear preference for a particular OAL in a handgun - especially a 1911? I'd love to hear anyone's experiences that either support my findings or contradict them.
Thanks in advance