Smileys Revisited

[pocketgun]

Excellent info as usual og! It amazes me how much variation there can be between lots - one more reason to load your own.

[PTLNSC]

Thanks OG, excellent pictures and discription. I hope others can see why we choose you to help us decide what ammo to carry.

[steve]

thanks again for doing all the research.

[oldgranpa]

I am not really surprised that factory ammo varies so much in velocity readings. The History Channel had a TV special called "Bullets" showing how modern ammo came to be and how it is manufactured. The Marine Corps sniper and competition group was featured showing them loading ammo. Every bullet was weighed and had to be within .1 oz, powder was weighed to the last little grain, cartridge cases had to be exact length, OAL had to be exact, etc.
When you look at factory ammo as received, OAL varies from round to round. And after you fire it, the spent cases length varies from case to case. The only thing that is accurate is the case diameter. Factory ammo is made on high speed machines that were amazing to watch in the TV special. No way factory ammo is going to get uniform velocity readings with the Chrony. No wonder accuracy suffers too.
Get you a Chrony and check your ammo. You will be surprised unless you load your own.

Here are some cartridge case measurements that show some of the variation...


Some .380acp cartridge data ........OAL,avg,SD...........................Fired Case length,typical

Rem UMC 95gr round nose.............0.962",.0039".................... ................0.669"

Speer Lawman 95g round...................0.965".................... .................0.667"

Win ValPak flat nose..........................0.950",.0014"....... ..............................0.667"

Win ST 85gr.............................................0 .945"......................................0.667"

Rem GS 102gr......................................0.949", .0012".....................................0.667"

Fed HydraShock PD 90gr.................0.940",.0005"................ .....................0.673"

Speer GD 90gr.........................................0.945 "......................................0.669"

Hornady 90gr XTP..................................0.958........ ................................0.667"

Fed Classic Hi-Shok 90gr.....................0.928"................... ...................0.670"

CorBon 90gr+p.........................................0.9 48".....................................0.668"

Win SXT 95gr............................................0. 945"......................................0.674"

MagTech FD 77gr copper.......................0.973"............... ......................0.672"

Fed AmerEagle 95gr FMJ....................0.966",.0008".............. ......................0.672"

CorBon DPX 80gr copper.......................0.945"............... ......................0.671"

Win Ranger T 95gr ................................0.946", .0015"...........................0.668"


I don't have enough money and time to shop for different lots of all ammo. It sure would be fun to do that and check measurements and the do velocity tests. The factorys that make ammo are ripping us off with poor quality control.

og