DISCLAIMER: As the title says, this is NOT a “PC vs Traditional lube” thread. I don't want to start a war on par with Chevy vs Ford or Mac vs PC. I am just going to share some initial results I stumbled on and let the chips fall. The original intent was NOT to compare the two and declare a “winner". The original intent was to do two load workups in the way I wanted to make the bullets and see if either was viable. I know the alloys are different. I would not PC an expensive, hard alloy. I also found out previously that a soft, cheap alloy would not work with traditional lube in this gun. I used different sizing dies. If I PC a bullet, it's going through a Lee push through sizer. If I traditionally lube a bullet, it's going through the Star. So, here's two “oughta work” options. Let's see if either- or neither, are any good. I hope this is useful or at least makes us go “hmmm, that's interesting”¦..” My goal here is to contribute a bit of information in exchange for the massive amounts I have taken over the last two years.
A bit of back story. Having cracked the code of the Lee 356-120TC in an HK P-30 via the long distance assistance/mentorship of one of the more seasoned veterans here (hint: straight range scrap + tin will result in leading no matter what. HT/Q, lubed with Ben's Red and an overcoat of BLL brought it down to manageable levels. By “manageable” I mean that after 300 rounds, there was just a bit in two of the “grooves". Always the same two.) I wanted to try the Lee 358-125 RF. I had experimented with this briefly several months back and got excellent accuracy”¦.for about 15 rounds. Then it leaded badly. I put it up and went back to focusing on the 356-120 TC and used the 358-125 RF with traditional lube in a pair of revolvers to much rejoicing. The Chair of the Decorating Committee(wife) remarked that she liked the 125g bullets, but the residue from the tradiional lube was making her hands dirty. So, in an effort to make her life better, I got some high quality powder in her favorite color (blue) and set her up. Then I figured, “As long as I'm PC-ing a bunch for her and sizing them to .358, might as well do a bunch and size them to .357 for the HK and see if THAT works better than before. And while I am at it, might as well cast and lube a bunch in the alloy I made for the 356-120TC that eliminated the leading issue for that bullet and see if THAT works better than before.”
So, what I ended up with was a bunch of bullets made from straight Range Scrap + tin that were powder coated and a bunch made from an alloy I mixed up. I had the Range Scrap tested with an XRF gun and it came in at 99.2% lead, .8% antimony. I added about 1.5% tin to it. The “Custom Alloy” I made tested at 94.4%PB, 4.2%SB, 1.4%SN. Rich on antimony, I know. That was my first attempt and it worked for the 356-120TC. I am trying it diluted now, but that is for another post.
I also had some Power Pistol powder on hand that I wanted to try. So, the only logical thing to do was to do two load work ups and see if I like either one. So I did that. I did my best to maintain consistency throughout and am confident of that at least. At the end of the day, both batches were made how I would do it if I was making them in bulk later.
All groups were shot over a Caldwell Chronograph. There were a few flyers that I am saying were “called” because I went “rats” right after the shot went off. I knew I either flinched, twitched or shivered in the cold. They are highlighted in yellow on the attached Excel sheet. I recorded each one as I shot it, but did not do a “shot for shot hole for hole” count so I cannot tell you which hole was shot number 7 on such and such a load.
Range Day
I shot the PC first, cleaned the gun with my normal routine and checked for leading. Naturally, there was none, but there was some blue buildup from the PC in the chamber. Not a lot, but enough to say “looks like we scraped at least once". Photo attached. So, my takeaways from this little exercise:
Edited to change the sheet location to Google Docs to control editing and formatting.
