Started collecting my fired brass to reload some. Some fired from P-64 and some from CZ82. I have noticed the CZ piles brass in a nice neat pile. (almost) The P-64 fires the brass into oblivian. I usually shoot by myself (over short grass) and pay more attention to my target than watching brass but I'm not sure I have found more than a few from the P-64. I have been shooting Fiocchi exclusively since it is locally available and about as cheap as they have. Are these considered "hot" or is the P-64 recoil spring maybe a little weak?
Randy
The right side of my P-64 is the second worse end to be on.
To me Fiocchi is one of the hotter rounds. It travels around 1040 fps, in comparison to the new Silver Bear that travels around 960, or Sellier & Bellot that goes even slower. But it's the pistol that likes to throw brass, not the ammo that likes to be thrown. Just the nature of the beast. Makarovs also throw casings like that. Funny, I've never paid attention to how my CZ-83 throws brass. Whenever I shoot brass 9x18 I put up a barrier to catch the brass so I haven't been paying attention.
If ya wanna find brass walk 2 the left end of the range, position yourself 2 fire
@ target then hard 2 port 45 degrees & blaze away. Preferably w/half a dozen or so shooters 2 ya previously positioned immediate starboard....................
I have had excellent luck shooting the p-64 with a slightly reduced load. (my recollection is 3.3 gr. universal under a 95 gr. bullet. I can confirm that if you are interested.) It makes teh p-64 very comfortable to shoot, doesn't beat up the frame, and doesn't send your brass into a low orbit. Then you can shoot enough to become true friends with your p-64, and save the hot and expensive ammo for carry and occasional practice.
Was kind of thinking of trying slightly reduced loads. Looks like Universal would be a good powder for that. I don't have any. I'll probably try Bullseye to start with since thats all I have right now that looks like would be suitable for this load. May can get it a little slower than Fiocchi. I'll see about getting some Universal.
Also, nbender, what do you use to catch your brass?
I use a pretty sophisticated device of my own invention to catch my brass. I stick two metal fence posts into the slots along the side of the bed of my F-250. Then I duck-tape a poncho liner I brought home from VN to the posts. I usually fire while seated in a chair placed in front of, and below the elevation of, the top of the poncho liner. At sessions end I get on my hands and knees and pick up brass. Last time out I test fired 32 of Georgia Arm's finest and a half dozen Sellier and Bellot's through a chronograph and was able to locate 37 of the shells. Perhaps I should produce a CAD representation of this elegant design.
Received dies today. Haven't located Universal powder yet.
nbender, your patent rights are still intact.
Started calculating...
F-250 $$$
Trip to VN to get poncho liner $$$
Metal posts $$
Duct tape $
Chair (hey, I already have this!)
Getting on my hands and knees to pick up brass... priceless!
I'll have to keep saving pennies for this project.
Yeah, that's it! I should be able to get it locally, just didn't have a chance to go by today. Loaded a few up with Bullseye tonight. I'll try them when I get a chance.
If you have a Sportsman's Warehouse near you, I have found them to have the best prices on powder, and they carry the whold Hodgdon line. Their OTHER prices are through the roof, but for some reason, here in Minnesota at least, they have cheap powder.
Personally, I use Hodgdon Universal pistol powder. I am not sure if there is any real difference with the "clays" product, but I have not used the "clays."
I'm not familar with Sportman's Warehouse. There are only a couple of places locally, which are locally owned, that usually have a pretty good supply of reloading supplies. One is about 40 miles away, close to where I work, and the other is about 30 miles, different direction. I went by one after work. They had many pounds of what must be almost everything Hodgdon makes. They only had Universal in 4 lb jugs. I'm not quite ready to load and shoot that much. (would be fun though!)
I've never used Hodgdon powder but it looks like (at least now) all their Universal says "clays". :-/
I'm assuming (yeah, I know what it means) that's all they have now.
Last edited by randy on January 13th, 2007, 1:23 am, edited 1 time in total.