9mm Largo Load Test with Berdan Primers

Hi there guys, I'm out at the range today with the Spanish Destroyer Carbine in 9mm Largo and we're going to be trying out some reloads. These are the original Spanish Berdan Prime cases that I re-primed with the RUAG RWS primers. I've got a 115 grain Sierra hollow point bullet in these and five grains of Unique. So we're going to try those over the chronograph just to see how they work. So let's get at it. All right, here's the 9mm Largo with the re-used Spanish cases and the RUAG RWS primers. This is at 100 yards and that's with the sight set to the flipped down position which I assume is probably a bottle sight. This is low, it looks like it's good on the target but actually I wasn't aiming at this target, I was aiming at the one above. So we'll try the same thing again but we're going to try the sight flipped up to the higher position and see where it prints then. These are not terribly powerful, they're about 1100 feet per second. They could be stepped up a little bit which would bring the point of impact probably up a little touch. So it looks like extreme spread about two and a half inches between that one and that one. So considering how blocky the sights are, I'm not unhappy with that. I think that's not bad for those kind of sights and my eyeballs. So anyway, let's go back and give it another try. All right, here's effort number two also at 100 yards. This is with the sight set in the upper position at its lower setting which I think is marked 200 meters if I'm not mistaken. And holding at the bottom of the block, we're printing a bit high. I've got a bigger group than the last time with a little bit of dispersion there vertically. I think I'm finding it a little harder to see that sight in that position than I was with it folded down lower. So it's a little closer to the point of aim but the group is not as good. Anyway, let's go back and try a few more. All right, another effort at 100 yards, this time with the sight folded down, aiming at the target above it. One, two, three, four, five. Not bad but not as good as our first attempt. Anyway, I think I'm getting a little tired of being out here in the sun and the humidity's high so I think I'm done shooting group home from the range. And first off, let's have a little look at the fired primers there. You can see that the Destroyer gives the primers quite a significant smack. Anyway, no particular signs of distress on the primers. The outside edges still have a radius so I think pressure is quite reasonable on these. So those are good to be reloaded once again. A fairly clean load, didn't leave too much crap on the outside of the cartridge cases. So anyway, we'll deal with those later. We'll get those de-primed and then use them again. So last of all, let's have a look at the chronograph data. I have a little summary here of the load that I used and this was not actually published load data. This is sort of, I don't know, I kind of arrived at this by looking at 38 ACP data and I probably should look through more of my loading books because after I had come up with this load I found that the Sierra book actually has load data for the Largo with the exact bullet that I used. Anyway, I might try some of that out at a future date. Anyway, the important thing here is the velocities and there we can see that we're right in the 1100 feet per second neighborhood. There's our average, 1097. We've got rather a large extreme spread, 105 feet per second, and a fairly large standard deviation, 29 feet per second. I think this is because this load is a little bit light. It could probably stand to be boosted up to 5.5, 5.7 grains a unique. I think it might perform a little better for the standard deviation and extreme spreads if it was boosted up a little bit. It certainly looks like by the velocities and the way the primers look that there's lots of safety margin yet on this one. And that of course is out of the 21.5 inch barrel of the Destroyer at about 27 degrees celsius. So this same load would probably perform a little less in a pistol, but it probably wouldn't be that much less. You don't really gain an awful lot of velocity with a small charge of powder, like five grains, by putting it in a longer barrel. It's pretty well burnt up in the first six inches and you know this would probably do a thousand and fifty in a handgun, I would guess. Anyway, there's more loads to be tried out. In the Largo, I managed to find a box of 124 grain total metal jacket bullets, some spear ones, and I'll try some of those next. They duplicate more closely the factory load, which was 127 grains, I believe, so the sights might be a little bit closer to the point of impact with a 124 grain bullet with perhaps a little more velocity. So for those who are curious, there is load data, like I said, in the Sierra book and there's also load data, Spear has load data as well, and that's in their book where you can also get their data online for free. So you can look that up if you're interested in loading the Largo yourself. Anyway, thanks for sticking around for this video, and as always, your comments and ratings are appreciated and help the video be seen, and we'll talk to you in the next one.