A Handy Online Reloading Tool

I cranked out some ammunition on the blue press tonight after chores and dinner. The press was still set up for .223. It took about 10 minutes to switch it over to 9mm. Then I commenced filling two Akro bins with freshly minted, 115-grain 9mm ball ammunition.

The first two months of the year are good ones in which to spend time reloading. The reloading room in the basement is dry, out of the wind and not far from the Bunn coffee maker. Jerome, a high school senior and fellow National Rifle Association member, has escaped to the farm some during the late fall and winter to learn how to reload for a pair of AR-15s.

I started reloading at about the same age. No one I knew here in the Osage Cuestas reloaded metallic cartridges. I learned from reading Speer and Lyman reloading manuals, which in themselves were tough to come by for a nearly-broke teenager out in the sticks. Nope, VHS players hadn't been invented yet. Online stuff--it was clothes attached with wooden pins to wire lines spanning part of the back yard.

Some change is well and good such as this page I'm using more and more by Hornady. I particularly like the ballistics calculator. It can be used for any bullet by Hornady or otherwise if you have its ballistic coefficient. Here are the results for the 9mm ball, which I plan to use in a carbine with a 16" barrel.

Input Variables

Firearm type	Carbine	Sight Height	1.5
Bullet Weight (grains)	115	Ballistic Coefficient	.177
Muzzle Velocity (fps)	1200	Temperature	32
Barometric Pressure (hg)	30.36	Relative Humidity	78%
Zero Range (yards)	100	Wind Speed (mph)	0

Ballistics Table in Yards

Berry's Mfg. plated FMJ 115 gr., .177 B.C. www.hornady.com

Range (yards) Muzzle 25 50 75 100 150 200 Velocity (fps) 1200 1141 1092 1050 1014 955 906 Energy (ft.-lb.) 368 333 304 281 262 233 210 Trajectory (100 yd. zero) -1.5 1.5 2.9 2.4 0.0 -11.3 -32.0 Come Up in MOA -1.5 -5.8 -5.5 -3.1 0.0 7.2 15.3

Hats off to the folks in Grand Island, Nebraska--Hornady Mfg. Co., Inc.