Anyone try the Dardas 160 grain SWC?

I saw a guy using these today and they look pretty interesting, good sized bearing surface and short nose, kind of the same idea as the Magnus 185 I've been using. I'm thinking they might be nice for rapid/timed fire.

http://www.dardascastbullets.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?

They are awesome at 50 or 25, they are more snappy but I like the recoil impulse 
Try 4.0-4.3 BE for 25 and 4.2-4.5 BE for 50

Yeah I guess the real question is how fast you have to drive them to operate the gun the same as before. I recently got a RRA 1911 and put an Aimpoint 9000sc on it, with this pistol running a 10 pound variable spring I had to raise my powder charge on the Magnus 185 on the short line from 3.8 to 3.9 WST. I run the Magnus at 4.1 WST for 50. 4.1 WST might work well with this Dardas bullet for the short line.

Get a 10 lb spring and an 11. I use an 11 with 4.3 of BE and the 160 for long line. 4.0 will function for shortline but so far I like the 185 zero or the 200 zero better for the shortline with 3.9 and 3.7 respectively.

I use the Dardas 160 gr for the short line and indoors with 4.2gr WST my COL is 1.16" WLP. I use a 9# recoil spring and the gun runs flawlessly. I'm very happy with this load.

I have been using them with 4.4 of WST for both 25 and 50 yard recently, with excellent results.

Ric

So if you have to run that much powder with the 160's is there any less recoil than the 185's or is it just a different feel?

With 4.3 of BE recoil recovery is a bit slower in sustained fire but it is manageable. I shoot it at 50 because it is extremely accurate in my gun. I would shoot it at 25 as well but I have a lot of zeroes to get rid of.

These look interesting..How do they compare to the H&G 68 style 200gr SWC.  I have to ask a newbie question, what is the advantage over the 200gr?  I assume less recoil?


Also, how do they compare to the Zero 185 SWCHP...
thanks

I have cast & shot the 165's since the mid 70's. The same w/my team mates @ The Oak Harbor Club. They were cast using the H&G 242S molds. The S was for Short. I don't remember what the 242 was anymore for sure but maybe a 185. One of the older Masters @ Canton shot a 242 base bullet that droppe @175. H&G had made the mold for him lengthening the bullet.
Later the company mfg casting machines  shortened the base and dropped the bullet @ 160 which we all use now. OH shooters bought them from Bob Crow for several yrs until his retirement. I recently heard he may be back in business.
Ron Habegger

Greetings,

Here in the NorthWest, Darius "Doc" Young used to cast and shoot the S242 bullet. He shot it in his Clark Long Slide with, I believe, 4.4 grains of Bullseye.

According to the H&G bullet chart, the 242 design is 185 grains.

From the H&G archives...

#242--.45 Auto. 185 grains in linotype. For Long beach California Police Department. Similar to # 130,
except nose is beveled off to nose meplat, instead of being rounded over. Also available cut shorter, as
#S242, at 160 grains in linotype.

Cheers,

Dave

here's the H&G 242...

http://www.hensleygibbs.com/molds/S242.jpg

dardus 160

We (local ga shooters i shoot with) have tested and shot many thousands of the vallant 160s and find them very accurate at 25yds, at 50 they still do well but less forgiving that 185, these will shoot one hole with 4.4 gr bullseye and operate a gun that shoots 4gr with a 185lswc.

I shoot 4.4grs WST under my Valiant 160gr on the short line and 4.6grs WST under Zero 185gr LHPSWC's on the long line.

Bill

Dang 4.6 grains of WST that's pretty toasty. I run 4.1 at 50 yards and I have a 9000SC red dot to dampen the recoil. Any reason you run it so hot? I used to run 3.8 WST at 25 yards but had to bump it up to 3.9 WST to cycle the slide properly with the 9000SC.

One reason is I am not using a heavy Match dot. I run aimpoint micros with a 12lb recoil spring on all my guns. I work up loads on a Ransom Rest. I run what's accurate. I'd estimate 4.3 - 4.4grs of Bullseye would be equivalent. It's really not that stout. When I shot Nosler 185 JHP's I would use 4.8grs of WST to get less than an inch and a half.

Bill

I think Accurate molds has something similar to that 160..Hmmmmm

I think the Dardus 160 is a stock Magma flat base mold..we run their 180 flat base at the short line quite a bit..  tried the Valient 160 but with 4.4 BE, I like the softer felt recoil of the 180s and 200s with lower loads of WST or BE.

fc60 wrote:Greetings,

Here in the NorthWest, Darius "Doc" Young used to cast and shoot the S242 bullet. He shot it in his Clark Long Slide with, I believe, 4.4 grains of Bullseye.

According to the H&G bullet chart, the 242 design is 185 grains.

From the H&G archives...

#242--.45 Auto. 185 grains in linotype. For Long beach California Police Department. Similar to # 130,
except nose is beveled off to nose meplat, instead of being rounded over. Also available cut shorter, as
#S242, at 160 grains in linotype.

Cheers,

Dave

Dave,
Your note reminds me that an old timer said that Doc Young was cleaning SF targets when he shot matches in the Central Ohio Pistol  League w/the S242. Later he shot the 4.4 of BE w/ the S242 you mention in winning his 1st National Champs. I recall his pic & the details in the Rifleman. I started shooting those matches circa '72 and bought the mold after an Ohio Highway Patrolman showed me the bullet. He was shooting good scores and winning often.
Some time ago  one of our shooters RR'd several loads & bullets including the Quality Cast 160 @ 50 yds and the 160 produced the tightest group.
Ron Habegger

I visited the Dardas website and read his comments about using only the Lyman (or similar) 4 die set with the stepped expander. Do any of you Dardas fans use conventional dies successfully with his bullets, or is the Lyman expander the only way to get good accuracy with them?  I also infer from his comments about post crimping that using a taper crimp die is not recommended.  Has that been anybody else's experience?

I have used the M die but when I switched to a Dillon 550 I kept with the Dillon dies. I'm just an Expert but I have cleaned targets with my current all Dillon setup. I'm fairly confident that the 10's that aren't X's and the 9's that aren't 10's are on me, not the dies. The 8's and 7's...we won't talk about:(

Slodad wrote:I visited the Dardas website and read his comments about using only the Lyman (or similar) 4 die set with the stepped expander. Do any of you Dardas fans use conventional dies successfully with his bullets, or is the Lyman expander the only way to get good accuracy with them?  I also infer from his comments about post crimping that using a taper crimp die is not recommended.  Has that been anybody else's experience?

  I both used and didn't use the "M" die. I could not comment either way. BUT I never did any testing to prove one method or the other. As far as taper crimping most all of us did TC.
Ron Habegger

Ron, I bet Oak Harbor was a great place to shoot back then. I was there in April of 2016 for a Zins clinic and I was VERY impressed. 50 yards indoors!

I just tried these after learning about them from this post.  I like them and will be ordering more. Shoot just as accurate at 50yds as the Zero 185 LSWCHP using the same powder charge - 4.3 WST(slide mount optics). No cycling problems. Slightly more snappy felt recoil but very minimal. I noticed no difference getting back on target in sustained fire. 

I loaded them on a LNL press using Powder Funnel expander & seated at 1.165-1.17. No leading.  Doesn't cut as clean of a hole as the Zero but not a big difference.  More economical to shoot than the Zero