Question on bullet weight

[ghentry]

I am looking at bullets for reloading and I have a question about bullet weight. Obviously I can get lighter bullets for less cost. What are the pro's and con's of lighter/heavier bullets for target practice?

[Kalrog]

Practice as you want to perform. Pick the carry or hunting ammo that you and your gun like and then find some practice ammo that approximates the characteristics of that round.

[BobCat]

Kalrog is right; practice with roughly the same weight bullet as you will shoot "for real" so your practice loads feel and print about the same.

In a pistol, a heavier bullet will typically print higher (at shorter ranges) than a lighter bullet. It accelerates slower than a ligher bullet so it is in the barrel longer, so the muzzle has a longer time to rise in recoil before it leaves. At longer ranges it will drop more, since it is probably going slower, so it will take longer to get there, and have more time to drop. I know I'm not explaining this clearly - there is a much better explanaiton in Hatcher's Notebook.

A heavier bullet might give more felt recoil than a light bullet; if it has more momentum (mass x velocity) it will, except that if the lighter bullet exits sooner, the gas velocity (of the propellant gasses behind it) might be higher, adding to the backward thrust (felt recoil). Again, Hatcher does a better job explaining than I do.

Anyway, have fun and experiment with some different weights, come to your own conclusions.

Regards,
Andrew