r/canadaguns • u/Beneficial_Price_560 • Apr 17 '26
Shooting Do we need a Canadian ballistic testing service?
Shot shell reloading has become a fun part of the shooting hobby for me. However, with today's supply chain issues, it's sometimes hard to find recipes for the available components, or components for the available recipes - especially when I want to create specialty loads.
I have an engineering background, the SAAMI standards manual, and access to much of the equipment needed to do my own pressure testing. I'm going to start doing this for my own loads, but now I'm wondering if there's an opportunity for a side-business here. If there was a pressure/velocity testing service in your area, would you use it? Do you think others would? What price would you find reasonable?
Edit: I would be limited to testing shot shells. Not rifle rounds.
Thanks for any feedback!
(Dear mods: please don't delete my post, I'm not actually selling anything here! Thanks for all your work keeping this sub running!)
3
u/starw24-ps4 Apr 17 '26
Myself and most reloaders I know use velocity as the benchmark for working pressures, which isn’t a true 1:1 scale but gets us where we need to be for developing loads. And that can be achieved with a cheap chronograph.
Like the other comments said I think the testing logistics are going to be your bottleneck here, with shipping dangerous goods / barrel testing / prices. I think in the end it will either be too much hassle for you, or too expensive for the average hobbyist. All the best though this is a good concept
2
u/Vintage_Pieces_10 Apr 17 '26
I was literally just looking to see if such a service existed here in Canada since, to my dismay, I just learned that my local Cabela’s doesn’t sell buckshot or slugs at the moment. Next option for me is handloading them and surprise surprise, the majority of the components needed for the published loads also aren’t available.
I’m going to recommend 2 things:
1) instead of taking requests, you could start publishing or documenting your own findings using actually available components at everyone’s disposal. That way people can follow your new loads using what we have access to (I’ve actually been doing this for webley antique revolvers)
2) if you did want to take requests, I’d recommend getting a no-frills cheapo single shot off of intersurplus for less than 200$ and opening the choke (aka, sawing the barrel off legally a couple inches). That way you have a cheap, cylinder bore shotgun that would remain a constant variable in your data testing. And, if the round’s pressure is safe in a 60 year old break action single shot, it would be more than safe out of a more contemporary shotgun.
Needless to say, I fully support the idea of running a shell testing service (whether its requests or self-published loads) as we need someone to give us contemporary and chiefly safe data
1
u/Beneficial_Price_560 Apr 17 '26
Option 1 sounds like a good way to start. Thanks for the advice!
Do you mind sharing some of what you've found for your Webley revolvers?1
u/Vintage_Pieces_10 Apr 17 '26
Fortunately I’ve been doing just that ;) These loads will also work (and in some cases, work better) in a MAS 1873 revolver that’s been reamed to accept .45 as well (the 45 auto rim ones won’t fit in a MAS however).
https://www.reddit.com/r/reloading/s/9XlU4cQXnd
The latest and best loads are at the bottom, but the TLDR is so far, the best load is 3.5 grains of win231 behind either a 230g LRN or a 200g LSWC. It is a pretty dirty load, but the pressure is safe and so far and it keeps these old antiques chugging along as regular shooters
2
u/Tough-Air-4765 Apr 17 '26
It seems like you want to open a private proof house in north america, I do remember their was a old gun smith in the US that provided a similar service and he got known for it so it was used. I might of used it but it would have been for wildcat loads and i don't know how you would charge that let alone testing I guess use the customers barrel and then been a actual private proof house.
1
u/LongRoadNorth Apr 17 '26
Would also be nice as there's so many shells that have no load data for that are readily accessible here.
You can't really find any tests on Challenger for reloading.
2
u/Beneficial_Price_560 Apr 17 '26
I've been using Cheddite load data for Challenger hulls. I hope that's right. I guess now I'll know!
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u/LongRoadNorth Apr 17 '26
Honestly with the cost of materials and time to make I'm considering selling all my gear. The savings are nearly nothing now
1
u/Beneficial_Price_560 Apr 17 '26
This is a great answer to the question, "how interested would people be in this service?".
Thanks!
1
u/Altruistic_Split9447 Apr 17 '26
If you’re bored I would for you to test 11.5 grains of Winchester 231 in a 45-70 case. That’s my sub sonic recipe
1
u/Reliable-Narrator Apr 17 '26
Assuming this would be something like what Precision Reloading does down in the US? You send them 6 shells to test and they test them for ~$30 USD. I see a lot of shotshell test data sheets from them posted around SGW and Trapshooters.
I'd potentially be interested in something like that.
1
u/waitwhatnothing Apr 27 '26
I’d be interested. I got into Shotshell loading recently so I could load bismuth for waterfowl hunting next season. Availability of factory bismuth ammo is not the best and you can save a little money doing it yourself.
I was thinking about messing around with some turkey loads but most of the powders I see in available load data for heavy 3” lead loads are discontinued.
6
u/hafetysazard Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26
I’m sure many people would love to know what pressure their hand loads are developing, but it is often way too expensive to actually try and do that, because it is so tedious. Plus, different chamber and bore dimensions aren’t going to tell somebody much if their gun is much different than your testing setup.
There are many powder/bullet combos that should make a lot of sense, but nothing in any book that shows where to start. So, not many people bother to try it, and even fewer are open to sharing. I think many people don’t want to go through the effort, and expense, to try and figure it out beyond inspecting their brass for pressure signs. It would be helpful to know if the seemingly random powders that are available during a dry spell are useful, or not.
What are you going to do if you start getting 100 different requests for 200 different cartridges? Start buying barrel blanks, gauges, and reamers for all of them? That’ll be expensive and I don’t think many guys will be willing to foot the bill for that. Hell, I doubt many would be willing to foot the dangerous goods shipping bill for sending you their ammo.
I think there can be some value to selling access to testing data to show exactly how different primers affect pressure, how different brass affects pressure, or comparing how different bullet construction (cast, plated, jacketed, solid copper) of the same weight and seating depth, affect pressure. There seems to be many different components that come available at odd times, when their bread and butter components become scarce, that people really know nothing about and will never see any comparative data for.