Steel shooters have long bragged about their “sub-minor” hand loads reducing split times between plates, resulting in near-magical score improvements. The oft-repeated phrase is that “10 seconds gets chopped off the top” just through load development. This is a great story;however, the evidence tends to be anecdotal. Being a person who prefers hard data to “everybody knows,” I recruited a couple friends to put this shooting legend to the test.
To explain: Steel Challenge Shooting Association (SCSA) events utilize eight standardizedstages that are shot for speed, one shot per target, and the accumulated time is counted for score. A full SCSA match will incorporate 124 scored target transitions. “Transitions” mean time, and time means score.
One way to reduce transition time is to lessen gun bounce between shots: less bounce means that the recoiling muzzle will return to target faster. Lowering a round’s “power factor” through hand loading is a common means of reducing bounce. Power factor (pf) is derived by multiplying a bullet’s velocity by its grain weight, and then dividing by 1000.
In the United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA), the minimum power factorfor competition is set at 125. In SCSA, there is no power factor floor, so some competitors reduce their powder weights to shoot “sub-minor” loads under the assumption that it will increase their transition speed… and these competitors often beat everyone else who shows up with their 125pf+ USPSA loads or – worst of all – boxed ammo.
Here’s a newsflash: nobody is going to find a sub-minor load at Walmart. It has to be hand loaded, and it has to be crafted on a precise machine like a Dillon so that it can be depended upon not to squib.
For my test platform, I chose the Pistol Caliber Carbine, Optic (PCCO). A series of hand loads with varying power factors were shot by three competitors while tracking their splits to see if the mythical 10 second gain is achievable – and in PCCO, a 10 second gain can mean the difference between being considered an “A Level” shooter or a “Grand Master.”
I enlisted two other shooters to assist me with my experiment, each of us embodying a different skill level. First, Spencer Garrett is a new SCSA shooter who represents a solid example of an “average” but developing shooter. With 15 years in competitive shooting, I filled the “better than average” slot. Finally, we were joined by multi-time SCSA Senior division world champion Mike Setting who has been in the game since the early ’90s. Mike’s capabilities are, let’s just say, way more than above average.
Using my PCCO rifle – which most folks would consider more “Armageddon-minded”than “race gunned out” – we opened the testing session with a chronograph to calculate various power factors.
Thanks to my longer 14.5” pinned barrel, Federal’s 124gr American Eagle clocked in at 152pf, and Winchester 115gr White Box registered 160pf. We then measured some of my hand loads that were simply my 115gr Steel Challenge rounds but packed with an additional 1.2 grains of powder, and… ringing in at 160pf, I suspect that I’ve accidentally discovered the WWB load recipe. Based upon data and feel, I checked off my hot 115gr load as a good representation ofstore-bought ammunition.
Targeting a rack of five 6” round plates spaced 18” apart and 8 yards from the shooting box, we recorded our transition times between plates. With the 160pf load, Spencer’s average splits came out to .56 seconds, mine were .41, and Mike’s were .40. With that, we had our base times, and I had a pretty good feeling about myself – I could keep up with Mike!
But that didn’t last long.
We moved on to my personal Steel Challenge load, which is simply my 135pf USPSA load but with the 125gr bullet swapped out for a 115gr head. This is a common practice amongst shooters who compete in both venues, as it allows the hand loader to create reduced power ammunition without adjusting his tool head. My SCSA load is slightly sub-minor at 119pf and is a good representation of what a USPSA shooter might use at steel matches. Here, I picked up my speed slightly to a .37 second average… and Mike began his pull away from me, averaging .34 splits. Spencer’s time dropped to a .54.
Gains were definitely seen with my sub-minor ammo, but nothing that added up to the “ten seconds off the top” which the legend promised. Nonetheless, I had one more trick up my sleeve.
We ended the experiment with Mike’s Steel Challenge load… which was so light it wouldn’t reset my trigger due to my heavy buffer system. Nonetheless, they functioned perfectly through Mike’s race gun, so we switched to his rifle. At 86 power factor out of his 5.5” shrouded barrel, Mike considered this to be his “hot” load.
Stepping into the shooting box, I brought my splits down to a .32 average, while Spencer saw a similar improvement to a .50 split. And Mike? He averaged .26 seconds!
With that data in hand, I was able to make a few extrapolations about switching from storebought ammunition to hand loaded cartridges. Ultimately, we confirmed that reduced power loads result in faster shooting. We also found that sub-minor ammunition can indeed subtract 10 seconds off the clock… with some stipulations.
The “standard gun with a simple load” data is interesting because it shows what a shooter can do with a firearm that is probably sitting in his safe right now. By simply switching from full-power loads to a basic hand load, it appears that a shooter can decrease his SCSA time in PCCO somewhere in the range of 2.5 to 7.5 seconds. This is an immediate, substantial performance gain without the shooter having to modify his gun… or spend any time practicing! Remember, an SCSA speed reduction measured in seconds is typically obtained only through years of practice – and perhaps thousands of dollars doled out to coaching clinics.
This trick wipes out a lot of hard work, and all the shooter needs is – literally – a reloading machine to crank out the rounds.
The third column takes it to the next level. In this scenario, the 86pf load was reduced enough that some gun modification needed to occur, using a Pace Setting Design tunable bufferand a competition barrel and bolt from TACCOM among other things. Furthermore, a hand loader isn’t going to get that low on the power factor scale without investing some effort intoload development. This means gradually and safely reducing his powder level until the load is reliably tuned to a specific gun.
That work clearly pays off, though. Between moving from my standard carbine with its full power loads to Mike’s sub-minor race gun, I achieved the mythical 10 second gain and then some. That’s huge! To put it in a frame of reference, at the 2019 Sig Sauer World Speed Shooting Championship, 11 seconds in the PCC division meant the difference between 1st and 34th place. And Mike’s gain was tremendously higher!
Along those lines, what surprised Mike and me the most was just how much sub-minor shooting performance amplified relative to the increased skill of the shooter. It appears that reduced loads allow an expert to concentrate on his finely-honed fundamentals, more confidentlycalling his shot through the trigger squeeze and thereby shifting to the next target sooner. It also offers an interesting perspective on how to accelerate an emerging shooter’s learning curve: by switching to sub-minor loads, the trainee can deliberately practice achieving proper sight picture, maintaining it through the trigger squeeze, visually acquiring the next target, shift, and repeat… without the distraction of increased recoil and muzzle bounce.
When the range day ended, I walked away with a greater appreciation of the benefits ofsub-minor loading – and a new Pace Setting Design tunable buffer in my range bag. Now, I’m off to my reloading bench to begin crafting a -100pf load to pair with this new operating system. From there, I’ll see how much faster I can shoot with the aid of my progressive reloading machine, this PSD buffer, and a little less powder.
| Power Factor Split Difference x 124 Transitions = Potential SCSA Overall Time Reduction | |||
| 160pf | 119pf | 86pf | |
| Average Shooter | Base Time | – 2.48 seconds | – 7.44 seconds |
| Above Average Shooter | Base Time | – 4.96 seconds | – 11.16 seconds |
| Superior Shooter | Base Time | – 7.44 seconds | – 17.36 seconds |
