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Posted: 8/6/2012 6:30:36 PM EDT
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Well I reloaded my first 10 rounds and tried them out on Sunday…. It didn’t go so well.
It was probably 7pm so we were shooting in the shadows and my wife was saying I was getting more flash from the muzzle then she is used to. I was also getting a lot of either brass or copper in the chamber, barrel, and on top of the mag….I could even feel it hitting me. There is also quite a lot of carbon flakes floating around in there. Now I am new to this but looking at the brass I don’t see over pressure signs. From what I can tell my load is quite conservative and just above the recommended minimum (verified multiple places). The gun cycled just fine and the “kick” didn’t feel excessively high or low. My only guess is that I am over crimping them and it is pealing the plating off the bullet??? What do you guys think? I didn’t think it crimped the cartridge much but that’s my best guess at this point… I’ll list out my setup below and put pics in the next post. Thanks for your help! -Gun: CTI 1911 guardian 45acp – 250 rounds of similar factory rounds fired a couple weeks ago to brake in. -Lee 4 die set (crimping in separate seating) -Hornidy model M scale (no small check weights but it appears to be consistent and accurate) -Wet tumbled once fired brass -Lee pro auto disk powder drop (getting +-.1 gr) -X-tream copper plated 230gr round nose (treated them like lead) -CCI #300 large pistol primers -Win 231 powder @ 4.4 gr (books show 4.3min & 5.3 max) -OAL = 1.25” (books show 1.20 as min) -Crimp = .469” (seams larger than many sources) Pics to come Thanks! ROB |
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That makes sense… I had 10 4.7gr reloads with me but was to chicken to shoot them after seeing all the copper/brass.
Do you think that might be the cause of the excessive brass/copper I am seeing? I was amazed how it was left in the barrel, on the top of the mag and even on the bolt face. If it’s not an over crimping problem I guess it could be that the bolt is opening before the bullet is far enough out of the barrel that it causes blow back thru the barrel? I wish my camera would show it better but I had a couple of chunks that were around 1/8” across… Thanks for the help! ROB Quoted:
the carbon flakes are unburned powder. With that light of a load you are not getting consistent combustion increase your powder charge it it will work better for you. |
| Are you sure you are seeing brass or copper? My guess is that you are seeing unburned powder, some powders turn kinda yellow when not burned completely. As stated above, your charge is low and you are most likely not getting complete ignition, bump it up and test again. |
I think I am... they sure look shiny. I haven't cleaned the gun yet so I'll swab them out of there and see if I can get them to corrode... if they turn green than we will know for sure 
Quoted:
Are you sure you are seeing brass or copper? My guess is that you are seeing unburned powder, some powders turn kinda yellow when not burned completely. As stated above, your charge is low and you are most likely not getting complete ignition, bump it up and test again. |
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I use Berry's plated bullets in .45ACP, 9mm, and .357Sig and have been known to load them to the FMJ specs, because nobody told me different. I had been doing it for years before ever knowing it was recommended to load them to lead specs, and have never had a pressure issue or any other problem. I use a Lee FCD too, and crimp pretty tight for use in a Thompson or AR pistol caliber rifle. I am not here recommending that anyone try this.
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I load my fmjs at 5gr to oal of 1.258. Alot of folks load to 5.3 with no issues with hp38/win231. Slowly increase powder till your issues disappear. I use 5.7 grains of W 231 for 230 gr bullet I would as well if that load would cycle my guns, but found that 5gr was my sweet spot on all my guns suppressed with no issues. On my Roze Dist Zero 230gr JHP I use 5.9, and thats near the listed start! |
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