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Posted: 9/20/2013 5:17:28 PM EDT
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I had my first malfunction at our 3 gun match last weekend. It was in the middle of a fast string of shooting when I had a round fail to chamber. I taped racked and tried to bang but the next round would also not chamber (now the slide was about a 1/2" out of battery). I dropped the mag and tried one last time and still the rounds would not go into battery, by this point I know something is in the barrel. We stopped the run and I took my gun apart. A buddy thought I had a squib, but I am very careful about checking each load for powder. Once we had the gun apart I noticed I had unburnt gun powder inside the gun, this leads me to think that when I ejected the round it pulled the bullet from the case, Of course there was a bullet right where the barrel starts, and we had to beat it out with a screw driver. I normal run my rounds through a case gauge, but did not this time. My thought is the bullet was set to far out and got stuck before the round could chamber, but I am wondering if I should be crimping my rounds more to keep it from pulling the bullet out of the case? Of course this could have been prevented by me checking my OAL, but I am still wondering if the crimp was to loose, or what else could have caused this. |
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Pistol?
What I found loading semi wad cutters several years ago is that every batch has to be checked for length to clear the rifling. Two 200 grain bullets might look identical, but the difference in the ogive can be too subtle to see. The crimp can be increased only to a degree where the cartridge headspaces on the case mouth. |
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Bullet seated to far out, OAL too long, would not go into battery & bullet stuck on rifling. Pulled out upon ejecting case, spilling powder. Could be a weak crimp in addition to being too long?
Sometimes after multiple reloadings, in my experience with 9mm, case "neck" tension can get too weak and lose ability to grip bullet, even with a taper crimp. However the malfunction described does not sound like that is the problem. |
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What gun, what cartridge?
Do not use a screwdriver to extract a stuck bullet, use a stout "Brass" rod. Assuming you are talking a straight walled pistol round like the 9mm or 45 acp, no the crimp is not applied to secure the bullet, neck tension does that. The taper crimp is only used to remove the flare, plus maybe a thou or two more. |
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Glock 19, 9mm, 124 Gr. FMJ, 4.9 Gr of WSF, OAL should have been 1.144 I do shoot a mix of range pick up brass, so I guess it possible that one case had lost its neck tension? I only flare my cases a little, and then tried to set my crimp die to take that little bit of flare back out of the case. I understand about the screwdriver, and will be getting a oak dow rod for my range bag. |
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Sounds like OAL was off to me, how else to explain bullet getting stuck? Question would be how it got that way. Only thing to do is further test that batch of ammo and observe how it works.
I use 9mm range brass, always keep track of a box of 50 or 100 - how many reloads. Let us know what else you find out. |
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Check the manufactuer's OAL recommendation vs. the OAL you are using. I never crimp 9mm, set the taper to just remove the bell that I made to seat the bullet. Neck tension is the sole contributor to bullet retention in my 9mm/40 S&W and .45 acp ammo. Nothing more is needed.
There are several varieties of 124 grain projectiles in .355" diameter. The flat points probably need to be seated deeper so they don't engrave your rifling. You can seat a bullet in a resized case, no primer, no powder and try to press the that "bullet" firmly into your pistol's chamber using firm thumb pressure. It must not stick in the rifling or you'll have this issue again. Simply seat a little deeper and try it again. I normally use 1.100" OAL for most of my 9mm loads. Hornady's XTP 115's I use their OAL listed in their manual., I think that's 1.070". 147's need longer OAL's than any of the others. Good Luck. |
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