Argh! Powder weight lead vs plated...

[unfy]

My regular supplier of pistol lead has a situation that is gonna postpone getting more lead bullets... so in the mean time I picked up some of the Berry's 250 packs from Cabella's.

Upped my low powder charge for lead by 15% and made 100 rounds... wanting to be sure to not end up with a bullet stuck in the barrel due to possibly higher friction (?).

Get to the range, and first shell didn't eject (re-fed into the action cleanly, subsequent trigger squeeze produced nothing).  Wait it out then clear the spent brass.  Before finishing the 12 round magazine, had a jam (just fired brass caught in the action, not ejecting properly).

Field strip the pistol, everything looked fine.  Bought a box of factory ammo from the range and had zero problems for the entire factory box.

I assume the problem is that the lower powder charge didn't have enough oomf to fully obturate the plated bullet, causing some gas leak around the bullets ... reducing the speed / power of the slide action... and with the reduce load, gas pressure was already fairly low ?

At any rate, I'm gonna set that batch of bullets aside and labeled BAD and go about making more with a higher powder charge (closer to starting charge listed in manuals).

When it comes time - does anyone have a suggestion on a way to safely and quickly disassembling the bad rounds that doesn't destroy the bullets themselves ?  I've got a kinetic puller that will do the trick, but... it's far from 'quick' .  I'm leary of the press+clamp based dies because from appearance, it seems they would destroy the bullet ?

I don't mind spending the hour or two with the kinetic hammer to go through the ~100 rounds, I'd just rather not

[justsomeguy]

I like the Hornady Cam Lock puller. You can comtrol the ammount of pressure you put on it so the bullet isn't damaged. It's also nice that the powder stays in the case until you dump it out. The only problem is that you need to buy different collets for different diameter ranges of bullets.

[bbtech]

A thought on powder weight. Berry recommends starting with data for an FMJ bullet of the same kind and reducing the charge by 10%. You should be able to load plated with the same data for lead. You could also try adjusting the cartridge overall length.Try 10 of a couple of different lengths and see if that makes a difference. My 1911 is pretty picky about COAL but when you find what it likes there is no problem.

[Dan W]

I have some old published data for Rainier plated bullets, so post your powder and bullet weight and let's see if they have a load recommendation. Rainier and Berry's are very similar.

I will attach the file

[A-FIXER]

I also use the hornady cam lock puller and the collets are less than 5.00 each and the puller is 30.00 and I also have the kinetic banger and I would rather use the puller it also help because of the crimp in the round......"thinking how is the crimp on the fmj's since its different than soft lead that could add to the failures". Getting back to my thought the puller on factory crimped it is a keck of a job on some of those bullets and the, and why do I have the puller if I come up with a load I like better than the existing I pull the bullets and redo the powder loads.

[unfy]

Dan: thanks!

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I've got several books for recipes and stuff, so... that's not so much a concern... i have published official data to work from .  Also, my Sig P229 Equinox has never had any feed issues ever... and this would be my first ejection problem I've seen.

For those curious, with the lead & lube combo I was getting from my provider, my recipe is:

40 S&W
1.1123 CAOL
4.0-4.1 gr Unique
WSP primers
180gr TC bullet with.. I forget what kind of lube he uses - and no, I don't know the hardness

Works great with the lead from my regular supplier.  No feed issues, no ejection issues, no leading issues, and accurate.

At 4.6gr Unique with the plated bullets (FP), I was having ejection malfunctions.

Speer #14 lists 180gr starting charge for Unique at 6.0gr.  I'll prolly do 5.5 and it should be fine.

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I'll admit my last attempt with the plated bullets was well below starting listed in the books....

If the cam puller is not too destructive on the bullets, then it's quite tempting.  Being able to easily dump the powder back into the charger is especially handy.  I'll prolly hit Guns Unlimited on 120th tomorrow, or Cabella's sometime this weekend.

I also figure this reloading cycle for these rounds will be:

* pull all of the bullets

* raise the decapping pin out of the size die so to not punch out the still good primer

* re-run this batch of bullets through the progressive press

* return decapping pin to original position

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A-fixer:  well unless you're safely disposing of the powder and primers from factory, I'd suggest just using the factory rounds for plinking then reload the brass afterwards as desired.

[Dan W]

Since I don't load 40 cal, I did not realize that this Rainier data does not include it.

[A-FIXER]

A-fixer:  well unless you're safely disposing of the powder and primers from factory, I'd suggest just using the factory rounds for plinking then reload the brass afterwards as desired.

I did not explain myself in my above post I was speaking of the factory crimp done by my dies I do while reloading and when I do find a better grouping on the rounds then I do reuse the same powder I loaded prior to the better results.