[armoredman]

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So this doesn't happen to you! :banghead:

Here I am, with my CZ PO1 and some of my new 115gr lead reloads at our local range. Now, I am kinda confidant of my work, as my 115 gr FMJ stuff works like a charm. Ah, foolish pride...
I have my loads, with 115 gr LRN from Meister, because I got a killer deal on them, and I used the load data from the Lee book. Now, I remember max length is 1.169, and the min OAL for this load is 1.1. Cool, no problem. Mine come out at 1.14. Sounds OK, doesn't it? I thought so too....
First round went in,( 4.4 gr AA#2) fired just fine, wide right, though. Second failed to completely feed, though, so I attempted to eject. Finally had to slam it, and out pops a shell. Whoops, did I fire that? Ok, try again. Next round would not feed. Tried three others, same thing - won't go all the way in. Finally the dim bulb on the warning light penetrates all the way through my incredibly thick skull....ugh, maybe something IN barrel, ugh.
Disassembled the PO1, and sure as dogsnot, there is a bullet stuck in the barrel! Thank the Good Lord above it wasn't in far enough to chamber the next round!
But waitaminit - one hole in the target, didn't fire another round.......or did I? Dagnabbit. Put tools aside for a minute....load magazine again with slightly differant load, (4.5gr AA#2). this one went clean at the X - same thing...next round jammed it tight! Rammed the slide back, empty shell, and YEP! Another stuck bullet. Finally the bulb lights over my head, (igniting all that natural gas leaking out of my ears, what a mess.), and I see what happened.
The notorious "short" chamber of the PO1 has finally struck! The 1.14 inch LRn ogive is fat enough to actually engage the rifling, preventing it from fully entering the chamber under recoil. What happened with the second round? Nothing, but with a light factory taper crimp, when I rammed the slide back - I pulled the stuck bullet out of the case. Yes, I have two nicely sized primed cases.....whoops.
So, I guess I will be resetting the bullet seating die tomorrow, and reseating those fat slugs a little further down in, but farther out then the min.
Good thing I still had a 100 of my previous reloads to play with...and got nice groups at 15 and 25 yards, to soother my badly bruised pride. I am just thankful I didn't have to go to the hospital with a messed up hand from a barrel explosion, and be out one fine shooting CZ75 PO1 in the bargain.....
[Ghost of Marley voice] Beware! Do not do what I have done! Beware!*ghostly moans*[/Ghost of Marley voice]. :rolleyes:

[Kamicosmos]

It happens. And in this case, it wasn't you, but was actually the gun!

I wouldn't beat yourself up over it. It's not a real good idea to chamber check rounds in a gun at home anyway. I have had a couple times where I get to the range and the rounds won't chamber right. One time on my AR15, I seated a newer bullet style with my existing settings. Got to the range to find out they wouldn't fit in the mag! So, I had a long day of single shot shooting.

We've all had mistakes. I've had a couple squibs, both on my progressive AND my single stage. (The single stage worries me. How could I mess that up?)

Just redouble your efforts of checking everything, and dive back in to reloading!

[ACP230]

You can take the barrel out of the gun and check ammo to see it it will fit.
I used to run all my pin loads through the dismounted barrel of my pin gun when I shot at the Second Chance Pin Shoot. If there was any hesitation about going into the chamber, or any doubt in my mind, those rounds went into the practice box.

As I found out one year checking them in the chamber doesn't mean they might not be too long for the magazine!

[Mrs. Armoredman]

It's ok dear it happens to the best of us. I am just glad nothing real bad happened. It was just strange seeing a bullet stuck in the barrel.


Mrs. A.

[entropy]

Good thing you checked the barrel! :eek: Between that, and the other ammo 'anomaly' you had that day, it's a wonder your nerves aren't shot!
Here's one way to determine the best OAL for your particular gun; Take a real soft lead bullet (pure lead or as low % of tin and antimony as you can get; if you know someone who casts, ask them to cast you a small batch of pure lead. ) Seat one in an unprimed, sized case, out at max. OAL, and crimp it as heavy as possible while still maintaining enough case mouth for headspacing. You do not want this one to move. Put it in the mag, and close the action. If it does not go into battery, use a non-marring hammer, (rubber mallet, plastic head gunsmiths' hammer, coated deadblow hammer, etc.) to gently get it into battery. Open the action. If the extractor doesn't pull it out, tap it out as gently as possible with a cleaning rod or your bullet seater if it will fit down the barrel without marring it. Measure your OAL, compare that to what it went in at, and note any difference. (It should be zero.) From where the lands marked the bullet towards the front, measure back to where they stop. Add to that amount any minus change in the OAL due to the bullet physically being pushed back. (Hopefully that amount is zero.) This number is how deep from max. OAL you should start seating your bullets, plus you should add in .015-.020 free bore travel . That should give you the best combination of accuracy and reliable feeding and function. Less OAL will reduce accuracy, too much and you already know what happens there. ;)

[armoredman]

Nifty! :cool:

[happy old sailor]

yep, check and double check. what i trust the least is my powder measures. this is not so bad since i got a "powder cop". i am Never in a hurry to blow up a good gun and deal with several other attendant problems. this is since i was present on the range when a 1911 blew from a double charge of bullseye. blew out the bottom rear of the case, blew out the magazine, and blew the grips off. no one was hurt, but the shooter had a sore paw from the grip panels expanding rapidly. he put the gun back together and it worked. he went home and i lost interest. next time i saw him i explained the use of a loading block and a flashlight to check powder levels. the powder cop works as advertised in my progressive. if it dont, i pull that case, eyeball and weigh it. this has only happened once and, somehow, the powder was at an angle and confused the powder checker.

this is the reason i cant turn out multiple hundreds of rounds per hour. checking, checking, checking. careful, careful, careful.

[armoredman]

I tried deliberately double charging a case to see what the difference in look is....it filled the little 9mm case to the top. Won't have THAT problem. I also triple eyeball each case after filling a block with charged cases.
This was simply not checking the fit in a dismounted barrel before firing, and a too light crimp that allowed it to "pull" the bullet rather than eject it! Soon I will take the newly redone rounds to the range, and see how well they work now! :cool:

[donkee]

Try 1.060 for the Meister 115g CLRN. Works just fine in my CZ75BD and my nephew's Arcus. They are nice bullets, I get great results from them.....

Try this link for determining OAL for your particular gun.

http://www.larrywillis.com/OAL.html

[armoredman]

Through trial and error, I discovered, SO FAR, that setting them at 1.095 works so far....so far....

[caz223]

That's why we do function checks before shooting...
And shoot a lot of our carry ammo before carrying....
And....

[armoredman]

Got more to try, lower charge, shorter, just a little more. Will be checking carefully for signs of overpressure....