I said I was going to do this because of my concern of Federal primers that appear flattened. As I just started reloading, this was mainly for my own education but I'll share it anyway. All these were fired with a 5.4gr charge of Widener's CPP powder with a 9mm FMJ 115gr bullet.
Here are 40 loaded rounds. The first two vertical rows on the left are CCI, then Federal, Remington and then Winchester.
Here they are fired. Again starting from the left vertical stack; CCI, Federal, Remington, Winchester.
The Federal primers still appear to take on the most prominent flattening and imprinting of the breechface. The rest of the primers do have some slight breechface imprinting but not near as distinct. The Federal primers also seemed to take the least effort to seat. Are Federal primers "soft"? I would think that is a true statement. When The Federal primers I have are used up, I don't think I will be buying them again. I don't have a preference for the others. Either CCI, Remington or Winchester would be fine. Federal, not so much...
As a side note. When I was at the range I was looking around for some brass and found 34- 45 ACP reloads someone tossed in the trash. They looked OK so I took them home and broke them down. That inertia puller I bought came in handy. These rounds came apart with very little effort. One good tap and the bullet was out. They didn't seem to be crimped at all. One good push against the bench would set the bullet back .025 or more. A couple of the wad-cutters were severely set-back and one had a nice dent where it was dropped or didn't feed. I guess he got fed up and tossed the live rounds in the trash.
When I got them home and started pulling them, I swear the first one had less than a grain of powder in it.
I started weighing some of the charges and they varied from 4.4 to 4.8 grains. I don't know what kind of powder he used but it is distinctive as one side appears dull the other shiny. It looks like a ball powder.
He also screwed up a primer pretty good. It was so bad, the round wouldn't even stand up without falling over cause he smashed in the primer so bad on one side. I found several others with high primers. I'm going to Deprime these rounds and prime them myself just to make sure the primer pocket is OK.
I got a little more education and 4- 200 grain semi-wad cutters, 13- 230 grain round nose, 17- 185 grain flat nose bullets and some brass for my trouble. I just started reloading but even I know the guy that loaded these rounds should stop reloading. The bullets look like they are plated and they still measure out at .452
Here's a pic of the the powder. Maybe someone can ID it.
Here are 40 loaded rounds. The first two vertical rows on the left are CCI, then Federal, Remington and then Winchester.
Here they are fired. Again starting from the left vertical stack; CCI, Federal, Remington, Winchester.
The Federal primers still appear to take on the most prominent flattening and imprinting of the breechface. The rest of the primers do have some slight breechface imprinting but not near as distinct. The Federal primers also seemed to take the least effort to seat. Are Federal primers "soft"? I would think that is a true statement. When The Federal primers I have are used up, I don't think I will be buying them again. I don't have a preference for the others. Either CCI, Remington or Winchester would be fine. Federal, not so much...
As a side note. When I was at the range I was looking around for some brass and found 34- 45 ACP reloads someone tossed in the trash. They looked OK so I took them home and broke them down. That inertia puller I bought came in handy. These rounds came apart with very little effort. One good tap and the bullet was out. They didn't seem to be crimped at all. One good push against the bench would set the bullet back .025 or more. A couple of the wad-cutters were severely set-back and one had a nice dent where it was dropped or didn't feed. I guess he got fed up and tossed the live rounds in the trash.
When I got them home and started pulling them, I swear the first one had less than a grain of powder in it.
I started weighing some of the charges and they varied from 4.4 to 4.8 grains. I don't know what kind of powder he used but it is distinctive as one side appears dull the other shiny. It looks like a ball powder.
He also screwed up a primer pretty good. It was so bad, the round wouldn't even stand up without falling over cause he smashed in the primer so bad on one side. I found several others with high primers. I'm going to Deprime these rounds and prime them myself just to make sure the primer pocket is OK.
I got a little more education and 4- 200 grain semi-wad cutters, 13- 230 grain round nose, 17- 185 grain flat nose bullets and some brass for my trouble. I just started reloading but even I know the guy that loaded these rounds should stop reloading. The bullets look like they are plated and they still measure out at .452
Here's a pic of the the powder. Maybe someone can ID it.