The pitfalls of relying on reloaded ammo.

Years ago a buddy was going to Alaska for bear and moose. He asked me to load his ammo. I politely refused. "If you are spending thousands on a hunting trip, dont cut costs and increase risk of failure by using someone else's reloads"
He bought premium ammo and got two good head of game.
 
mountainroads said:
Just to reemphasize - the dented case mouth was caused by the misfeed. The cartridges looked fine when loaded into the magazine. The misfeed was caused by a slightly flared case mouth, causing the lip to hang up on the feed ramp. I plan to confirm via further testing using only factory load ammo.

- MR
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I'm not sure this is correct based on your measurements.

Your measurements shows a diameter at the top to the rim of .361", I assume mouth of case. There can't be a flare. The 9mm bullet is .355", with a case wall thickness of .01" or more. This gives you a diameter of .355" + .01" + .01" = .375". If there was a flare it would be more than .375".

To get to .361" you will need a case wall of .003" (.355" + .003" + .003"= .361"). The case wall is either very thin or your measurements are off.
 
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mountainroads said:
One of my previous threads documented feeding issues I was having with my accurized 1911 Colt .45 auto, i.e. its fussy eating habits. I seem to have solved that by sticking with factory FMJ hardball.
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Thats not a reload problem. First thing I do with a 1911 is get a few different mags, some fired brass and see what it likes. They eat just about anything when they will feed an empty case.

Looks like this.

www.youtube.com

1911 mags

www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
 
There seem to be a lot of individuals that either fail to remove the flair completly or do the opposite and taper crimp the bejesus out of the rim and turn it into a roll crimp. Either way if you do the plunk test with the finished ammo in the firearm you intend to use you will find the problem before your range trip. And another vote for not using anothers reloads. I have even had problems with commercially reloaded ammo from the likes of Ultramax, etc. I usually set my taper crimp to work with my titest chamber and the ammo will work in all.
 
Bill M said:
I have a friend who loads commercially, and a while back he started powder coating, knowing I have purchased some blue bullets to load for my granddaughter, (her favorite color), he gave me some. At out next shoot he gave her a box of his reloads, and everything worked well until the third stage, and her gun, (Glock 17) locked up. I had to get my brother in law to smack the frame/grip with his hand while I held the slide against the table. She reshot the stage, and I told my friend he had missed sizing that case, he put it in his 1911 style 9mm, (Rock Island Armory), and it chambered, asked what's the problem. I took the barrell out of my G34, and said try that, couldn't even force it in, (I did have to drive it out). He has expensive case blocks to check fitment, and we stuck it in there, had to drive it out. He loads thousands a week, and has no problems, but I'm convinced "that" case somehow missed the rollsizer, as well as the check block. I ran it through my Lee FCD, and chambered, and shot it at the next match!
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The Lee factory crimp die is controversial but it does insure that every round run through it chambers properly. If you want ammo that is reliable and don't want to drop every round into a case gauge use the Lee factory crimp die. It adds an extra step but it eliminates the checking step. If you have enough stations on your press you can use the die with no extra time. You don't know if your friends load has a double or no charge but it will chamber.:)
 
vaalpens said:
I'm not sure this is correct based on your measurements.

Your measurements shows a diameter at the top to the rim of .361", I assume mouth of case. There can't be a flare. The 9mm bullet is .355", with a case wall thickness of .01" or more. This gives you a diameter of .355" + .01" + .01" = .375". If there was a flare it would be more than .375".

To get to .361" you will need a case wall of .003" (.355" + .003" + .003"= .361"). The case wall is either very thin or your measurements are off.
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@vaalpens: Not sure what to tell you on that one. I agree - the measurements didn't seem all that different. I am not a machinist by profession and the caliper I used is not professional quality, but it is digital and did give consistent readings. I may / may not take the time to recheck, based on yesterday's findings (posted below).
 
FROGO207 said:
There seem to be a lot of individuals that either fail to remove the flair completly or do the opposite and taper crimp the bejesus out of the rim and turn it into a roll crimp. Either way if you do the plunk test with the finished ammo in the firearm you intend to use you will find the problem before your range trip. And another vote for not using anothers reloads. I have even had problems with commercially reloaded ammo from the likes of Ultramax, etc. I usually set my taper crimp to work with my titest chamber and the ammo will work in all.
Click to expand...
@FROGO207 : >> plunk test << That's a great idea. I need to clean the gun after latest range trip anyway, so that will be a good time to do that.
 
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Sorry it's taken so long to get back to this forum. Finally had an opportunity to do some time at the range, yesterday. Bought 3 boxes of Federal American Eagle FMJ 124 gr. and fully loaded both mags (25 rnd and 32 rnd). Shot 60+ rnds without a single misfeed. I'll probably do a little more checking to see if I can better determine what the exact problem was because I'm persistent like that, but at this point I'm mostly just happy to have found a reliable solution. FWIW, there is a noticeable "feel" difference where the case rim meets the bullet on some of the reloads and one batch is shorter (COAL), but I agree there doesn't seem to be a direct correlation with observed case diameter measurements.

Thanks for all the responses and suggestions, guys. Truly appreciated, Now on to the next long dormant autoloader for functional testing. There's a reason I'm partial to wheel guns for PD.

BTW, I'm a complete proponent of skill development and maintaining proficiency with a single platform vs. the smorgasbord approach. Unfortunately, my IMI platform doesn't lend itself well to concealed carry even with the short barrel, although it's my favorite shooter ;).

- MR
 
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I'm happy to report that my misfeed issues seem to have been resolved by the following:
1) Sticking to factory FMJ loads. Although only one of the reloads failed the "plunk test", I'll save all reloads for my 9mm Walther that I only use for target practice at the range. It's also much easier to clear any jams that do occur.
2) Disassembled both mags put a little oil on the follower sides.
3) Not filling mags to maximum capacity: 20 rounds in the 25 round mag, and 25 rounds in the 32 round mag. I realize this last step is a compromise, but I far prefer reliability over maximum capacity.

Thoughts/comments/advise gratefully accepted.

- MR
 
So... you bought cheap reman ammo some years ago and are claiming the cause of the problem is that it was made by a reloader rather than a factory?
 
mountainroads said:
I'm happy to report that my misfeed issues seem to have been resolved by the following:
1) Sticking to factory FMJ loads. Although only one of the reloads failed the "plunk test", I'll save all reloads for my 9mm Walther that I only use for target practice at the range. It's also much easier to clear any jams that do occur.
2) Disassembled both mags put a little oil on the follower sides.
3) Not filling mags to maximum capacity: 20 rounds in the 25 round mag, and 25 rounds in the 32 round mag. I realize this last step is a compromise, but I far prefer reliability over maximum capacity.

Thoughts/comments/advise gratefully accepted.

- MR
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Oil can work its way into cartridges around the bullet or primer. If a magazine is reliable, it doesn’t need oil. If it’s not reliable, oil won’t help. One thing I have done on a few milsurp mags is carefully smooth out any edges, welds, stamping on the follower with a little emery cloth. And thoroughly remove any gunk or dried lube/cosmoline. This made some surplus BHP mags I owned much smoother. But just a little smoothing goes a long way.
 
It can happen with factory ammo, too.

Backwards primer, no flash holes, a folded case mouth and a case that was too long and it wedged into the chamber.

Always good to give ammo a once over before loading into your gun, even if it is new and comes from factory boxes. (Of course, the no flash hole issue is only discovered after that round is fired.)

Stay safe.
 

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Riomouse911 said:
It can happen with factory ammo, too.

Backwards primer, no flash holes, a folded case mouth and a case that was too long and it wedged into the chamber.

Always good to give ammo a once over before loading into your gun, even if it is new and comes from factory boxes. (Of course, the no flash hole issue is only discovered after that round is fired.)

Stay safe.
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Wow! I wonder how any of these slipped through QC! 😳

I suspect, but can’t prove, there’s a lot of Chicken Little syndrome involved. When something goes wrong with a handload, the Nattering Neighbob’s squawk about until the horse just can’t get beat no more, the error compounded by every squawk session. When something goes wrong with a factory round the operator does a rack-tap-bang drill and moves on.

I don’t say there’s anything wrong or right about it. Just that I suspect it goes on more frequently than we might suppose.
 
I too, am wary of some factory ammo!
Riomouse911 said:
It can happen with factory ammo, too.

Backwards primer, no flash holes, a folded case mouth and a case that was too long and it wedged into the chamber.

Always good to give ammo a once over before loading into your gun, even if it is new and comes from factory boxes. (Of course, the no flash hole issue is only discovered after that round is fired.)

Stay safe.
Click to expand...
Hugger-4641 said:
if I or one one of the few people I trust had loaded that, we would have almost certainly caught it in the case guage. Every pistol rd I load gets checked in a Wilson case gauge.
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20240414_193051.jpg
 
Years ago, I traded for a case of Win 357 mag "Silvertips", I had a failure to fire, (double or single action) with almost every box! I kept all and ended up with a box of 42 that I planned to return to Winchester, (with a complaint). I instead pulled them all, and relaoded them with Fed primers!
 
I have half a 50 Cal can of 9mm that's useless. I keep this can as a reminder about reloading ammo.

We were getting ready for a desert trip, told a friend I would be over after work, to help reload a bunch of ammo for the trip.

When I got there, he had already loaded a couple hundred rounds or more. I thought, ok, this is a good start and started helping.

Another friend showed up to help and we went through most of our reloading supplies. It's amazing how quick 3 people can load a couple thousand rounds or more.

We get out to the desert and another friend grabs some of the ammo to shoot. He gets a pop, luckily it jams his gun. Pulls it apart and stuck halfway down the barrel is a projo.

After a couple other people have the same thing happen, can you guess what happened to my friend before I showed up to help?

One of these days I'll break it all down, everytime I see the can I just shake my head.
 
Varminterror said:
So... you bought cheap reman ammo some years ago and are claiming the cause of the problem is that it was made by a reloader rather than a factory?
Click to expand...
I'm not sure I understand your comment. I bought this ammo from a trusted source a long time ago. Partly because it was cheaper and I was on a tighter budget at the time, but mostly because I thought it was just as good if not better. I'm finally getting around to using it and am now discovering some issues. I probably could've complained at the time, but that opportunity has long since expired as my contact has passed away.

Issues seem to involve both the ammo (reloaded full lead instead of factory FMJ) and the magazines. I did smooth the lips a bit with sandpaper, but didn't want to make any major mods without really knowing what I was doing.

I hesitated to oil the follower because I know that can attract dirt, so I was very conservative with that. Not thrilled that I can't trust them to hold full capacity.

- MR
 
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