.45 Reloading Question. I need a problem solved.

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Josephnagy1

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What am I doing wrong. I have been having a bit of trouble with my .45 reloads. I will make 50 rounds and 3-4 of them will not feed completely into the barrel. When this happens the gun literally becomes inoperable. The slide is jammed and I have to force the slide back on something hard to eject the round. Clearly I am making a mistake at a step in the process. I am using an RCBS progressive press. I am never had this problem until I started .45's. I have check OAL and it is 1.274 OAL for a .45 is supposed to be 1.275.*

Here is a picture of all the rounds and a picture of one of the rounds in a barrel.
What am I missing. How can 46 go right and 4 don't. I made them at the same time.*
 

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The second round from the right has the bullet seated a little crooked. I had this problem with my rcbs die set. I bought a Lyman m die and this helped tremendously with the seating concentricity. Seating to 1.260 should be considered. 1.275 is max. so you could try a bit shorter. Also use a lee factory crimp die and your problems will probably go away.
 
How far down does your sizing die go? The third cartridge from the left looks sized with tension. The other three don't look like they have much tension. I am on my phone so I can't tell for sure.
 
What weight bullet? If it is a 230 gr FMJ I would "guess" your OAL is too long.
 
this is a gen 4 21 barrel but i was shooting a 1911 today.

So seating down is ok? what would the min OAL be?
 
Some will go as low as 1.250 with fmj 230 grain ball but don't go that low with max loads unless your manual specifically gives that as oal. Going shorter will maybe help some but it's not all of what's going on.

Try this, take a round that looks like the second from right and roll it on a flat surface. If it's not seated straight you will see it. If you do see it then get a Lyman m die or something similar.
 
bullet weight is 230. the book i have says oal should be 1.275. what does everyone else suggest?
 
My standard 1st 45 ACP reloading question:

Measure the diameter of your loaded case at the mouth.
What is it?
 
Josephnagy1 said:
bullet weight is 230. the book i have says oal should be 1.275. what does everyone else suggest?
Click to expand...
OAL/COL should be determined using the barrel drop test first to determine the max OAL/COL then next determine the working OAL/COL by feeding/chambering the round from the magazine - http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=506678

But first, full length resize some cases and test them in the barrel to ensure they drop in freely. Once they pass the drop test, use these resized cases to determine your max and working OAL/COL.


Josephnagy1 said:
How can 46 go right and 4 don't. I made them at the same time.
Click to expand...
As JoeDaddy posted, some of the bullets could be tilting as they are seated and ending up with larger diameter at the case neck. Are you using round or flat bullet seating stem?
 
I have check OAL and it is 1.274 OAL for a .45 is supposed to be 1.275.*
Click to expand...
1.275" is MAX AOL with a GI profile FMJ-RN bullet.

Yours aren't, and are more rounded.

Notice quite a bit of full diameter bullet bearing surface still sticking out of the cases?

You will have to seat them short enough to get it all inside the case.


Right now, they are jamming into the rifling leade I betcha.

Take the barrel out of the gun and use it to drop check your OAL at the reloading press.

rc
 
Load some at 1.260 to 1.265 OAL and see if they pass the plunk test bds linked to earlier. As rcmodel posted, 1.275 is the SAMMI Max length only, and not a recommendation for a functional OAL. That is determined by the bullet, and barrel.
 
Josephnagy1 said:
I will make 50 rounds and 3-4 of them will not feed completely into the barrel ... I am using an RCBS progressive press.
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Since most of your rounds chambered fully in the barrel, your OAL may be marginally OK (slamming of the slide to battery may have seated them shorter ;)) but the cases may not be fully being resized.

I would pull the bullets from the offending cases and resize only the top half of the cases and see if they drop freely into the tightest chamber barrel you have. If they don't, they didn't get fully resized and I would check the die adjustment.

FWIW, with 230 gr RN bullets, I usually don't use longer than 1.265" OAL/COL (I need to load them shorter at 1.260"-1.263" max to chamber fully in Sig barrel with very quick start of rifling). As rcmodel posted, this could be a combination of factors: too long of OAL/COL, not fully resized cases and tilting of the bullet during seating.

I really think Walkalong's thread should be a sticky.
 
this is a gen 4 21 barrel but i was shooting a 1911 today.
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The reason I asked is I have experienced this before with the new Gen 4's and especially with the G21. My friends has a chamber tighter than my case gauge or my Gold cup. I know there are many here who read more than they shoot and think they know everything about glocks. The newer ones have very tight chambers.
Try a little more taper crimp before you re-do everything else. Give it the "plunk" test and then see how they shoot.
 
sexybeast, but the OP posted that most of 50 rounds DID work, just 3-4 had problems so I am thinking amount of taper crimp used was OK.

Since the dimension of the barrel is constant, the variable factors are the diameter of the case/bullet and OAL/COL.

That's why I suggested OP pull the bullets and partially resize the offending cases to see whether they were full-length resized to begin with. If they do not drop in freely, they did not get fully resized. If they all drop freely in the tightest chamber, then we could suspect the OAL/tilting of the bullet.
 
BDS, if they were put through the sizer die they got sized.
This same thing happened to me and a friend and increasing the taper crimp fixed it. Only a few would not chamber! Some of the case walls are thicker and it won't go into the chamber, thats why the bulge was there after setting the bullet. It was not there after being sized! The OAL looks the same on all the rounds and probably has nothing to do with it.
 
I think so too.
bds said:
As JoeDaddy posted, some of the bullets could be tilting as they are seated and ending up with larger diameter at the case neck. Are you using round or flat bullet seating stem?
Click to expand...
I think we provided OP enough things to check. Let's see what the OP finds out. :)
 
i made a new batch of 50 and i shortened the oal to 1.26. three did the same thing as before HOWEVER i was able to clear them by hand. typically i have to put the end of the slide on a block of wood and push down as it isn't seating into battery.

also the three that did this also had the bulge. i would assume from the previous comments that it was due to it being a bit crooked.

the bullet seating die is for a round nose projectile.

i want to thank all of you for your help already. i am still learning an i have to say EVERY time i come here i find my answer. just all around good people in here. much appreciated.

so what else do i try? another batch at a shorter oak?

i have been using the plunk test and that is why i have been using the g21 barrel.
 
Your OAL may just be too long. I have a Kimber that prefers a length shorter than 1.250". My new BE gun has a slightly tighter chamber than the Kimber and had to shorten it another 0.010". I end up loading to 1.235" for it works in all my guns. Just make sure you workup your loads with the shorter length.
 
I would try as short an OAL as you can go and a Lee factory crimp die. I seat my round nose plated bullets so that the entire shank of the bullet is within the case. I determined my OAL by seating a dummy round in increments and measuring the bullet diameter at the case mouth. When it went to .001" below bullet diameter I was done, at 1.265". Any shorter and you won't get a good crimp and you could have headspace problems. That is the minimum OAL with this bullet.

The Lee crimp die will resize the finished cartridge to make sure it will seat into any SAAMI chamber. I had a similar problem as yours with my Blackhawk Convertible, a couple chambers were slightly tighter than the others and wouldn't take my handloads. The Lee die fixed that. Some people don't like the Lee die because it resizes their lead bullets, and I get that, but you are using jacketed so that isn't an issue.

Also make sure your bullets are seating straight. I had RCBS make me a custom seater stem for the RN bullets I use because the one that came with the die set wasn't cutting it. The custom stem is deeper and fits the nose precisely. Start them as straight as you can by hand before running it up into the die. I will give the handle a couple of light taps as the bullet contacts the seating stem. This seems to help a lot getting the bullet straight before I lower the handle to fully seat the bullet. Good luck.
 
I think 243winxb got it right ! I went back and looked at the picture closely , the case mouths on 3 of the 4 appear to not be perpendicular to the case wall ! The fourth is visibly bulged ! Kevin
 
Is the bulge equal all the way around is the question. If it is, it is just a tight fit, if not, it is a bit crooked.
 
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