first 45acp reloads - not ejecting?

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kellyj00

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I just finished up my first 45acp reloads on once fired brass w/ 230 gr lead tcbb bullets.

The only problem is that they seem to stick in the chamber. They feed just fine, but they seem to stick there. I'm assuming i did something wrong with the crimp (using lee 4 die set). I seated a bullet with the seater die, then I adjusted the crimp die down to the top of the newly seated bullet, lowered the ram, then added 1/2 turn...just like the manual says.

Do I have some bad brass? did I over expand them or something?

Thanks!
 
Two things could cause this. One would be that there isn't enough crimp and the slight bell of the brass is dragging against the walls of the chamber. The other is that too much of the bullet is extending from the case mouth and is being held by the rifling or throat. Some .45's have fairly short throats and require shorter over all length to chamber properly. Check the bullets to see if there are any marks on them when you push the round out of the barrel, which is best done with the barrel removed from the slide.

If you ran the brass all the way into your sizing die, then I would think either of these two things could be causing your problem.

Hope this helps.

Fred
 
What was the powder and powder weight? Have you fired them or are they sticking in the chamber when you try to see if they will chamber. If they are sticking and have not been fired , your overall length may be a tad too long and the bullet is being jammed into the rifling and sticking. If so , shorten your overall length.
 
put some butter on them.


post the OAL in addition to the powder and weight.

but it makes me curious if 45acp can have difficulty extracting from high pressure, like rifle cartridges. i've never heard of that before, and given how low pressure 45acp normally is... it's doubtful.
 
I'm using 4.5 grains of red dot.... my OAL is 1.275".
again, these are my first loadings....any information would be appreciated.

also noteable, the rounds "Stick" in both my SA 1911 and an XD 45 4". I take the barrel off and put it in chamber, the bullet sticks and has to be removed with a dowel from the other side. Doh!

Do I risk hurting anything by putting "too much" crimp on them...or seating the bullet too deeply?
 
I take the barrel off and put it in chamber, the bullet sticks and has to be removed with a dowel from the other side.
Click to expand...

O.A.L. too long. 1.275 is max if I remember right. I don't load any .45 that long. I would load them at 1.260 and try again. That should fix it. Double check your crimp as well. Just enough to remove the bell and a tiny touch more. (tiny) I have to use magnification to see my .45 crimp.

Alliant shows 4.0 Grs. Red Dot for 230 Gr. lead (target)

They go to 5.0 Grs. for 230 Gr. Jacketed.

4.5 Grs. should be OK.

Seat too deep - Possible KB
Click to expand...

It would have to be much deeper. That is a much bigger worry with 9MM & .40, but not as big a deal with .45, although you can't just cram a bullet way down in the case and expect to be OK either.
 
all good advise, I'll try it out here in a few and let you folks know what happens.

Thanks for the quick responses.
 
i thought the Lee FCD was supposed to resize the finished cartridge? would that not mean it has to be that the COL is to long? or that the lead bullets were not sized properly. if seating them deaper does not solve the problem you might want to put a mic to the bullets and check size/roundness just to be sure.
 
FWIW I think you OAL is too long. I haven't used the bullets you're using but with 230 Gr. Hornady XTP's I had the same problem until I went to a COL of 1.230.

Good Luck!
 
alliant website shows 1.19 as the OAL.
exactly how much does the overall length matter? From what it looks like, as much as 1/16" doesn't make any difference! remember, 1/16 is about .063 inches...

1.26 - 1.19 = .07 about 1/16".

I guess this isn't really as much of an exact science as I originally thought.
 
You are probably loading much too long. All those numbers being thrown around for OAL don't mean a thing unless they are for the exact same bullet as you have.

Look at a bullet. Can you see where the truncated cone nose section transitions to the cylindrical bearing surface?
If so, good.
Now seat a bullet to where that transition is about .020" (need not be exact, anything from 0 to .030" will do for a start) above the case mouth and taper crimp. Chamber check in the barrel(s), clean and out of the gun. Do they drop in freely? If so, great. If not, seat a little deeper but do not put that transition to the nose below the mouth of the brass.
 
kellyj00 said:
I'm using 4.5 grains of red dot.... my OAL is 1.275".
again, these are my first loadings....any information would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
You don't say what bullet you are using, which makes a difference. The Hornady 4th Ed lists a COL of 1.240" for 230 FMJ-RN, and 1.200" for 230 FMJ-FP (no loads for Red Dot though). For 185gr JHP, COL is 1.230", max charge of Red Dot is 5.1gr. These are Hornady bullets, but I find they are in the ballpark for similiar offerings from others.
 
After reading your subsequent posts, I can pretty much tell you the over all length is too long and the bullets are sticking in the rifling. As mentioned, shorten them until they fall freely from the barrel.

If you have a factory ball round, you can set up your seating die with it. Back off the seating stem and run the loaded round up into the seating die. Then screw the seating stem down until it touches the loaded round and tighten the lock nut. That will give you the proper profile for most .45's and should pretty well cure your chambering problem at the same time. If it doesn't, then just seat the bullets deeper until it does.

Hope this helps.

Fred
 
OAL too long

I agree that the OAL is too long.
I interpret your bullet to be truncated cone. You cannot use the same OAL as for FMJ RN. You need to treat the bullet like a hollow point. My factory JHP have OAL of 1.21. Factory 230 FMJ are 1.268. I have had the same problem with my first tc load on my XD 45. When seated at 1.21 the tc would fire, but I decided to leave the tc bullets to my 45LC.
 
I've seated them to around 1.15 - 1.19 or so....and they are feeding/ejecting very well now.

Since they are truncated cone, I'm pretty much running them in to where the cone meets what was called the "cylindrical bearing section" basically, I can't see the flat portion any longer, only the truncated cone.

If they were RN I probably wouldn't be having the same trouble.
 
That's wher I ended up.

As I said, I've had virtually the same experience. I also end up with little or no cylindrical surface showing.
 
"If they were RN I probably wouldn't be having the same trouble."

You would have. The usual bulk cast RN out of a Magma mould and machine cannot be loaded to 1.275" OAL, either.

Congratulations, Grasshopper, you have taken the first step from an internet recipe hunter to a real handloader.
 
so... lower than the specified overall length is ok, just as long as it doesn't look like the slug is way too far back?
 
well, I'm using .61 CC of red dot powder on mostly Winchester cases. I'm not sure if it gets too close to the slug.... any way to know if I'm compressing it?
 
you can calculate free space with water, it takes a minute.

Seat a bullet to your depth but without a primer, use a small syringe to fill with water, fill syringe to an even number (like 10cc's or something easy to remember), fill case with water up to the pocket, but not filling the pocket. Inspect syringe, how many 10ths of a cc did you use?

It's way easier to just use published data, that is my retarded way of calculating free space in handgun ammo.
 
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