G19/Lone Wolf Barrel Questions?

[powwowell]

Berry 124 gr HPs, G19/Lone Wolf Barrel Questions?

I have a favorite load of 4.0 grains of Titegroup, 124 grain Berry Plated HPs, CCI primer, seated at a 1.095 overall length. Works great with the Glock factory barrel.

I bought a Lone Wolf barrel, just in case I wanted to shoot lead through my G19. When trying the above Berry 124 load, the slide won't close. If I seat the bullets to an overall length of 1.016, the slide closes normally. Before I touch off a few rounds, I thought it would be prudent to ask a question, or two: 1) should I reduce the powder charge? 2) is the G19 expected to feed properly with cartridges this short (1.016)? Thanks.

 

[LiveLife]

is the G19 expected to feed properly with cartridges this short (1.016)?

Lone Wolf barrels have tighter chambers than most factory barrels meant for jacketed diameter bullets and Berry's bullets are sized slightly larger than jacketed bullets. This will require that all of your spent cases are resized fully and your taper crimp is properly set.

1. Make sure all of your resized cases fall in freely into the Lone Wolf chambers. If then don't, make sure the cases are full-length sized and pass the LW barrel drop test.

2. Using the resized cases that passed the LW barrel drop test, taper crimp the Berry's rounds with .376" taper crimp. If they won't fully chamber, reduce the taper crimp slightly below .376".

3. Starting with SAAMI Max OAL, determine the Max OAL that will allow the test round to fall in the LW chamber freely with a "plonk" and spin without hitting the rifling.

4. Once you determined the Max OAL, next determine the Ideal OAL by feeding the test round from the magazine. You may need to incrementally decrease the OAL until the test round reliably feeds/chambers from the magazine.

should I reduce the powder charge?

Berry's recommends we use start-to-mid range jacketed load data. IME, I have used lead load data with Berry's plated bullets rated to 1200 fps with good results [Berry's thick plated (TP) bullets are rated to 1450 fps and I use jacketed load data with them].

Hodgdon's website do not list load data for hollow point nose profile bullet with Titegroup. Jacketed load data for FMJ bullet lists 4.1-4.4 gr and lead load data for CN bullet sized larger at .356" lists 3.6-4.0 gr.

125 gr LCN Titegroup .356" OAL 1.125" Start 3.6 gr (1002 fps) 22,900 CUP - Max 4.0 gr (1096 fps) 30,400 CUP

125 gr Sierra FMJ Titegroup .355" OAL 1.090" Start 4.1 gr (1069 fps) 27,300 CUP - Max 4.4 gr (1136 fps) 30,600 CUP

Lyman #49 lists the following:

125 gr JHP 1.075" OAL Start 3.8 gr (962 fps) 26,100 CUP - Max 4.2 gr (1045 fps) 31,200 CUP

120 gr Lead CNFP 1.110" OAL Start 3.3 gr (997 fps) 24,400 CUP - Max 3.7 gr (1109 fps) 32,200 CUP

120 gr Lead RN 1.065" OAL Start 3.2 gr (1021 fps) 25,200 CUP - Max 3.8 gr (1091 fps) 30,000 CUP

For me, depending on how deep the bullet base gets seated in the case neck, I would conduct my powder work up starting at 3.2 or 3.4 gr and work up from there. I may work towards 4.0 gr initially and see if I have reliable slide cycling and accuracy.

 

[kingmt]

Yes. Reduce your charge. That is a huge amount of loss in case volume. It is going to raise pressure a lot. That powder my even be to fast for that reduction.