Pistol won't go into full battery

[supertech]

Any ideas why my handloads for my Smith and Wesson MP 45 won't go into full battery at least once for every mag loaded. I am loading 230 LRN over 7.0 gr of HS-6. Thanks in advance

 

[ants]

Have you tried different cartridge overall lengths, different crimp diameters, checked the cartridges in a case gauge (or the pistol barrel as a chamber gauge), checked the adjustment of the sizing die, cleaned the lead out of the chamber, checked the recoil spring?

A dedicated crimp die (taper crimp or factory crimp die) can help normalize all your rounds, especially if you have more than one pistol, but first you might run through the checklist above.

 

[scrat]

im thinking you need to mic them. chances are the case was not sized all the way or its too long.

 

[Steve C]

Generally this problem is with bullet profile engaging the rifling of the barrel before the case mouth head spaces in the chamber. Normal cure is to reduce your cartridge OAL a bit. This assumes a properly sized case with proper crimp and no remaining flaring. Remove your barrel and check to see if your reloaded rounds drop into and fit the chamber the same as a factory round. They should drop in and fall out with no resistance or sticking. Make sure to drop in a factory round to see what they look like.

 

[Quoheleth]

FWIW, I had to shorten my 9mm reloads by a couple hundredths from what the manual says to what my M&P will feed.

Use the manual for getting close. Seat a bullet to that depth, but don't crimp just yet. Check the round for fit in your gun's chamber. If it fits, measure the OAL length and then crimp it up and go for it. Spot-check rounds for correct OAL as you continue to make ammo in case something should move (build-up, etc.).

That's what I had to do, and now my M&P runs just fine.

Q

 

[The Bushmaster]

Check for dirty chamber too. Just on the outside chance...Had that happen with a powder that was not completely burning and leaving unburned powder in the chamber...

 

[Jim Watson]

I have seen several causes:

Insufficient case mouth flare leading to a ring of lead scraped up ahead of the brass.
Apply more flare and don't worry about trying to make the brass last forever by working it less.

Cast bullet diameter + brass thickness leading to oversize round.
Chamber check and if you get a lot of rounds that will not chamber FREELY, consider a Lee Carbide Factory Crimp Die to iron everything out. Or plan on exercising a lot more care to match up components.

Bullet bearing surface stopping against the chamber mouth or rifling entry.
Seat a LITTLE deeper.

Fouling.
I don't play the Internet Clean Powder Game, but HS6 is the only powder I have ever tried that would coke up a gun enough to cause malfunctions in a normal range session.

 

[ZeSpectre]

Supertech,
I had a similar problem recently. Initially I thought I wasn't creating enough "bell" to open the cartridge and maybe I was shaving lead and clogging up the rim.

Howerver, as it turns out I was over-crimping my cartridges and causing the LRN bullet to "mushroom" forward obscuring the rim of the cartridge.

This is an extreme exaggeration to demonstrate what I'm talking about.



How badly this happened depended totally on the length of the brass so some were -just barely- in spec and would chamber and others wouldn't. All I had to do was back my crimp off just a touch more and I was golden.

Take your fingernail and run it around the rim of the cartridge. Do you have a nice "shelf" that your fingernail can follow or is the lead from the bullet essentially covering that "shelf" of the rim?

If the lead is covering the rim the round won't chamber.

Let me know if this helps.

Ze

 

[schmeky]

Make dern sure your sizing die is resizing the entire case. If it is adjusted to "shallow", you may not be sizing the base of the case adequately.

Don't ask how I know this.

 

[Walkalong]

That drawing is a thing of beauty ZeSpectre.

I can't draw a stick man myself.

 

[jjohnson]

Case Gage, About $12. Proper loads, Priceless.

Oh, ZeSpecter, nice drawing - how'd you do that? Very cool.

Right, the subject - for less than the cost of a box of cheap ammo, you can get a case gage that'll tell you most of what you need to know for auto reloading.

I loaded a couple thousand 9mm that were "defective fit" about 30% of the time before I coughed up the twelve bucks :banghead: You may have problems other than sizing, but in 9mm/.40/45 it's important to be able to check often. You won't be sorry you invested a few bucks. The case gage can quickly either show you a problem or eliminate half of the things that might be wrong.

 

[ZeSpectre]

Oh, ZeSpecter, nice drawing - how'd you do that? Very cool.

Pen and paper, flatbed scanner, posted via Photobucket.
(I realized well after I posted um, what it -could- look like if you had a certain bent of mind but hey, I did the best I could to illustrate my point).

 

[jjohnson]

Bad Dog, ZeSpectre.

Oh, man.....

I get it. Jeez.

Well, thanks for the info on "how to" the pic. I thought maybe it was a drawing off a mouse - I've seen those - but they're clumsy.

 

[tinygnat219]

What, so he drew a grain silo, I don't get it.

 

[The Bushmaster]

Yup...Figured it out. The first one is a tube of lipstick and the other one is a muffin...

 

[supertech]

I pulled the barrel out of the pistol last night and dropped a hand load into the chamber, when I inverted the barrel, the round would stay in the chamber. I repeated this with a factory round and the round falls out freely. I think it probably has something to do with the shoulder on the lead cast bullet. The first five hundred rounds were loaded with 230gr plated bullets which had no shoulder. If I am using the same oal with the lead bullets, isn't there a good chance the shoulder on the bullet is gonna contact the rifling?

 

[Hutch]

Without fully diagnosing the problem, I'd be willing to bet it can be solved with a Lee Factory Crimp die. That saved me a TON of reloads that came thru my Dillon XL650 with Dillon 9mm dies. Ran 'em all back thru a factory crimp die, problem solved.

 

[schmeky]

Supertech,

I too have an M&P45 I reload for. Love this thing! Anyway, with lead bullets, you may an accumulation of powder and lead residue in the actual chamber itself. This has happened to my M&P after a long range session with lead bullets.

If this is the case, get a Lewis Lead Remover.

 

[ZeSpectre]

I pulled the barrel out of the pistol last night and dropped a hand load into the chamber, when I inverted the barrel, the round would stay in the chamber.

Yup, that is exactly the same thing that was happening to me. If you push the round in firmly and then pull it out do you have a nice shiny indent ring in the lead (just above the case rim)?

If so I bet you are having just the same issue that I did (from overcrimping). If so then make sure your die is clean and ease off on your crimp then make 3-4 rounds and see how it works.

If you don't get the shiny ring it might just be lead buildup though I doubt that if the factory round fits in and drops out.

 

[supertech]

Thanks for all the input guys. I decreased the OAL on the reloads by about .015" and it seems to have done the trick. I shot one hundred rounds through it today and did not have a single failure.