Soot On Cases

[entropy]

The carbon from the wad cutters deposited on the chamber walls, then the 158s picked up some of it when they were fired, in addition to any from those rounds themselves.
I tried the Berry's plated 148 wad cutters (as well as many 230 plated RN in .45ACP), I just used the top end listed loads for lead. I seated mine flush.

 

[Barmcd]

The carbon from the wad cutters deposited on the chamber walls, then the 158s picked up some of it when they were fired, in addition to any from those rounds themselves.
I tried the Berry's plated 148 wad cutters (as well as many 230 plated RN in .45ACP), I just used the top end listed loads for lead. I seated mine flush.

Unlikely. I've shot thousands of the 158 gr. bullets and they all produce sooty cases. None of the few wadcutters I loaded did. I just loaded 200 of the wadcutters so I'll see if they all produce clean cases like these did.

 

[film495]

50 fps is pretty close, trying to match mixed load data, so - pretty good. how is criping the plated bullets? I've done plated in semi rounds, but not revolvers where I've just done semi wadcutters wtih a crimp groove. plated makes me uneasy so I just haven't done it. not sure how to crimp it right.

 

[epags]

I thought soot at the mouth of a fired case was caused by low charge weights not sealing the case in the chamber and was unavoidable when shooting softer target loads.

I shoot (and reload) rifle and handguns. My experience is that light 'sooting' you see is normal for handgun brass.
However, if you are shooting a rifle and have a very light powder load (especially with new brass or a fullly resized case) the brass will not expand sufficiently at the neck and shoulder and you will see a great deal of soot on the neck and shoulder. Scared me the first time I experienced it.

 

[Barmcd]

50 fps is pretty close, trying to match mixed load data, so - pretty good. how is criping the plated bullets? I've done plated in semi rounds, but not revolvers where I've just done semi wadcutters wtih a crimp groove. plated makes me uneasy so I just haven't done it. not sure how to crimp it right.

Well, I started out crimping too hard as they don't need much of a crimp. My crimp was putting a slight crease around the bullet, but I found out even that was too much. Now, I just put the lightest crimp that I can feel when inserting the bullet into the crimp die.

 

[Barmcd]

As an addendum to the post above -- plated bullets seem to "stick" in the cases and the barrel a lot harder than lead bullets. I've had to take a few plated bullets out of the case and its very difficult as they don't seem to slide very well. I also read a few forum posts about using lower end lead bullet loading data and getting the plated bullets stuck in the barrel of the gun. Apparently, they are also a lot harder to get out of the barrel. The point being they don't take a lot of crimp to hold them in place.

 

[bfalcon00]

I shoot (and reload) rifle and handguns. My experieince is that light 'sooting' you see is normal for handgun brass.
However, if you are shooting a rifle and have a very light powder load (especially with new brass or a fullly resized case) the brass will not expand sufficiently at the neck and shoulder and you will see a great deal of soot on the neck and shoulder. Scared me the first time I experienced it.

This has been my experience as well. I thought the OP's cases are some of the cleanest I've seen. Mine are much worse than his and I don't seem to have any problems. I wet tumble with SS pins and have no problem picking cases up out of the mud at the range.

 

[Riomouse911]

50 fps is pretty close, trying to match mixed load data, so - pretty good. how is criping the plated bullets? I've done plated in semi rounds, but not revolvers where I've just done semi wadcutters wtih a crimp groove. plated makes me uneasy so I just haven't done it. not sure how to crimp it right.

Taper crimps work well, as will a LIGHT roll crimp. A gorilla-crimp will cut the plating and this will affect accuracy and performance as bits of plating spin off the bullets as they fly towards the target.

I learned this the hard way years ago, when I overcrimped plated DEWC bullets. I found pieces of plating had peppered the card-paper bullseye targets and little coppery bits were stuck in the paper.

Go easy, and you will be just fine.

Stay safe.