I'm only two weeks in to reloading and seemed to have found my first mistake. I flared my 45 ACP cases very little in an effort to make the brass last longer but this made starting the bullet straight a bit trickier. I'm sure that when starting some of them, they were not perfectly straight. Then after several more rounds were assembled, I noticed a faint case bulge only on one side. I did not like the looks of that at all, signaling that the bullet must not be straight in relation to the brass.
From that point on I started the bullets much more carefully and pressed them in slightly and then rotated the cartridge 180 dgs in the shell holder before finishing the press and crimp all the way.
I did not do a good job of separating what I knew was straight or crooked and it is not easy to quickly see the difference now. (Note to self to be more organized.)
The loads are Berry's 230 plated RN, 5.3 grains Bullseye, 1.262 OAL.
When shooting my newbie reloads, everything was great and accuracy was not bad. Easily staying in a six inch circle at 7 yards off hand, nothing special, similar to how I shoot factory ammo out of my Glock 21. The problem started after aprox 150 rounds. Many shots were hitting 4 to 5 inches low.
I unloaded the gun and inspected the barrel as best I could in the dimly lit indoor range, nothing obvious. I don't think I seated every single bullet perfectly in a run and then seated 50 in a row crooked.
Could the crooked bullets have fouled just one area of the barrel and caused the shots to be low from that point on?
The water wasn't muddy enough so I shot a full magazine of factory Federal HST and a full magazine of factory Remington Golden Saber and they were all centered with better accuracy than I normally shoot the ball ammo.
More mud was needed so I shot a magazine of Factory Winchester ball. Low again.
Anybody have wisdom for a newbie?
I'm not blowing off good advice and also not trying to beat a dead horse but I have one last question just so I will be educated on the matter.
