Fun and Frustration. Somehow they just seem to go together
Any way, having some fun trying to find a load for the 1905. Only ammo seems to be in the states and they won't ship to Canada. No cases, no .351" bullets, although 2400 powder is available.
Filed down some .357 Magnum cases (as soon as the tool in my Emco Unimat lathe touched the case the carriage broke, so I was reduced to filing
) and got some 2400 powder and some .348" 200 grain bullets. Sorry Mark, I didn't want to try to figure out a load for an underweight lead bullet so I couldn't use the ones from the die you made.
I figured it was easier to modify a published load for a 180gr .351" bullet to suit a heavier bullet. I had to paper patch the .348" bullets, but didn't adjust the load to account for the -0.003" diameter difference.
I don't have the correct reloading dies, but the 9mm Luger dies work if I'm careful and get the paper patching right.
10.5gr 2400 seems to work ... sorta ok. 10.8gr doesn't but 11.0gr seems pretty good. All three worked the action and ejected the cases fine. I didn't try any of the 10.5gr through the magazine but the others I did. The 10.8gr ones, the top round stripped off ok and ejected but the next 3 jammed. Then the last one loaded fine. The 11.0gr rounds, the first magazine wouldn't even strip the first round out, but the next magazine of those, 4 of 5 loaded, fired, ejected and loaded the next round ok. Only one jammed. When they jam they go nose up coming out of the magazine.
One of the regulars at the range pointed out that the right lip of the magazine was a little "wavy" and also was a wee bit higher than the left lip. I gently tapped and pried the wave out of the lip but it didn't seem to help.
Right now I'm thinking it may be the modified rim on the cases. Spinning the cases in the lathe and using files to turn down the diameter, plus to thin the rim and cut an extractor groove, there is no way to get them all exact. All of them fit in the chamber so the rim diameter is OK there, but is it possible the magazine width is more demanding? And while a rim of 0.415 will fit the chamber it needs to be 0.405 to fit in the magazine properly? 0.405 is the published diameter. If they are a little too wide and grab on the sides of the magazine, they are grabbing at the back while the nose is free to move.
It takes a lot of filing to take them from .415 to somewhere between .420 and 410. And practically no additional filing to take them PAST .405, where the extractor won't grab them. I ruined 4 like that. Not good, but at least I got 46 that work.
I have a family function to go to on Sunday so I won't get to the range until next Wed. to see if increasing the loads 1/10th of a grain at a time work any better.