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gschwertley
saddle soap
Posts: 365
(3/6/05 4:04 am)
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Beware Other People's Reloads
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We've all heard it before, and I've said it myself before. Don't fire other people's reloads, especially people you don't know (if that makes a difference -- friends can be just as incompetent as the anonymous).
A while back, a co-worker gave me a quantity of reloading supplies, which also included some reloaded pistol ammo that was done by his adult son. The son loaded in quantity on a Dillon progressive press and had been doing it certainly long enough to know what he was doing, as he was a competitive shooter and burned through lots of ammo.
Most of this pistol ammo was .45 ACP and .40 S&W with a bit of 10mm and .38 Special.
Well, I went ahead and fired some of this stuff. The .45 ACP with a 155 grain lead SWC was a bit stiff and even with hard cast bullets does a bit of barrel leading. I'm not sure what I am going to do with the 600 or more rounds of that I still have.
Next, I thought I would try some of the .40 S&W which was loaded with a recommended dose of Blue Dot. I took my Ruger PC-4 carbine to the range, and loaded it up with some jacketed hollow point rounds. I didn't get through one 10 round magazine before I had what I thought was a stuck case in the chamber. Drat.
So, I lugged the Ruger carbine home and using a cleaning rod, poked the "case" out of the chamber. It turned out to be a loaded round that wouldn't chamber. Close examination showed that during the reloading process, this particular case escaped the resizing process. It was primed, had powder and the bullet was taper crimped into place. I had not noticed this when I loaded the magazine, but I would have had to really be looking to see this defect. Maybe this was about the time I was being showered with hot x39 cases flying over from the next stall, I don't know. Apparently, this .40 case had enough springback in the mouth to hold a bullet long enough to make it to the taper crimp stage; but the base was bulged way out like .40's often are.
This all turns out to be a good example of not following my own advice as well as that of others. Now I'm not saying that I haven't made some mistakes in reloading over the years; we all have. I am now on my third inertial bullet puller, having worn out two previously. What I don't need is taking on someone else's mistakes on top of my own!!!
mikmarjon
Attic man
Posts: 3374
(3/6/05 9:25 pm)
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Re: Beware Other People's Reloads
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Still a lot of components buddy
come visit us and discuss the weapons of yesterday
yesterdays weapons forums
pub151.ezboard.com/bsteyrmannlicher
yockey5
Coffee Pot
Posts: 4581
(3/7/05 12:25 am)
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Re: Beware Other People's Reloads
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pull, dump, size'em, re-weigh powder, set bullet, and go bang! You have your own reloads and cheap shooting.
Don
Yesterdays Weapons forums
http:pub151.ezboard.com/bsteyrmannlicher
Have you ordered your '05 collectors/shooters patch?
gschwertley
saddle soap
Posts: 366
(3/7/05 2:04 am)
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Other's Reloads
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Pull-down is exactly what I do with any rifle ammo that someone else has re-loaded, but I am a little loathe to do that with hundreds of pistol rounds.
nam barney
Casting Man
Posts: 722
(3/7/05 11:00 am)
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Re: Other's Reloads
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I once bought 10 boxes of 44Mags from a co-worker. 2 bucks a box. Checked my manuals on the load he used and it was only .3 of a grain from the max. I was going to use them in my Contender so I figured it would handle it. Fired one round and it lead me to my bench to dissassemble a few of his reloads. Either he made a mistake when recording his info, his scale was wrong, or he enjoyed pain. I found the loads were .8 to 1.2 grains over what my manual listed as max. I reloaded them to my liking and had enough powder left to load another half box.
Nam
yockey5
Coffee Pot
Posts: 4593
(3/7/05 4:18 pm)
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Re: Other's Reloads
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You got two deals in one Nam, after a little work, but I enjoy that part of it.
Don
Yesterdays Weapons forums
http:pub151.ezboard.com/bsteyrmannlicher
Have you ordered your '05 collectors/shooters patch?
gschwertley
saddle soap
Posts: 372
(3/8/05 1:11 am)
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Re: Other's Reloads
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Don:
I really don't think I am that eager to wear out a couple more inertial bullet pullers. I don't want to set some kind of record.
The .45 rounds I mentioned are loaded two-tenths of a grain hotter than max. load, but the bullets are pretty hard. I always thought that target loads were usually milder than "standard" loads. When I mentioned this to the man who gave me this stuff, he said his son had been using these rounds to shoot at bowling pins, so needed the extra power. Whatever blows your skirt up, I guess.
After firing some of these in one of my .45 automatics, next I tried some in my Ruger Vaquero .45 convertible, which has a .45 ACP chambering for one of its cylinders. After about 50 shots, it showed only traces of leading which I cleaned out with 6 shots of hardball. So, it looks like these will mostly be fired in this revolver.
yockey5
Coffee Pot
Posts: 4612
(3/8/05 1:21 am)
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Re: Other's Reloads
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Gary,
I am glad you found some place to use them. Before you know it, you will have a big bunch more empty brass to use for your own reloading of them.
Don
Yesterdays Weapons forums
http:pub151.ezboard.com/bsteyrmannlicher
Have you ordered your '05 collectors/shooters patch?
gschwertley
saddle soap
Posts: 375
(3/8/05 5:58 pm)
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.45 Brass
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Don: I need more .45 ACP brass like I need another navel.
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