I was at the range this afternoon adjusting the sites on the HiPower, practicing one hand (right & left) shooting with the Kimber 45 and the HiPower, then experimenting with the plated bullet issue.
The plated bullet test consisted of reloads using various brass that was sized with my son's sizer die. It's about 0.005 smaller than mine. I measured the OAL of a cartridge and loaded it first into the magazine, followed by 2 more that I didn't measure. I fired the first 2, then ejected the measured cartridge without firing it for re-measuring.
The measured set-back due to the cycling of the Kimber.
Rainier plated 200gr FP: 0.000 to 0.002, Avg - 0.001
Rainier plated 185gr FP: 0.001 to 0.003, Avg - 0.0018
Berry plated 185gr HBRN: 0.001 to 0.005, AVg - 0.0028
That's a whole lot tighter than I had with my re-sizer. Some of those I could easily push the bullet deep into the case with my finger.
I only had 25 of the Berry hollow base round nose loaded, but I ran through about 100 rounds of the others. Then I fired some 185gr Hornady XTP that I've never had a problem with when loaded after re-sizing with my old die.
The measured set-back due to the cycling of the Kimber.
Hornady 185gr XTP: Avg - 0.005
Looks to me like the smaller die is the cure.
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After adjusting the rear site on the HiPower I ran about 50 of the Rainier 115gr plated HP bullets, and a few Vance 147gr lead FP bullets. There weren't any problems encountered, and surprisingly, there wasn't much point of impact difference at 25 yards.
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2 comments:
I wonder if this is related to a problem that I have had since day one with my Ruger P97 in .45acp.
It will eat factory loads all day long...expensive stuff, cheap stuff, JHP, SWC, FMJ...doesn't matter. As long as it's factory ammo in new brass, no worries.
However...the few times I've tried to feed it reloaded ammo, it's a no-go.
The brass hangs up on the way into the chamber to the point that it won't go into battery. Both times I've tried it, I've had to pry the rounds back out with a screwdriver.
The first time, I thought it was the reloader that I'd bought them from just did crappy work. I took them back to him. He said he'd never had that problem before, but he gave me my money back.
The Second time, I knew that it wasn't a fluke. I began suspecting that my gun's chamber was just slightly undersized...but why does factory ammo work fine?
This could explain it. If the standard resizing dies leave the cases slightly larger than brand new, and my chamber is slightly tighter than usual....there you go.
I don't understand why the dies would size the brass over what it should be...that makes no sense at all to me...but it explains the problem I have with reloads with my Ruger.
If the OD sizer is small enough to cause a press fit between the bullet and the case, then the final OD will be slightly smaller than bullet diameter + twice the brass thickness. This will be true whether the bullet is held very tight or lose enough to cause problems.
If your reloader is using an ID sizer as the second operation and also putting a bell mouth on the brass opening to aid in bullet seating, then the OD of the brass at the opening will be slightly larger unless he follows with a crimp operation. Without that follow up crimp the finished OD will be larger than bullet diameter + twice the brass thickness.
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