First few reloads wouldn't chamber

[birddseedd]

Hello,

I made 7 reloads to test a few powder amounts.

Did not clean the cases, they were shot once.

Did not lube them (this stuff will be done from now on now that iv got started)

Cast bullet with lee 9mm. not the tumble lube kind, but i tumble lubed. iv now bought a tumble lube type mold.

dillon square deal b press, all factory settings.

They all shot fine once chambered, the lower loads did not have as much of a kick as i would like, but the gun itself cycled just fine, also they would not go in with me racking the slide, so its not likely a powder issue.

of the 7, 3 or 4 would not chamber. one i had given up on till i noticed a bit of lead building up around the rim of the case, i took an empty case, scratched off a sliver of lead around the rim of the case, and i was able to camber it.

any ideas?


279

[fryboy]

hola !
and welcome to the forum !

ummm... "one i had given up on till i noticed a bit of lead building up around the rim of the case"
rim or case mouth ?
if i look at your foto the only thing that grabs my attention is the crimp looks excessive , it may not be but from my angle of view it appears so , if i understand your post correctly i'm inclined to suggesting that you make sure you have enough case mouth flare to just be able to start the projectile and crimp the barest bit more than to iron out the flare/belling

not to dissuade you but the 9 isnt one of the easier calibers to successfully load cast for ,it can and has been done but you may pull out a few hairs gettin' there

[birddseedd]

Thanks

Some guys on another forum are saying that i need to adjust the dillon press for cast bullets. what do i need to know about crimping?

[versifier]

First off, if you had to remove some lead then you are not expanding the case mouth enough. Cast bullets are (or should be) larger in diameter than jacketed, so if the die is set for jacketed it needs to be adjusted to open up the mouth a tad more.

Unlike revolver rounds, with an autoloader you need only enough crimp to remove the belling (as long as there is sufficient neck tension that the loaded bullet won't telescope you're OK). Most modern pistols hold the case with the extractor, but "in theory" the rounds were supposed to headspace on the case mouth. If the extractor doesn't hold it, then an over-crimped case can slide too far forward in the chamber for the firing pin to strike the primer.

No reason you can't tumble lube pistol and rifle bullets with conventional lube grooves. I have been doing it forever with good results. They can be push-through sized with no problems, and if the diameter is already correct (not more than .003" over groove diameter) you can skip the sizing step as with TL designs.

[birddseedd]

0 <--- this is my head ^--- here is where all of this is going over my head

[versifier]

OK. 1. Adjust the neck expander to open the case mouth a bit more. 2. Back off the crimp die just a tad bit. That will cure the problem.

I never clean cases, but if they hit dirt I do wipe them with a clean cloth.

While generally you don't need to lube straightwall cases if you have a carbide sizer, some folks who run progressives do as they help the whole process run a bit more smoothly. Make sure all traces of lube are removed after.

By any chance is this Dillon your first loading press?

[birddseedd]

Dillon square deal b

[SkyKid]

Welcome Birddseedd
I have a Dillon 550 and all you need to do is keep adjusting the powder die till it flares the case mouth enough to start your cast bullet in by hand
You may over flare some but after a few times doing it you'll get the hang of it
When I first started I did the same as you
Just play with your powder die without powder in it and you'll soon find the right amount of flare for your cases
BTW you should first learn on a single stage press but like you I learned on the Dillon 550 then went to single stage

[birddseedd]

im at the point that i need to do some reading. i get plenty of flair on my cases, more than enough for putting the bullet in. i think ill take some pictures next time i run it.

[birddseedd]

Made some more, only adjusted the bullet debth for the tumble bullets. cleand and lubed cases. the ones i tried seemd to chamber well

[versifier]

Let us know how they shoot.

Some pistols have fairly tight chambers and need to have the ammo tweaked a bit to make them happy. They will generally give you the bonus of better accuracy for your troubles, so it's worth the time and effort. Others will feed and fire anything, but you usually sacrifice some accuracy. Glocks are a good example, designed to eat anything and not really match shooters without replacing the factory barrel with a nice tight custom one. For me, as long as a carry gun keeps everything on the paper at 50yds I'm happy. I don't need super fine accuracy, just MOa (Minute Of a$$hole). If I competed I'd have a whole different attitude about it though.

[birddseedd]

Thats how my wifes gun is. jsut slightly oblonged case and it will jam up. not sure when ill be shooting again. but ill try to remember to get back. it shoudl be great. didnt jam up by hand, should be fine when shot.