First reloads

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Re: First reloads

Postby Sesshoku » Fri Feb 05, 2016 3:36 pm

Yes, Hoot, I seated the bullets to 2.183 C.O.L. and gave them a taper crimp of .474 to.475 , which is what I believe was in your article and is printed in the Lyman AR Reloading Manual. I think I'll go back and remeasure the crimps of each of the leftover rounds to see if I come up with the same numbers. I measured them with the Hornady digital caliper that I have, but I will plan to pick up a micrometer when I can. As far as the equipment I'm using, I am running on a single stage press (RCBS), so I complete each operation on all the cases before I move to the next operation. I also visually inspected the cases and powder charges often. I did not, however, inspect the new primers before installing them, but I did look at each case to make sure the primers seated all the way. For that operation, I am using the RCBS hand primer that came with my kit. I have the priming arm that attaches to the press, but the hand primer seems to do a good job. Now, it is a good point with case lube on the hands. I wiped my hands and the cases, but maybe I didn't get all of it off with the paper towels. Maybe I should be using a cloth rag for that. I don't know. What I do know is that I want to do this the right way. I'm not sure if I should hit the leftover rounds with a touch more crimp and try firing them or if I should just pull the bullets and start back at square 1. I'm leaning heavily toward starting over.
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Re: First reloads

Postby m113103 » Fri Feb 05, 2016 7:32 pm

How about the lube in the BCG. Cold weather can play tricks on firing pin strikes. I am not an expert on AR type rifles but have a lot of experience with semi autos. Just an afterthought did you change anything in the fire control group (light trigger parts). :P :P :P :D
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Re: First reloads

Postby Hoot » Fri Feb 05, 2016 11:21 pm

My money's still on the crimp.
With your reloading setup, did you get an inertial bullet puller? If you haven't already pulled down your loads, see how many whacks it takes for the bullet to dislodge. If your taper crimp has a good hold on the driving band groove, it shouldn't come out easily. Of course case contamination from sizing lube is a possibility, but no way I'm accepting temperature as the culprit. Lil Gun doesn't give up that much juice to temps at which you were shooting. Pin strike is certainly a possibility, but not if it handles factory loads just fine. Given you took a class, I'm betting you cleaned your primer pockets somewhat? Dirty primer pockets can contribute a degree of intermittency to their reliable detonation, but again, its not my gut feeling on this. I've had exactly what you had happen to you, happen to me once and some hang fires a couple of times as well. Every cotton pickin' time, it was inadequate crimp tension as Al alluded to earlier.

Busy night on the lathe. Headin' to the sack. Good Luck isolating the cause. Its one of the chops you earn reloading. ;)

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Re: First reloads

Postby commander faschisto » Fri Feb 05, 2016 11:55 pm

Hoot-mon is right on: Remmy 7-1/2 bench rest primers are the gold standard for 450b hand-loads....best of all, they're back in retail stock after a long dry spell.
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Re: First reloads

Postby m113103 » Sat Feb 06, 2016 5:08 am

Hoot understand where you are going but why was he having problems with his 223 upper too? Was this his first outing with his 223 upper? If his 223 was working fine and now has problems too then I would look at the lower. What is the round count on each upper? If the 223 upper is short stroking with factory ammo why? When you had problems with your reloads, did you try some factory rounds as a standard? ;)
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Re: First reloads

Postby Sesshoku » Sat Feb 06, 2016 9:15 am

I should mention that my .223 upper had problems right from the start that day. It fired just fine, but I had to drop rounds in the chamber one at a time and not use the magazine to be able to shoot. That was all due to the fact that I got lazy and hadn't cleaned the upper from the last two times I shot. I am re-evaluating how I lubricate and what product I use for such when it comes to cold weather shooting. On a cold day during deer season, I had an issue with my 450 upper where the bolt carrier wouldn't slide all the way forward when it was cold. It worked if the bolt was locked back and I hit the bolt release to let it alam forward, but trying to let it down easy because a loud bolt slam in the deer woods right before prime time isn't ideal. It worked perfectly when it was warm. I used Frog Lube on both the 450 and 223. Guess I need to find some other lube for shooting in cold weather.

The crimp issue makes perfect sense as just the primer strike pushed the bullet out of the case. I don't believe I had a light pin strike. I will be re-examining that part before I hit the range again. I think the contamination issue could've happened but the chances of such seem minimal since I fired 27 shots before issues developed. I won't rule it out, and I'll adjust my process to minimize that. Though I did a very quick clean of primer pockets, I will put more importance to that part of the process.

Thank you everyone for your input and advice. I maintain that this is the best forum out there, and I'm so glad I found it.
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Re: First reloads

Postby Hoot » Sat Feb 06, 2016 10:55 am

Sesshoku wrote:...snip...Though I did a very quick clean of primer pockets, I will put more importance to that part of the process.

Thank you everyone for your input and advice. I maintain that this is the best forum out there, and I'm so glad I found it.


WRT primer pockets. Actually a "quick clean" should suffice. Not everyone even bothers to do just that. I got that idea not out of personal experience. I read about it while googling around trying to find some possible insights into squib shots that we had not brought into this discussion. The great news about that unlikely, but mentioned cause, is that we care enough about helping one another to spend some of our disposable time doing research on our fellow member's behalf. Happens a lot but just like peeing yourself in dark pants, no one notices but you and then all you get is a warm feeling of fulfillment. ;)

One of the biggest gifts to reloaders is wet pin tumbling. If you simply deprime your range brass without resizing those grit carriers and then wet tumble them, you are rewarded with brass that looks like new, right down to the primer pockets. The nay-sayers go on about the errant pin left in the flash hole, but as one who wet tumbles a lot of brass, when you roll them around in the "bingo ball" style separator, they rarely have a pin left stuck in them. After they're dried, most "stow-away" pins fall out anyway. Who in their right mind doesn't do at a minimum, a causal inspection of reload brass before proceeding further with them anyway. Didn't mean for this to turn into another one of Hoot's tangential, distracting paragraphs. Suffice it to say, like hand washing after a wizz, any effort goes a long way and quick cleaning your primer pockets should suffice, for all but the most fastidious BR reloaders. Raises Hand. :roll:

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Re: First reloads

Postby Cutright » Sat Feb 06, 2016 12:59 pm

I was thinking of getting this type of cleaner. I've never bothered to clean the brass and am not sure it's worth the trouble/expense. Was also thinking of a sonic cleaner to do gun parts too, but if I'm going to clean brass, I would like it to shine as well
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Re: First reloads

Postby m113103 » Sat Feb 06, 2016 2:11 pm

Just a thought but did you analyze the case afterwards. I had this happen once and the removed primer had a different coloration to it along with scorch marks on the kernels of powder. This made me more diligent on inspecting my components. I have found primers with no compound, upside down anvils and flakes of crap in the case primer holes. This is rare but I have been at this for a long time.
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Re: First reloads

Postby m113103 » Sat Feb 06, 2016 2:19 pm

I have both types of case cleaners. When I sonic clean and then resize they come out shiny enough for me. I am not a real fan of mirror finish brass because I hunt. Shiny stuff stand out in the woods. If I want mirror bright I use a turbo tumbler that is safe for loaded rounds. :P :P :D
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