Reloading help

[Tomcat088]

Something that I was taught and have always been pretty religious about is not touching primers with your fingers. I was taught that by my gunsmith that is a big BR shooter and very serious about his reloading. I always shake them in the little primer tray that I use in my hand priming tool to get them to turn over. You can keep a set of tweezers, or bump them with your nail to get them to turn over. If you are wearing rubber gloves, you could handle them just fine. The "theory" is that the oils on your hands can affect the primers, especially if you let reloads sit over time. It sounds a bit extreme, but it's not really very difficult to do if you're mindful of it. To this day, I've never had one of my reloads not fire when I pulled the trigger.

[Malanthor]

Sorry it has taken me a while to respond.

Here is the load data I am using.

I am using HS-6 Hodgdon powder. I was using the starting load of 9 grains. the OCL is 1.125".

Unfortunately I no longer have the rounds that would not chamber so I cannot measure them.

From what others have said I think I know why certain rounds would not fire. I was using the primer arm on the press and loading the new primer into the arm by hand. I am guessing the oils on my hands caused them to not to work.

Thanks everyone for the advice.

[Fred762]

Been reloading since the '80s and have had a few failures to fire..most auto rds headspace on the case mouth..that little rim of the mouth of the case after it is slightly crimped around the bullet..IF you crimp it tooo much, like you can a revolver round, the crimp can NOT leave a sharp shoulder for the case to headspace inside the chamber..and the case will slide IN a bit too far, making the firing pin 'hit' not strong enuf. Wierd, huh?

Also I have seen cleaning media particles stop up the flash hole

I have seen folks try to prime BERDAN cases..it does not work
Primers old? Too much lube? Oil? Forget to put POWDER in the case? These are things which come to mind.

Hint..CARBIDE dies will allow you to reload pistol rds w/o any lubrication. All of my handgun dies are carbide and they have lasted for decades AND msany 1000s of rds.

One of the easiest mistakes to fix is not paying attention during reloading. I never use a radio or mp3 player or TV while in the reloading room. You need 100% attention to the job at hand..

G'luck!!

[frankski]

I suspect the chambering issue, and possibly the failure to fire, may be due to rounds out of spec for your particular pistol.

Every pistol has a slightly different chamber configuration, while still meeting SAAMI specs. Glocks will eat just about any ammo, while some like my Walther have a shorter space between the chamber and lands and will choke on certain rounds that fit my Glock as well as my case gage. You may have to reduce OAL or use a different bullet profile.

To easily check, make a dummy round (no primer or powder) to the same specs you described. Take the barrel out of the pistol you had problems with chambering. Do a "plunk test", dropping the round into the chamber. It should drop smoothly and headspace on the case rim mouth. You should be able to rotate it easily with your fingertips.

If it stops short, the gun will not go fully into battery and the firing pin will not engage the round. If this turns out to be the problem, let us know and I can point you in the direction of the solution.

[Fred762]

Something that I was taught and have always been pretty religious about is not touching primers with your fingers. I was taught that by my gunsmith that is a big BR shooter and very serious about his reloading. I always shake them in the little primer tray that I use in my hand priming tool to get them to turn over. You can keep a set of tweezers, or bump them with your nail to get them to turn over. If you are wearing rubber gloves, you could handle them just fine. The "theory" is that the oils on your hands can affect the primers, especially if you let reloads sit over time. It sounds a bit extreme, but it's not really very difficult to do if you're mindful of it. To this day, I've never had one of my reloads not fire when I pulled the trigger.

I've been reloading for decades and always have touched primers..tho w clean dry hands. I recently found a box of ammo I loaded in 1983..every round went bang..32 year old reloads! The operative words are CLEAN and DRY IMHO FWIW

[Yoder]

Sorry it has taken me a while to respond.

Here is the load data I am using.

I am using HS-6 Hodgdon powder. I was using the starting load of 9 grains. the OCL is 1.125".

Unfortunately I no longer have the rounds that would not chamber so I cannot measure them.

From what others have said I think I know why certain rounds would not fire. I was using the primer arm on the press and loading the new primer into the arm by hand. I am guessing the oils on my hands caused them to not to work.

Thanks everyone for the advice.

It's not that. Check to see if your primers are seated flush or below flush. I had this problem when I first started reloading. Hard primers and they were slightly above flush with the case caused a bunch of problems. If you don't have a chamber gauge just pull the barrel out of you gun and see if the rounds drop in. Could be case bulge or a crimp problem. Does your resizing die touch the shell plate when you bring the ram up?

[dardascastbullets]

The 40 S&W case headspaces on the case mouth. Since you did not indicate that you sighted your cases with your chamber (case heads flush to the rear of the chamber) I can then only provide an educated guess in that you are severly crimping your cartridges, causing them to acquire excessive headspace.

Use your chamber to verify the case headspace and it they are not perfectly flush with the rear of the chamber then reset your die.

[rupe01]

Also might be worth investing in a Lee Bulge Buster Kit:

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/882...s-and-w-45-acp

[GeneCC]

Something that I was taught and have always been pretty religious about is not touching primers with your fingers. I was taught that by my gunsmith that is a big BR shooter and very serious about his reloading. I always shake them in the little primer tray that I use in my hand priming tool to get them to turn over. You can keep a set of tweezers, or bump them with your nail to get them to turn over. If you are wearing rubber gloves, you could handle them just fine. The "theory" is that the oils on your hands can affect the primers, especially if you let reloads sit over time. It sounds a bit extreme, but it's not really very difficult to do if you're mindful of it. To this day, I've never had one of my reloads not fire when I pulled the trigger.

If you're handling dies, reloading machinery and the like you could pick up some machine oil on them. Primers are funny.

I've handled thousands of primers with my fingers. I've had two squib loads. I've since gone to a hand primer with a tray.


Your friend sounds like he had a good system.

[GeneCC]

I am a firm believer in case gauges and highly recommend them. My screw-ups and chambering issues have been eliminated.

L.E. Wilson makes them too. Case Gauges are really important for semi-autos.