reloads

[rayikeo2]

Originally Posted by Akimbo

I will share this much: I too have had many a frustrating moments with reloading for my XDM 9. The very same issue you have described as well. Upon closer inspection, i discovered that some of the cases have expanded beyond the diameter of the barrel. Therefore, when the round is stripped from the magazine and attempts to chamber, voila... the whole action is seized up.


My two cents :
You can easily see this effect by taking your barrel out of your XD, take one of your reloads and see if it freely drops into the barrel (from the breach/feed side ) if it sticks out, or doesnt drop in freely, the case is indeed swollen.



As for me, i have hundreds of cases de-primed, tumbled, and case mouth expanded. I will test them one by one to see which ones drop in nicely into my XDM's barrel. The ones that do fit, will be reloaded with renewed attention to the crimping stage and again tested for a smooth drop into the barrel.

The ones that do not drop in nicely, i will then try dropping them into the barrel of my CX4. If they drop in nicely there, I am almost convinced it is scenario 2 for me. If they dont fit, then i believe the crip was set too low.

hope this helps.

NOTE; If I am reading your post correctly, your cases are deprimed, resized and belled, but not loaded (still empty). If they are already belled they will not drop into your barrel if you have not completd the whole reloading process. The bell has to be removed before the empty case will drop into any gun barrel. Do you see what I am saying? They won't drop.

[Akimbo]

They are belled and do drop. I bell them as per the hornady DVD that comes with the LnL Press; just enough for the bullet to catch hold.

[prof_fate]

Originally Posted by Akimbo

They are belled and do drop. I bell them as per the hornady DVD that comes with the LnL Press; just enough for the bullet to catch hold.

I agree with rayikeo - a properly belled case won't go into the chamber all the way.
A 9mm case is tapered, not straight so the mouth is smaller than the head diameter.
9mm headspaces on the case mouth (where the crimp is) so this dimension must be right for the case to seat properly in the chamber. A belled case mouth MUST be bigger than the finished round or else you've not left enough space to put the bullet in.
The press will force it in there, but will 'stretch' the case to do so and usually you can see this in the finished round as you'll be able to see where the bullet 'ends' in the case as almost a line. Look at factory ammo - no 'line' or bulge or ridge at the bottom of the bullet.

[Akimbo]

Originally Posted by prof_fate

I agree with rayikeo - a properly belled case won't go into the chamber all the way.
A 9mm case is tapered, not straight so the mouth is smaller than the head diameter.
9mm headspaces on the case mouth (where the crimp is) so this dimension must be right for the case to seat properly in the chamber. A belled case mouth MUST be bigger than the finished round or else you've not left enough space to put the bullet in.
The press will force it in there, but will 'stretch' the case to do so and usually you can see this in the finished round as you'll be able to see where the bullet 'ends' in the case as almost a line. Look at factory ammo - no 'line' or bulge or ridge at the bottom of the bullet.

I SEE . This may explain part (or all) of the problem i am facing then. Perhaps the bell has been too small and when i go to crimp the bullet during seating, the die is buckling down on the case causing it to expand at the head. The head of these cases (a good number of them) have expanded to a point where they will not go in.


NOTE: i do see the "line" you mentioned.

When you say:
"The press will force it in there, but will 'stretch' the case "

I think i am indeed FORCING the case and the result causing the case to buldge at the head.

How do i know when i have expanded the mouth enough? I know the bullet shouldnt just drop in. but now i see that the mouth must be larger... question is: how much larger?

[prof_fate]

how much is enough...always a good question.
I know of the issue because I had the issue myself - not expanding enough. I use a lee loadmaster and the powder drop also bells the case and it will drop powder even if you don't make a bell.

I just screwed things down more till I could feel a bell. Now too much and the bullet will drop right into the case! Unfortunately I don't have a measurement handy.

[keoni008]

Originally Posted by Lopper

STOP SHOOTING YOUR RELOADS! Your doing some thing wrong in sizing or seating/crimping. Get a couple of good reloading books and study them. ABCs of Reloading and Lee reloading are a couple. any time you have to force a gun closed or open you have big problems. And a BOMB in your hand

My reloads seem to be fine out of my SIG P228, and all my friends 9mm just not the XD9.

[keoni008]

Originally Posted by dglock

Bullet heads? How long have you been reloading?

Stop trying to shoot those,they are out of spec!

SA are not Sigs! You have to reload for the gun you want to shoot the reloads in.

I shoot nothing but my reloads in all my hand guns and rifles.

don

My bullet heads are 115g Hornady XTP, 115g Sierra and LSWC 125g. Ive been reloading for over a year now but just started shooting my XD9 again and thats the only gun i seem to be having problems with my reloads. Thanks for your input!

[M1A4ME]

I had some 147 grain lead bullet reloads my Browning BDM chokes on every 5 or 6 rounds. My XDm 5.25 eats them like candy. It also runs the 124 grain hollowpoints I loaded up for the BDM.

I've only tried the 2 reloads so far but both worked great.

[wade38sp]

I had the same problem with my XD45 but the problem was with a specific bullet that was reloaded and not all reloads. If I shot the round or hollow-point reloads it worked flawlessly, but miserably with the lead semi-wad cutter reloads a friend gave me. Turns out that it was the sharp lip just above the casing it didn't like.

[zmmnm3]

Each gun is throated so when the case is properly inserted the bullet should be right at the lands of the barrel. If the oal or bullet shape causes the bullet impact before the cartridge case engages the you will get failure to chamber as you described. A lot of good advice here with the best being go slow and see what the issue is. I would try a resized brass and see if it drops into the barrel without problems. Next I would assemble some dummy rounds and decreasing OAL until the round loads and falls out cleanly. Measure and then crimp the dummy rounds and see if anything changes. If you follow the steps you should be able to tell what the issue is.

Example, I have a Colt 1911 I converted from 38 super to 9mm and found that cars bullets from wiedners jammed in the barrel like you described. However, bullets from mastercastbullets loaded great with the same OAL.

Hope this helps.

YMMV