It's been nice knowin' you guys...

[AZXD]

Great, ready to reload and I don't have a dirt berm. Can these be rented

LR,
I'm glad all went well. I guess ForTehNguyen's gonna have to buy his own AR.

[Liquid Rhino]

Originally Posted by Cali Aviator

Sorry for the newbness... but what would be such "pressure signs" in a hand load? Do you feel it?

Aviator - Primers get flattened or primer pocket start to look strange, cases get deformed or show irregular bulging.

Haha, AZXD... I don't think I'm off the hook yet. I've already got a second load of 100rds upped to 24.5-25gr. Let's hope these group better w/o any mishaps.

I'm still doing a good amount of the steps in single stages. I'm gonna need ALOT more practice and experience to get to the point where I trust myself & my measurements & equipment in the full progressive cycle.

I tried to load 50rds of 45ACP @ 5.0-5.1grs using W231 today, but only ended up w/ 32 good rounds. I *thought* my dies were set OK, but every so often a round will come out that while it seats but won't fall out cleanly out my XD's barrel - even after adding more taper crimp. I don't think I expanded it too much, as the bullet is barely seating or I don't think it's seated it too deep since Case OAL & COAL seem about right - so I really don't know what I'm doing wrong here. The suspect cases are clearly feel more 'hourglassed' than the ones that headspace correctly and the seating bulge is more pronounced visually. Obviously these are getting pulled. I'm pretty bummed, but I don't wanna take any chances. Might anyone be able to shed some light here?

[AZXD]

Do you have a chronograph ???
It seems like it is the only way to really tell how things are going.
Of course I have no real idea.
I did pick one up when I got my press, but am a few weeks behind you it's all still in the box.

As for the questions, perhaps a few pics would help those who have been doing this for a while, as they diagnose the problem. Just a thought.

[RobFMJ]

Originally Posted by Cali Aviator

Sorry for the newbness... but what would be such "pressure signs" in a hand load? Do you feel it?

Liquid Rhino is right... at least at first

Once you go into the realm of grossly overpressured rounds, nasty things happen:



When a reloading manual states a COAL for a specific bullet, it is wise to listen. Turns out most loads recommended the bullets I loaded be seated to a ~2.5" COAL. This is what happens when you try to cram 75 r. Hornady A-MAX'es into a case far enough that they fit in the magazine. These loads were nowhere near the max. Please do not try this at home.

Recoil felt very light, and it did not cycle the rifle, so at first I thought I hadn't put enough powder in. Upon examination of the brass, tho, I found that the primers on the milder examples were actually starting to flow back into the firing pin hole, and in some cases, the primer had actually been completely blown out of the primer pocket, and the web of the brass had conformed to the extractor and ejector (as you can see in the second picture). Pieces of primers (and even whole primers) continued to haunt me as some got stuck in the firing pin hole in the bolt, and even had a whole primer fall into the FCG and stop the trigger from moving at all.

I must say, the RRA upper is quite a trooper. It shrugged off the violently overpressured rounds and sustained no damage. You gotta work to screw up an AR15 with handloads

Again, heed the COAL's if its anything other than the 2.260" magazine length. Its probably different for a reason

[Liquid Rhino]

Originally Posted by RobFMJ

I must say, the RRA upper is quite a trooper. It shrugged off the violently overpressured rounds and sustained no damage. You gotta work to screw up an AR15 with handloads

That's good to hear. Those RRA's are ford tough.

Originally Posted by RobFMJ

When a reloading manual states a COAL for a specific bullet, it is wise to listen.

Absolutely! Thanks Rob. Good post.

On a side note - I was examining some factory HST's and noticed they too were somewhat hourglass-shaped in some rounds, so I guess my 'botched' loads might not be as off as I originally intended (noob always worry, ya know!). Still, I'm gonna pull them to be safe & make sure they drop out correctly.

I got bored late last night circa 4am & decided I'd pass the time by taking a few pics. It's not much to you experienced shooters/loaders, but it's new to me so I'm proud of my tiny milestone.

My reloading setup stuffed in a tiny closet of my office:


First batch of .223 (24gr, as per original post)


Cool little .223 closeup:


This is why you don't mess with the Zohan! (First Small Batch of .45acp):


The clockstopper (2nd Batch .223 - 24.5-25gr/100rds)

[kayl]

Looks like a great little setup! I can't wait until I move out of this apt into a bigger one (next may), then I get space to have a setup of my own!

[RobFMJ]

Haha, wish my loading bench was half as clean as that... unfortunately, its tucked away in the corner of my woodshop, which is less than pleasing to the eye inside as it is...

As for the .45's, they wont be perfectly straight when you seat the bullet. If it chambers, just shoot it and dont worry about extraction. The brass is gonna conform to the chamber dimensions when you fire it anyways.

If it will not chamber, then something is pretty wrong (dies or bullets out of spec, weak brass). Taper crimp shouldnt matter at all... I never taper crimped my .45's till I got my Sig... my XD ate well over 1,000 uncrimped .45's with no problems.

As long as you dont use SWC's the XD is a very forgiving platform to reload for.

Nice AR, btw.

[Edubya]

I'm glad that I read this forum tonight. I've wondered what an "over pressured load" would look like. I learned a lot from this and did not have to experience it. The pictures of the results to the primers tell the story. Thanks!






.

[lethal93ta]

I was getting gas blowing out the primers on my AR when I got mine to high, I was busy this weekend loading, 1100 9mm, 1000 .223, and 200 .45

[Liquid Rhino]

GAWD!!!!! That's a whole lotta ammo!!!!

Those primers look raunchy, yo... is the AR OK?

I know I've told ya before, but you really got a niiiice setup!