Completed rounds look like an Hour Glass

[jlucht01]

Im about ready to throw this 40 S&W out the window. I'm pretty tired of my finished rounds looking like an hour glass. The bases are bulged and you can see the seat line of the boolit. I'm sizing to .401. My barrel slugs at .400ish. I have tried the bugle buster with the factory crimp die and they feed ok but they won't eject for beans. Factory new ammo cycles fine and very accurate but i want to cast and shoot my own!!

Any ideas for this n00b?

[Rocky Raab]

What's happening is that your sizing die is reducing the body of the case to minimum diameter down to the web. When you seat a bullet, the top part of the case expands outward again - but the "waist" can't and doesn't. With larger than bore-diameter cast bullets, that's completely normal.

When you say that such rounds won't eject, do you mean they won't eject unfired/manually or that they don't cycle during shooting?

[dakotashooter2]

Is the case bulging all the way around the bullet base or just one side. One side may mean the bullet isn't seating straight. sometimes a little more flare on the case mouth and/or a different seating punch can correct that.

It sounds like you are using the lee bulge buster. I can't speak for that die but I just started using the RCBS die and initial testing has resulted in no failure to feeds as opposed to 1 in 10 or 1 in 15 I had in the past.

[runfiverun]

you are seating the boolits off to the side of the case.
only partial length size,unless you have an unsupported chamber.
the fcd makes them shoot like c*** because you just undersized the boolits with it.
the 40 is much like the 9mm with cast, it is doable, but you have to quit loading like you are doing jaxketed and load for lead.

[WARD O]

Try backing off the size die - the 'waist' will become less noticeable or maybe even disappear. Make one or two rounds and then pull the barrel out of the pistol and make sure the rounds drop freely into the chamber. Then range test.

[jlucht01]

If you look hard you can see the lines.

Reloading for cast vs reloading for jacketed? Please explain.

After NCIS gets over.... i'll get some calipers out and check the actual differences.


http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/109284f03a89d4910e.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=3282)http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/109284f03a8aa0e7c4.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=3283)

[nicholst55]

My Lyman .357 dies do the exact same thing, even with jacketed bullets, if I size the entire case. I started only sizing the case mouth, which pretty much eliminated the problem. Granted, that's for a revolver cartridge and may not work for your .40 S&W.

[prs]

Use the Lee Carbide Factory Crimp Die in your "bulge buster" set-up. Get the deprime pin from an Universal Deprime Die and put that pin in your standard 40 S&W full length size die, but set that die so high that it only sizes that part of the case to be occupied (and pin is of correct length). Use a Lyman M die as your internal sizer and set it deep enough to give you that step to set the boolit in straight. That leaves you seating and crimping in one step unless you have two traditional crimp/seat dies. Make sure the cartridges fit chamber and feed before making a rail car full. This works in my Glock 23 very well, but my loads are pretty mild (725fps) and maybe not expanding the cases as much as full house.

prs

[Char-Gar]

Rocky is "spot on" as the Brits say. This is what you get with a minimum carbide sizing die. Don't worry about it and just go shooting. You are worrying about something that does not need to be worried about.

[jlucht01]

There are some issues cycling. After posting last night I had an idea so im going to the range after work to shoot about 20 rounds i loaded up last night...

I Backed out my Seat\crimp die and lowered the stem all the way so its seating and not crimping... then I removed my powder cop die and installed the factory crimp die and just crimped them enough to chamber. I loaded up a magazine and cycled them through the gun. A couple were sticking coming out of the chamber but i believe they should cycle because a good pull on the slide they would pop back out. I'll let everyone know how it goes tonight.

Thanks for the feed back ya'll!

[geargnasher]

If you look hard you can see the lines.

Reloading for cast vs reloading for jacketed? Please explain.

After NCIS gets over.... i'll get some calipers out and check the actual differences.


http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/109284f03a89d4910e.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=3282)http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/109284f03a8aa0e7c4.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=3283)

Simple. Copper jacketed bullets work on smaller dimensions than cast boolits. It's a function of the different mechanics of each, and these differences can cause some problems. Cast boolits and copper jacketed bullets are not exactly interchangeable.

The .40 S&W pistols that I've "slugged" have groove diameters of around ,399-.400". Most jacketed bullets run around .397", which is typical of a jacketed bullet fit, just smaller than groove dimension. Cast boolits won't work well if made this size, because they rely on a tight seal against gasses in the bore to prevent gas-cutting and leading that jacketed bullets are virtually immune to. In order to achieve this seal, the cast boolit must be a bit LARGER than the groove dimension of the gun, so it will swage into the bore tightly and not leak. If jacketed bullets were that large, the pressures would skyrocket due to the harder metal being much more difficult to swage that much. Sometimes the larger dimensions of the cast boolit causes problems with conventional dies, because the dies are meant to size the case to hold tight onto a much smaller boolit. Sometimes it can cause issues with chambering, because a boolit that is large enough to seal good and not lead is too large to chamber, expecially in a fouled chamber.

There is a lot to this .40 loading, it's a tough caliber to get right because the dies are too small, the expanders are too small, and the chambers are often too small at the front, and often the brass you get has to be "deglocked".

I have a dissertation on this cartridge I'll post after while when you're at home scrubbing the lead out of your bore from the 20 you shoot tonight [smilie=s:

Gear

[jlucht01]

I have a dissertation on this cartridge I'll post after while when you're at home scrubbing the lead out of your bore from the 20 you shoot tonight [smilie=s:
Gear

Thanks for the words of encouragement.:kidding: My XD doesn't seem to lead up all that bad. I have put about 300 rounds(Fighting back and forth with it) through it. Always good accuracy, but always a problem with chambering and ejecting.

While your post was quite helpful in differences between cast and jacketed I didn't really see a clear solution in there. Are you saying throw my 40 cal mould out the window and buy jacketed?

[Char-Gar]

jluch01.. First the disclaimer...I have never loaded a single round for the 40 S&W round, so consider that. I have loaded over a quarter million rounds for the 45 ACP with 99.99% of them being cast bullets loads.

If your pistol feeds and fires your loads fine, but gives ejection issues, then your problem is with the balance between the springs in your pistol and the pressure of your loads. Most likely your recoil spring is too stiff for your loads. However too fast slide speed can also mess up the timing and give ejection problems.

I am taking you are your word that the problem is ejection and not extraction.

I reread this thread and in another post, you mentioned problems in feeding. Feeding issues are most often related to bullet nose shape, length of overall round or a combination of the two.

So what is your issue..Feeding, extraction or ejection? I am getting mixed messages. There is a big difference here and we need to know the issue. I am not a fan of those FCDs.,. and am clueless what a bulge buster is. A good set of quality reloading dies and a taper crimp die should be all you need.

[jlucht01]

Char-Gar, My Bad... I do mean extraction issues not ejection. When they do extract they clear the slide with ease.. Normally i find my empties with in 3 to 6 paces.

[Rocky Raab]

I think you are good to go, frankly. As I explained above, the slight "hourglass" look is normal due to sizing and bullet seating. The slight sticking you are experiencing during extraction of a loaded round is probably due to the cast bullet engaging the lands and is also fairly normal. (Semi-autos sometimes have very short or no leade.)

Load 'em. Shoot 'em.

[Russel Nash]

Which gun is this?

I like the hour glass look on my 9mm, .40 and .45 ammo.

[jlucht01]

XD-40 Its not an M model..

I'll know more tonight Rocky. Would seating them deeper fix the sticking issue? Im loading at the minimum side until i can figure out correct chambering.

[geargnasher]

Just jerkin' yer chain, man!

The solution to your problem will probably vary depending on your particular gun. You seemed to be a little in the dark about why you'd have issues chambering the cast boolit, I attempted to explain that it can be due to the necessary dimensional differences between cast and jacketed, and kinda left it up to you to investigate it with those differences in mind and see if you can make adjustments to final boolit size, amount and shape of crimp, seating depth, etc. to fix it. I don't have your gun and your loads in my hands to see for myself.

I had the same issue with an M&P Smith, it wouldn't go the last 1/16" or less into battery about half the time without some encouragement (hard slap on the back of the slide). Problem for me was lube and powder fouling accumulating in the front of the chamber with certain loads. I tried lots of things to fix it, and the best solution for that particular gun was to drop back to medium-range loads and medium-burning powder, like Universal, use a stiffer lube like a mix of White Label Carnauba Red and BAC, and put a little more taper crimp on the round, enough taper crimp to swage a slight "crimp groove" in the middle of the top band, and focus hard on not "limp-wristing" it while shooting. Several other .40s I've loaded for had different challenges, but I concluded that the M&P just had a tight chamber at the front and needed a fast powder to get the boolit out of the muzzle and drop pressure before the breech unlocked, so less residue would get blown into the front of the chamber as the case extracted. Other guns loved slower powders like Longshot, HS6, and even Blue Dot, with water-quenched (hardened) wheel-weight boolits and loaded fairly hot. A buddy of mine has an XDM .40, and it gobbled up everything we fed it like candy, although it would get a little lead/antimony haze in the middle of the grooves because I never could convince him to spend the extra time to get ALL of the copper jacket fouling out of there.

When I used a modified form of liquid Alox for lube (Recluse lube or 45/45/10), I never had these chambering issuesat all in any of my guns or my friend's guns, but had some mild leading at anything over moderate loads. For most shooting it worked fine, but accuracy was not quite as good as conventional lube, and smoked a bit more. Acceptable performance for most stuff, but not the absolute best.

Gear

[geargnasher]

XD-40 Its not an M model..

I'll know more tonight Rocky. Would seating them deeper fix the sticking issue? Im loading at the minimum side until i can figure out correct chambering.

Minimum side of what? What the load book tells you or what your gun's chamber tells you?

What happens when they don't extract? I'm assuming you shoot and the round goes off, but doesn't cycle the slide? Or does the extractor tear a chunk out of the case rim?

This is starting to sound like a bad case of recurring squib loads.

Gear

[Rocky Raab]

Looking at the photos you posted, I think seating a wee bit deeper is the answer to the sticky extraction, yes. There appears to be a very short parallel section of the bullet shank above the case mouth. Seat until the case mouth and the break of the ogive exactly match and you should be golden.

[Bwana]

There is a paucity of information in this thread the biggest is who's dies are you using? Is it one of the first steel sets? The only time I get anything looking like that with my 40s is when I use a 3030 sizer die to size them. When gathering brass at the range yesterday I picked up four loaded 40S&W rounds that looked like that. The smallest portion of the "waist" measured .417" and the base below that measured .425" and the portion containing the boolit, yes it was a cast round, was .421" It looked like garbage. There is a concern with over working the brass. Also, since the bottom portion isn't being sized, this could result in harder than normal extraction. Your dies are the problem and no amount of "fooling" with them is going to fix your problem.

[jlucht01]

Just jerkin' yer chain, man!

Gear

I know.. I should of made it a little more clear that I was giving yours a pull in return :) I fixed my post to clear up my state of mind for future readers.

To be honest, I have really looked hard at the front side of the chamber. I am using carnuba red and Unique for powder. I wonder if its gummed up with boolit lube... I got the gun in my truck but I don't think my boss would appreciate me field stripping my xd at my desk. I'll check it before i start shooting at the range.

When they don't extract they just don't cycle. There is no marring on the case and I can tell cause it kicks like a mule.

I often have to encourage rounds to chamber also. Im petrified that if I smack the slide on something hard the gun will go off, I know its not likely, but i would rather be safe then sorry.

By the minimum i mean the Lyman 49th ed. Minimum powder charge. +or- .1 grns

My dies are all Lee at this point.

Thanks for all the feed back guys.. This really helps me to understand whats going on inside my gun.

[Springfield]

They don't extract/eject when fired or when you run the loaded rounds in and then manually extract a loaded round? Why do you care how loaded rounds extract?

[geargnasher]

You really have me buffaloed with the extraction thing. It goes bang like normal but the slide doesn't even cycle? If it did it should strip a fresh round out of the mag and jam it against the fired case still in the chamer, so I'm guessing there is no apparent slide movement at all when this happens.

Carnauba Red and Unique shouldn't give you any trouble except lots of smoke, but you might consider giving the chamber a good cleaning (pay particular attention to the presence of any lead shavings like little rings or crescents packed into the powder fouling at the very front of the chamber) and rechecking your COAL by dropping a loaded round into the barrel when you have the barrel out of the gun. If the case doesn't fall in far enough on it's own that the base is slightly below flush with the hood, you either need to seat the boolit a tad deeper, or swage the case mouth a bit smaller with your taper-crimp die to make it fit.

I'd also step up the powder charge a few tenths of a grain or so.

If you have lead rings packed into the front of the chamber, I'd say you might need to have a gunsmith bevel the throat slightly, because razor-sharp throats wreak havoc with cast boolits by actually shaving lead off of the boolit as it engraves the rifling rather than squeezing it down. The throat needs to act like a funnel, not a potato peeler.

Gear

[jlucht01]

I use the fire arm in my NRA classes and I always keep a box of reloads on hand incase someone wants to shoot one of my firearms. If they are using my firearm I may throw a Practice exercise at them in the process. Like loading a round with a spent primer?

** Im aware of the liability.. that's why i pay for insurance***

[Char-Gar]

Char-Gar, My Bad... I do mean extraction issues not ejection. When they do extract they clear the slide with ease.. Normally i find my empties with in 3 to 6 paces.

OK... When fired, does the case come out of the chamber, but gets jammed when the slide returns? If it gets caught in the slide, which direction is the case mouth pointed? Please describe your problem as best you can. Details do matter.

Failure to extract is when the case stays in the chamber.
Failure to eject is when the case comes out of the chamber but doesn't leave the pistol.
Failure to cycle is very broad and not helpful. Does that mean the slide won't even open when the pistol is fired or what?

If we were at the range together, this would be a simple issue to diagnose in a second or two. But without eyes on the pistol doing it's thing, words are all we have.

When was the last time you cleaned the pistol?

I am leaning toward your loads being too light/underpowered, but it is too early for any conclusions. When it comes to your loads chambering with difficulty, I am learning toward your bullets being seated out to far, but again, it is too early.

With a clean barrel, and the barrel out of your pistol, drop one of your problem rounds in the chamber. That will give you some good information about the seating depth of your pistol. Looking at the pic of your loaded rounds, it look like there is too much body sticking out of the case. but I am not familiar with your pistol, so can't say for certain. That would give problems in my 1911s.

Autopistol function revolves around some split second timing of various parts. If there is a function issue, it is time to isolate the problem and fix it. I seriously doubt if the shape of your loaded rounds have any bearing. Again..lose that FCD!

[mroliver77]

Is it possible that the powder charge is so wimpy that the slide is short cycling, not hitting the ejector and pushing the brass back into the chamber?

[Char-Gar]

Is it possible that the powder charge is so wimpy that the slide is short cycling, not hitting the ejector and pushing the brass back into the chamber?

I am leaning toward Rocky having it nailed with the seating depth of the bullet. That should deal with the hard feeding issues, but the failure to eject from the pistol is most likely a load that is too light. But I need a little more information before I am willing to come to closure.

This is simple stuff to solve, if we could see what happens, but we are blind on this internet and are dependent of words which often are not used with precision.

[jlucht01]

i'll try my hand at video recording and shooting and see how well it goes.. might address alot of questions.

[Char-Gar]

i'll try my hand at video recording and shooting and see how well it goes.. might address alot of questions.

A still pic of the ejection port of the handgun after it's failure to extract/eject/cycle or whatever should be enough. If the fired case is not hung up in the ejection port, I will assume it is still in the chamber.

[Rocky Raab]

I think you guys are misreading it. Granted, our friend did use the wrong term (ejection) at one point, but he later clarified it to say that he feels a little bit of sticking when he retracts the slide with one of his rounds in the chamber. That is extraction of a loaded round and NOT ejection of a fired one. Read his post #10 again.

Look at the photos he posted and you will note that the bullet shanks are proud of the case mouth by a few thousandths. Seating just that much deeper will cure his rounds from sticking in the lands during feeding.

[johnho]

I have the same gun: XD40 not the M. Shooting 175 TC looks exactly like your round except I do not have that bulge towards the rim. Sizing to .401 just like you. I do feel a slight bulge at the base of the bullet when I feel along the loaded case. I am loading 4.3 grains of Win231. Only problem I ever had was in the beginning with it not feeding correctly. Adjusted COAL dimension and all works perfect now. I am using Dillon dies. Maybe your chamber is cut a bit on the tight side or like you said, it is gummed up some. Does a loaded round drop easily into the chamber with the barrel removed and fully set in there?

[mroliver77]

In post #22 jluch stated "When they don't extract they just don't cycle. There is no marring on the case and I can tell cause it kicks like a mule. "

I took this to mean it did not extract and cycle when fired.

After rereading post #10 I see he is cycling it by hand and LOADED rounds are not extracting.

Then post #14 He said "Char-Gar, My Bad... I do mean extraction issues not ejection. When they do extract they clear the slide with ease.. Normally i find my empties with in 3 to 6 paces. "

I am the guy that gets his dander up when folks go off on a tangent 180deg from what the OP described and here I am guilty of it.

I am going to watch a John Wayne movie while my lasagna cooks!

Carry on!

[Char-Gar]

Rocky.. The more I read of those posts, the more confused I become. If indeed his problem is feeding and ejecting loaded rounds, then you are spot on. But I am not 100% certain that is all he is talking about.

If he is talking about failure to extract/eject fired rounds that is quite another issue.

"When they don't extract they just don't cycle. There is no marring on the case and I can tell cause it kicks like a mule. "..Now there is a sentence that can mean all sorts of things.

We will just have wait until the fellow clears this up.

[Rocky Raab]

I guess I'm confuserizerated, too.

[Russel Nash]

it has been my experience that the XD's... I have mainly seen it in the 9mm's....have sticky extraction and it seems like the gun wants to lock up tighter than a drum.

I am a USPSA Range Officer so I stand behind a bunch of shooters pretty much staring over their shoulder as they shoot a stage, and I hold the timer in my hand.

The chamber might be too tight and I have heard of people reaming out the chamber, or it could be some defect with the extractor and its hook not having enough gumption behind it to pull the empty case free from the chamber.

[geargnasher]

This is giving me a headache.

Let's start over. What, really, is the malfunction here? You take your gun to the range, load it up with some cast boolit ammo, rack a round into the chamber, aquire the target and pull the trigger. At some point something doesn't work right. What happened? What condition is the gun in right after the malfunction? A few rounds in the magazine and a fired empty still in the chamber? Did the slide cycle, or did it stay locked up tight the whole time when the last shot was fired? I'm taking it by what you've said that you're an NRA instructor, so you should be very familiar with autopistol function and terms, so try to describe what's happening in those terms.

Gear

[MikeS]

I am not a fan of those FCDs.,. and am clueless what a bulge buster is.

I see that nobody has answered this semi asked question, so I will. The Bulge Buster is a kit that Lee sells that is used with their FCD dies. What you would do is remove the top adjuster for the FCD as well as the crimping ring in it, and replace them with the bulge buster body, it screw into the FCD die body, and it also comes with a small 'pusher' that mounts on the ram in place of a shell holder. It also comes with the same red plastic case that the Lee lube & size kits come with, and it gets placed on top of the bulge buster. With your press setup this way you can now take cases that have been shot thru a Glock, or other gun that doesn't fully support the case, and so causes a bulge on one side of the case, and run them thru the FCD/BB combo to fully resize the case body. This doesn't replace standard resizing of the case, it only removes the bulge in the case. You can use it either on unloaded cases, or loaded ammo, but using it on loaded ammo might allow it to resize your lead boolit, but by using it on unloaded cases it removes any bulges, and can in no way harm anything.

I have both a 45ACP FCD & the bulge buster, and I've taken the top adjuster & crimper ring from the FCD and placed them into a Lee expander die I had here that I never use (I use a Lyman M die, or Lyman powder thru expander die), after removing the expander ring, so I basically now have an fully adjustable crimping die that can't resize my lead boolits, as well as the bulge buster, so by doing that little change I took 2 useless dies and made 2 very useful ones!

[jlucht01]

Alright... Figured it out.. now just to fix it..

Here is what the issue is\was... The OAL of the round is too long. Rounds were getting lodged in the chamber\barrel throat area causing the extractor to pop off the the cheaper cases(Mixed Brass). I figured this out my smacking one case into the chamber and then it misfired.. The primer was not replaced.. never went through the decapping die. When I went to eject it, the round wouldn't come out so i used the edge of the bench and then it popped of the case and I dang near ate bench.

I took a pair of calipers with the barrel out, I inserted a spent brass casing into the chamber and measured it. The length was 3.125. Then, I inserted a round that I had loaded and measured again. The length was 3.164. The rounds are not chambering fully unless i give it a good smack on the slide. 6 out 10 rounds fired correctly, i did this with 2 magazines.

Sorry for getting everyone confused with my lack of knowledge in terminology.

Im going to seat the boolit 30 thousandths deeper and give it a whirl.

[prs]

Depending upon the chamber of the pistol in quesion, "bulge busting" the empty case through the Lee CFCD can be used as the full length sizing stage. Lee intends for these dies to be at maximum diameter to meet standards, where as their regular full length sizers are supposed to the minimun side of tolerance. As Gear so astutely explained, we lead boolit types live best toward the large end of boolit diameter and thus case diameter. My Glock swallows these fat cases with ease, but other makes can be tighter. I still present my solution as noted in post 8 as an effective remedy for the OP's initial complaint about hour glass shaped loaded rounds.

Regarding loaded rounds resisting extraction from the chamber, I would not do a shooting function test for that, but rather take other's advice about checking fit of the rounds witin the barrel while removed from the pistol.

prs

[mroliver77]

OK, just what Rocky figured. I only measure OAL so I can record it to set up a seating die if I lost the dummy round.

I set the boolit depth by using my barrel (out of the gun) as a gauge.I am not sure if this is doable in an XD or not. The only auto I load for are 1911's and a Jennings "Nine" Yech! I set up a dummy round with no powder/primer and set boolit a tad long. I seat it down a few thou at a time until round chambers properly (flush with shroud on 1911). I keep this "dummy" round to set up seater die with next time I need to. Once I am set up then I load a batch.
NEVER hit the rear of slide to seat round! Just think if there was a high primer or whatever and gun fired out of battery!! Now I have done this before without thinking. (Smacked with palm to finish seating). Afterwards when mulling it over it made me tremble at what the consequences could have been!

[Char-Gar]

Glad you got it figured out. Rocky nailed it dead center.

[Recluse]

Alright... Figured it out.. now just to fix it..

Here is what the issue is\was... The OAL of the round is too long. Rounds were getting lodged in the chamber\barrel throat area causing the extractor to pop off the the cheaper cases(Mixed Brass). I figured this out my smacking one case into the chamber and then it misfired.. The primer was not replaced.. never went through the decapping die. When I went to eject it, the round wouldn't come out so i used the edge of the bench and then it popped of the case and I dang near ate bench.

OK, all's well that ends well, but the description up above made my eyeballs start to bleed as many times as I read and re-read it, trying to figure that one out. :)

:coffee:

[geargnasher]

I could have sworn there was something said about the cases failing to extract after firing. There is no boolit present after firing, so I disregarded COAL as an issue with extraction and figured it only came into play during chambering. I was never clear on the extraction failures being with UNFIRED cartridges. I'm also very confused by the round sticking that had an old primer in it. Had the case been resized or not? If not, no wonder it stuck. Oh, well.

Gear

[Bwana]

"Here is what the issue is\was... The OAL of the round is too long. Rounds were getting lodged in the chamber\barrel throat area causing the extractor to pop off the the cheaper cases(Mixed Brass). I figured this out my smacking one case into the chamber and then it misfired.. The primer was not replaced.. never went through the decapping die. When I went to eject it, the round wouldn't come out so i used the edge of the bench and then it popped of the case and I dang near ate bench."
Pardon my confusion; but, how did it get resized if it, "never went through the decapping die". We have been told it is a Lee die set. The sizer also "decaps". I would like to comment more; but, I am constrained from saying what I would like. So, I am just going to wash my hands of it and go on.

[autopilotmp]

Sounds to me that the OAL is too long and the BOOLIT is engaging the lands and grooves or the throat is tight and the boolit is getting stuck there. The solution was to shorten OAL so that the boolit does not engage this area therefore passing the "ploop" test. It did not have anything to do w/ the casing being expanded too much or the "hour glass" shape causing issues.

[nanuk]

:veryconfu

[jlucht01]

I'd like to thank everyone again for their help.

Couple of things I'd like to share about myself.... I'm not perfect, I'm not all knowing. I do however know its better to ask for help then to waste time or do something dangerous. I have been reloading for about 2 years. I didn't have and still don't have someone to sit down with me and show me all the tips and tricks that they learned over their billion years of reloading.

I'm here because I needed help and there are several experienced reloaders and shooters here that want to share their knowledge. Not everyone will have the ability to address your questions at an intelligent level. Why? Well in the case of my response I had a 3 year old standing next to my computer desk saying daddy daddy daddy daddy and when I say what, he says "Hi" then giggles and runs away to come back in a couple minutes.

I apologize for the confusion, and if you feel you must call me an idiot please do so in a PM so it does not take what little value this thread may have.

Thanks and have a wonderful day.

[Char-Gar]

Jluch01.....I don't think anybody said you were stupid or an idiot, so there is no reason to feel like anyone did. Nobody here is perfect either.

Communications between folk is often difficult under the best of circumstances and boards such as this are probably the worst of circumstances.

Folks here are glad to help you anyway they can. However frequently we have folks asking for help who give incomplete information or use the wrong terms. The result is long run-on threads where we feel like dogs chasing their own tails. When this happens you can expect some conversation about the ambiguous nature of the matter.

The bottom line is don't feel slighted or judged as being less than anything. Life is a long learning curve for us all.

I am truly glad you got your issue resolved.

[mpmarty]

Results are what we are after here. If the problem is solved then we are all WINNERS.

[Sonnypie]

Check to see if there is a primer in them.
If not, they are probably female.
And as such, it is natural for them to have an hour glass shape.... :D

[jlucht01]

Thanks everyone.. I adjusted the OAL to 1.08 and the xd that I love so much came back to life with 100 rounds with out one malfunction.

[Rocky Raab]

Just remember that it isn't the absolute overall length of a loaded round but how far out the full diameter of the bullet extends. You don't want much or any of the bullet shank past the case mouth.

Absolute length will be affected by the shape of the bullet nose - a flat tip will make the OAL "shorter" than a rounded or pointed bullet tip.

[Grandpas50AE]

Check to see if there is a primer in them.
If not, they are probably female.
And as such, it is natural for them to have an hour glass shape.... :D

I almost sprayed my computer with my mouthful of milk on that one earlier today!! Fortunately I had already swallowed when I read it.
Thanks for the good laugh!:lol:

[Blammer]

Thanks everyone.. I adjusted the OAL to 1.08 and the xd that I love so much came back to life with 100 rounds with out one malfunction.

sweet!