Gun Keeps Jamming

[metho]

I've been reloading handgun ammo for a year or two and have recently got into casting and have been having some issues with jams. I'm loading 230gr rn boolits cast with my lee 452 mold, sized to 452 and tumble lubed with the lee kit. I loaded the rounds with my hornady lock n load progressive, hornady 45 acp dies, 5gr unique and 1.230 oal.

At first I was getting jams with ever shot, where the slide wouldn't drop down all the way and then wouldn't rack back. I'd have to smack the back of the slide with my hand until it dropped the rest of the way and then fire the round. After a little bit of research I discovered I might have still had a little bit too much flare on the case(I had increased the flare because I was getting shavings). I also tested dropping some rounds into the barrel and it turned out that a lot of them didnt want to fall in there so easy and need to be jammed into the barrel to fit. So I adjusted my seater/crimp die to take more of the flare out. This seemed to help a lot but I'm still getting jams every so often, maybe 1 out of 10 in my xd and 1 out of 5 in my 1911. I've also compared how a factory jacketed bullet falls in the barrel compared to one of my boolits and I've noticed the factory rounds fit in there a lot more smoothly and sit more flush than my rounds. I've taken my barrels out of my guns a played around with different amounts of crimp/flare and differnt overall lengths and can't find that sweet spot where the round just drops in there as smoothly as the factory round.

Anyone have any thoughts?

[mpmarty]

Do you happen to own a micrometer? What you describe is typical of a too long OAL and or a fat nosed boolit. Flare needs to go away completely on crimping and you should crimp in a separate operation after seating.

[jdgabbard]

Several things to check. First off, seating depth. The mold you're using is a 1 radius mold, instead of a 2 radius mold (i believe). So you may have an issue with the boolit contacting the rifling before it's seated well in the chamber. Another issue you could have, in which I have in my 1911 when shooting, is the barrel could be dirty at the step of the casemouth before the throat. And then another thing you might check would be length of the cases. They may be due for a trimming. And if all else fails, I'd check headspace.

[metho]

Do you happen to own a micrometer? What you describe is typical of a too long OAL and or a fat nosed boolit. Flare needs to go away completely on crimping and you should crimp in a separate operation after seating.

I do own a micrometer, if I go much longer than 1.240 or under 1.210 the round won't even go halfway in the barrel before getting stuck. At 1.230 the round falls into the barrel fairly easy but sits more snug and not quite as flush as a factory round.

Should I think about going with a differnt seater/crimp die set? The hornady die crimps and seats with the same die.

[alfloyd]

"sits more snug and not quite as flush as a factory round."

This sounds like the case lenght is shorter than new factory rounds, no big deal.
The round not going all the way into the chamber is most likely the nose is hitting the rifling of the barrel.
Setting the COL shorter will help this. I had the same problem with my HK 45, the round nose was hitting the rifling and stoping the round short of full battery.

Lafaun

[knifemaker]

Try setting your COL at 1.220 or 1.225 and see if the loaded round will drop flush into your barrel chamber. I use to have that mold that is a 1R radius and it will jam into the lands if you seat it to long. It will jam if you seat it to the lenght of factory 230 grain hardball as Hardball can be called 2R on the ogive.

[Wells]

You may also need to check the dia. Just be hind the crimp and copair to factory my need to go to tapper crimp.
Wells

[Tbird]

I run my 45 bullets thru a lee factory crimp die..drops in like factory

[williamwaco]

Flare:

Seems most everything has already been covered above but you questioned the amount of "flare"

There must not be any flare remaining on the loaded round.

Look at it under the most powerful magnification glass you have.

If you can see any flare at all, you do not have enough crimp.
If you can see any crimp at all, you have too much crimp.

The case wall should be perfectly straight and should not "bite into" the bullet at all.

When you reach this point. Measure the diameter at the mouth of a loaded case and compare it to a factory cartridge. It should not be larger than the factory cartridge.


.

[leadman]

Measure the outside of the neck of a fired factory and compare it to your loaded round. If the loaded round is the same or larger then you need to find out why. Could be the boolit needs to be a .451" instead of .452". Your die set should be a taper crimp and not a roll crimp already, you just might have to adjust it some.

[runfiverun]

i like jd's answer.
you aren't using factory bullets you are using cast so you have to work with the radius and such you have.
try dropping just a boolit in the chamber then thump it a couple of times with a pencil.
knock it back out and see where it makes contact.
compare that to a loaded round.
you now know where the boolit can sit.

now take a resized case and drop it in the chamber.
there's your height.

now match up a boolit to the marks [on the seated one] in a resized case.
seat it a titch deeper.
taper crimp it flat.

seat it in the chamber.

adjust slightly if it don't fit.
marks on the boolit=seat deeper.
thumb press= put a little more taper crimp on it.

[Cherokee]

Ditto above post.

[Friends call me Pac]

I was having the same problem. Turns out my older RCBS seater/crimper die did a roll crimp instead of a taper crimp. I bought a taper crimp and everything went smooth as silk. I haven't changed anything else.

[chevyiron420]

With two 1911's I have checked, they will not except rounds with boolits sized .452 with most cases. I forget which cases are the thinnest??? Anyway they work fine @451 as long as the crimp is right.

[David2011]

Metho,

The 1R ogive may be hitting the top of the chamber causing your jams. While the overall length is within spec, the 1R ogive changes the geometry of the loading process and the cartridge may be too long on the diagonal from the case rim to the contact point of the boolit in the chamber.

That's a fairly light load. I've had carbon buildup issues with light loads due to the cases not expanding as hard as they need to against the chamber walls. While the barrel is out to see if cases will drop into the chamber give it a good visual inspection looking for carbon buildup. It may be pretty thin and only show as a dark area and you may be able to feel cases scrape against it as they go into the chamber. If carbon is present use a good carbon remover to clean it up.

You need to remove ALL of the flare after seating boolits. The case mouth should measure not more than .471" after crimping. I crimp at .469" and they headspace just fine. As you slide your fingers up the brass toward the boolit you shouldn't be able to feel any flare after crimping. The .45 ACP should be taper crimped- never roll crimped because the mouth of the brass should headspace against the hard ridge at the front of the chamber. If roll crimped the cartridge can go too far into the chamber. I've never had a .45 ACP case needed trimming and I've reloaded them until you can't read the stamping on the case heads. That doesn't mean they never stretch, though, so it wouldn't hurt to measure some cases- 0.898" max.

The fact that factory ammo fits into the chamber and yours doesn't suggest that this is a dimensional issue. You won't be able to seat the 1R boolits as long as the SAAMI max OAL because the big radius of the nose will have an interference fit with the magazine. John Browning designed the shape of the magazine to work with the shape of his bullet design.

One last thing to check is the junction of the ramp and chamber. On some barrels it's a sharp corner that will play havoc with cartridges that are on the long side, as yours might be even if they don't measure long due to the boolit's shape. The last barrel I fitted to a 1911 had a sharp corner at the top of the ramp and had to be relieved quite a bit to feed without digging into the side of the cartridges.

David

[David2011]

Six more posts that covered everything I said while I was typing slowly. . .

David

[MT Chambers]

I do own a micrometer, if I go much longer than 1.240 or under 1.210 the round won't even go halfway in the barrel before getting stuck. At 1.230 the round falls into the barrel fairly easy but sits more snug and not quite as flush as a factory round.

Should I think about going with a differnt seater/crimp die set? The hornady die crimps and seats with the same die.
Most seating dies crimp as well if set up properly, with the exception of most "in-line seaters"....I think that you should try a different bullet, with dif. profile.

[runfiverun]

the basics are covered.
we can't see built up lube through the puter screen..
first you have to make them fit then make them feed then make them shoot.
all i got.

[metho]

Well I took some of your advice and shortened the round down to 1.220 and added crimp till the point where the brass started pinching the lead and then backed it off a little till there was no crimp. I loaded up about 50 rounds and tested each one in my xd barrel and my 1911 barrel and they all seem to fit better than before. I'd say this still don't go in and out quite as smoothly as the factory rounds do but I guess you have to keep in mind that the diameter of my cast boolits is a thousandth or two lager. I measured a few factory rounds and most of them are about .469-.470 in diameter and most of my rounds are .471-.472. Before I added more crimps my rounds were coming out at around .473-.474. I have a feeling this probably did the trick but I'll have to wait till I get to the range to see.

[41 mag fan]

Just as a thought, what everyone else said is good info. One thing you didn't mention, is the brass new or 1x fired or 2x fired?
If it's 1x fired check the brass right in front of the case head.
reason being is for a year I have an RIA compact, that I couldn't get to feed reliably. Same round would cycle thru all my other 1911's though.
Finally I got the idea and checked using my micrometer and I had an ever so slight bulge that caused the RIA to not cycle or go into battery reliably.
Must've been fired thru a Glock previously. So now i got 2k of brass I need to run thru a Bulge Buster Die to get them back to specs.

[Tom Myers]

I do own a micrometer, if I go much longer than 1.240 or under 1.210 the round won't even go halfway in the barrel before getting stuck. At 1.230 the round falls into the barrel fairly easy but sits more snug and not quite as flush as a factory round.

Should I think about going with a differnt seater/crimp die set? The hornady die crimps and seats with the same die.

The case neck walls are usually the same thickness for a short distance back toward the base of the case and then the thickness begins to increase.

It may be that, If the rounds will not seat when they are shorter than 1.21", the bullet base is below the point where the thickness begins to increase and is expanding the case to the point where it will not go completely into a tight chamber.

This condition is probably just what the Lee Factory Crimp PISTOL die was created for. The carbide sizing ring will uniform the diameter of the swelled casing down to SAAMI specs and allow the round to chamber if the bullet is seated deep enough so that the nose will not contact. the lands.

I may be possible that by simply sizing your bullets down an additional 0.001" and seating to an over all length of 1.21" will allow the rounds to fully seat in your chamber.

[Larry Gibson]

Invest in a taper crimp die or the Lee Factory Crimp Die. Some complain about the Lee FCD but it solved just the problem you are having with my loads in a P14 with a match cahmber that even a heavy taper crimp did not solve. I got no leading, accuracy remained the same and best of all got 100% reliable feeding with the use of the FCD.

Also size bullets at .451.

Larry Gibson

[mdi]

If your Lee mold is the "1R" configuration, you will have OAL "problems". The blunt, fat ogive needs to be seated much deeper to clear the rifling/chamber throat. "2R" feeds easily when using "normal" OAL...

[Bonz]

I had a similar issue with 9mm. OAL was right on. Everything appeared to be good. But got the same issue every time I tried to fire these new rounds.

Just for the heck of it, I painted the bullet (projectile) with a black magic marker, pulled the barrel out of my "pickiest" 9mm and pushed the round into the chamber. I could easily see the round was not fully in the chamber. Pulled the bullet back out of the barrel and could see marks on the bullet (projectile) where the magic marker was removed. Ended up that the bullet (projectile) was hitting the lands inside the barrel because of the shape of the bullet. I kept seating the bullet deeper until it no longer touched the lands inside the barrel. Minimum length is always a huge concern so be extremely careful not to seat too deeply !

If this is your issue, you may want to use a different mould for that caliber.