Embarassing Fail to Feed

[Sheldon]

It could be the chamber is tight on the barrel as well. Tooling wear out and sometimes you get a barrel with a chamber on the tighter side versus the looser side.

[HeavyMetal]

I did not see it mentioned so I will ask: do you trim case's or seperate by HS?

Case's do stretch, some calibers more so that other, and your "lot" of 45 brass may be getting long?

For years I just put the brass in a tumbler cleaned it then poured it in a 5 gallon bucket to load on my Dillon.

One day I started having the odd stoppage during practise and started hunting for the source.

An older shooter suggested I mike a bunch of case's which I did and found some "winner's", LOL!

Today I sort by HS and run them past a Lee trimmer set up in a cordless drill, not shooting match stuff any more or I'd get me a motorized trimmer to fit in the dillon.

Variations in case lenth will give you crimps, tapered or not, all over the place.

Check it out.

[Love Life]

^^Definitely something to look into. I trim every piece of pistol brass that comes through my hands for loading. It allows me a consistent crimp and stuff.

[BruceB]

I've loaded target-pistol ammunition for almost a half-century to date. The count must be upwards of a half-million rounds. From checking my records, I Know that I'm well over a quarter-million in .38 Special (wadcutters) alone. A good 90% of those were self-cast, too....

1. I have NEVER seen a .45 ACP case that was as long as the "standard" .898".... and I do check occasionally (as opposed to "all the time", in earlier years.

2. Also, I have NEVER trimmed a handgun case, as far as I can recall.

3. Using ammunition loaded under these conditions, I managed to reach Master class in Bullseye.

[Love Life]

I trim all pistol brass one time. It is usually trashed before it grows too long. As a matter of fact, I cant recall when I had a piece of pistol brass grow to long. Even in the .454.

[35remington]

I'll pile one here as well; one thing you can count on, and that's the fact that 45 ACP cases don't need trimming.

Ever.

Thing is, I've shot a great many rounds to date, and new factory cases are several thou shorter than the max trim to length. You'll never trim a case because it gets too long. Measure a case after firing; there is some lengthening on sizing, but it shortens right back up again on firing

Let me repeat; 45 ACP cases don't need trimming. They aren't too long as received from the factory, and they don't get longer on firing. Simple fact replicated by the vast majority of shooters out there. Until this thread this is the first time I've ever heard anyone claim 45 ACP cases were too long.

Doubt me? Track a single case or repeatedly load it to get accelerated case life testing. You'll get tired of measuring long before it lengthens to any degree. Look elsewhere for your problems.

IMO, it is a crime to have a "tight" chamber in a gun with a moveable barrel/slide relationship, as the barrel slide fit is far, far more limiting than any chamber would be either loose or tight. If a gun "needs" a taper crimp of much over .471" to .472" to get a round to fit, the chamber is stupidly tight and has no place in a 45 used for anything, and this is unnecessary even in a target pistol.

There is no room for any crud buildup and that's just plain dumb. Ream that sucker if this is necessary.

[TCLouis]

Just a thought, NOT a recommendation.

If one removes the decapping pin and runs a round at least part way into the resizing die it will usually ALWAYS chamber then.

Captured from something someone once posted on the interweb.

[Ironduke]

Thanks for all the input, guys.

I do sort by headstamp, and these days you have to sort by primer pocket size in the 45 as well since some are small pistol sized--even within the same brand. For example I have some FC, CCI and Blazer headstamped cases that are large primer and small primer. I guess the ammo factories get whatever brass they can get from different contractors.

Anyway, I started running some cases partially into the sizing die, and those would easily chamber thereafter. I also ran some back through the seater die with more crimp added, and they also chamber. So i loaded some ammo into the magazine and cycled the ammo through the gun, and it all fed as expected. It appears tat my problem was insufficient crimp, not too much crimp as I thought from the beginning.

Easy fix. Now to get to the range and test the ammo for reliability.

[dragon813gt]

So what was the crimp measurement before and after?

[GaryN]

I've been crimping mine at the mouth to .467-.469. The gun runs good that way. When using .471 it was a little tight and I would occasionally have one hang up.

[gefiltephish]

Is this the Lee TL or grooved bullet? Neither of my RIA's will reliably feed the grooved bullet, but neither have any trouble with "true" H&G 68 clones. The Lee has a pointier nose. I think the nose on the TL is probably ok though. I now use an Accurate Molds 68 clone and never have feed problems.

[Cherokee]

Sounds like you found the problem - too little taper crimp.