Not quite passing plonk test

[BBQJOE]

Holy frijoles! I've cast a whole mess of bullets, but haven't reloaded in a few years. After working out the crankiness in my lee loadmaster, I found I'm not quite passing the plonk test.
A bullet drops in easy up to about the last 16th of an inch, at which point if I push down a little it goes in the rest of the way with a little click.
I know the bullet isn't too long because I'm loading a shorter HP.
I'm also using a mild taper crimp.

I can't remember what to do to correct this.

Thanks,

Joe

[jcren]

Sounds like the bullet profile is hitting the lead. Try shortening them up a hair to check. Also, if powdercoating, you will add enough to the profile to require a shorter oal than conventional lube. I figured that out after building several hundred to my notebook spec.

[BBQJOE]

Sounds like the bullet profile is hitting the lead. Try shortening them up a hair to check. Also, if powdercoating, you will add enough to the profile to require a shorter oal than conventional lube. I figured that out after building several hundred to my notebook spec.

I tried shortening the rnd, but it made no difference.

[C.F.Plinker]

Try just a hair more crimp. for example, most of my 45s work fine with a .470 crimp but one ( a revolver) likes .468. Now it will take .470 most of the time and when it won't just rotating the cartridge will usually be enough to get it to go. But if I crimp to .468 they all go all of the time.

Take an empty round of brass, size it, flare it, and without a boolit, crimp it. If that passes the plunk test the problem is your seating depth or the boolit diameter just ahead of the crimp. If it doesn't, the problem is in the crimp.

[mdi]

Mark the bullet to see if the bullet is hitting the rifling. Use a magic marker, mark the bullet and chamber the round. Eject and check for scratches. Basically, a cartridge is a peg, and a chamber is a hole. For the peg to enter the hole, it must be smaller than the hole. Somewhere your reloads are bigger than the chamber. Whenever I have a fit problem, I measure. I mic the OD of the case to see where the cartridge is too big. I check the bullet seating depth (easiest way is the magic marker method). Knowing where, it's easy to find out when and correct it. Without facts, measurements, it's all a WAG...

[B. Lumpkin]

Sounds like crimp issue.

[BBQJOE]

Thanks guys. I knew I was missing something. I'll look at the crimp tomorrow.
I need to get a battery for my calipers.

[DougGuy]

Newp not crimp, throat in the barrel is not big enough to let the boolit seat fully. Have the barrel throated and the troubles will be over, size to .452" and seat as long as you want, they will feed and plonk without issue after throating. Very common, inexpensive one-time fix takes care of it. Plus, they shoot lights out with a longer throat!

Yours may not be a Springfield, but this Springfield barrel is typical of the no-throat no-freebore of many modern and current manufacturers. Stock on the left, you can see there is NO place for the boolit to seat as the rifling runs right down to the case mouth. On the right is a throated barrel which puts enough .4525" freebore in front of the leade in to the rifling to allow pretty much any COA the shooter chooses, so long as it will cycle through the magazine..

[runfiverun]

click?
as in the case mouth is hitting the end of the chamber type click?

yeah?
then the boolit is hitting something and you putting pressure on it is aligning something
[the nose with the bore]
or it's letting something slide over something.
like the shoulder of the boolit is sliding over the end of the chamber [common with the old 'leave a thumbnails thickness exposed' load lengths]
then the case mouth clicks against the end of the chamber like it's supposed to.

how does the round come back out of the barrel?
can you just pour it out.
if so I'd try the round from the magazine and look for scuff marks on the boolit.

[NavyVet1959]

Create a dummy round (i.e. no primer, no powder) AND without a bullet, but still run through the seating / crimping die. If you still have a problem, the issue is with the brass (possibly didn't taper crimp it enough). If no problem, the issue is with the bullet itself (possibly loading too long, possibly oversized, possibly not enough freebore, etc).

[Wayne Smith]

Joe, you haven't told us what you are shooting! Also a caliper won't be reliable to the degree you need here, pick up a micrometer. Sears has them.

[popper]

Boolit base bulge. If empty sized case fits OK, get a dummy that doesn't, run the crimp die all the way down and then try. Yea, I know - swaging the boolit down - maybe - depends on the die.

[mold maker]

Is the brass from the same gun originally? May not be sizing all the way to the extractor groove. Some guns allow for expansion all the way to, and slightly past the beginning of the web.

[runfiverun]

holy cow, if one of the things mentioned here doesn't fix it you don't have a problem.

[Iowa Fox]

Is the brass from the same gun originally? May not be sizing all the way to the extractor groove. Some guns allow for expansion all the way to, and slightly past the beginning of the web.

This is my guess at the problem.

[jsizemore]

I never heard if the round drops out when you turn the barrel so the chamber is down.

[casac47]

Had the same problem with some .357s. Not all, just some. Turned out the offending cases were just slightly longer and were getting bulged in the crimping stage. The bulge was very slight and, right at the bullet. I used a sizing die with the de-capping pin removed to straighten them out. By unscrewing the crimp die slightly and running them back through, the problem was resolved.

[mdi]

Boolit base bulge. If empty sized case fits OK, get a dummy that doesn't, run the crimp die all the way down and then try. Yea, I know - swaging the boolit down - maybe - depends on the die.

One result from over crimping is bulged/buckled cases, making chambering difficult, ie.; not passing plunk test. Over crimping also can loosen the grip on the bullet...

[kungfustyle]

Try to split up the seating and crimping function on your press. Seat all the bullets, then go back and crimp. For starters use one round till you get it to plop in. It's ether in the col or the crimp. If the boolits are swc's then you may have to seat the boolit till its almost level with the brass. If a round nose play with the col first then the crimp.

[farmersamm]

I shoot a lot of 9mm, and 45acp, and it's not uncommon to have a bullet do what you're saying it does.

The real test is to drop it in, then push it back out with a pencil from the muzzle. If it ejects with very little, or no effort, you're good.

Excessive crimp can mess with your headspacing. Just crimp enough where it plunks, then ejects. No more. You don't need a Godzilla crimp. Semi auto ammo has a very light crimp.

Very little movement with semi auto, not like a revolver. So the crimp can be pretty light.

Re: bulging the case with a hard crimp..........it can happen. Look at the case near the bottom, if it's bulged, rethink your crimp. Crimp is a "feel" thing. Should feel the crimp in the press handle. Just enough to tell you that it's crimped, shouldn't take excessive force.