Brass and cast.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

SNIP>>>

Amazed at how this turned into a major discussion on everything but the wall thickness of the brass and just what a simple influence like that can have!

Yep, that's what happens on a forum like this...On the positive side, there are lots of things to be discovered and/or learned, but not just for you, but for everyone else reading this.

I have a S&W 625JM with the same issues. To handload cast boolit ammo that will reliably chamber moon clips full of ammo, I have to use R+P brass with boolits that are sized to .4515 (I honed out a sizer just specially for this application). I have thought about having the cylinder reamed, but I have another issue, that my moon clips work so much better with R+P brass and Not so much with some other brands, so I'd have to sort brass for that reason...or buy other Moon clips.

[kmw1954]

Folks I understand, everyone looking to offer advice and thinking there is always a problem. Well there was a problem over a 3 years ago when I first started loading for this gun and then when I started loading Lead Boolits. The solution was a simple one, just use what works and not fight it. As I have stated I have been shooting cast lead in this gun for over a year now with these loads and it has been 100% reliable. So why change it now?

So I am guessing that some took issue that after all this time I finally ran out of my stash of workable brass for these loads and now have to invest the time to sort thru a large bucket of mixed brass to recover what will work for this gun. Maybe some see that as unnecessary or added work.

All of these things brought up here were also brought up and discussed back 3 years ago. So sorry for any confusion, sorry you didn't enjoy the conversation but maybe it's time to close this topic.

[ReloaderEd]

[B]You have a tight chamber there. I used cast bullets years ago sized .451". 1/1000 of an inch isn't much but it might work? [A tapered crimp might help too.New Picture (1).bmp/B]

[Burnt Fingers]

This.

Every time a manufacturer uses a chambering reamer it incurs a certain amount or wear.
Of course that wear makes the chamber it cuts slightly smaller with each use.

At a certain point, after a certain number of chambers are cut with the same reamer,
the chamber that is cut is under the SAMMI spec for the minimum sized chamber dimension.
Some manufacturers, and sometimes at different times at a given manufacturer,
the reamer gets replaced before or when it first cuts an out of spec chamber.
At other times or other manufactures, they keep on using the worn reamer even thought it is now cutting out-of-spec chambers.
Thus may be due to a mistake or not checking the size of the cut chambers frequently enough,
or it may be due to an overt policy of "deferred maintenance" due to trying to cut costs and pinch pennies.

Thus in this case a "tight chamber" is not a chamber specifically cut to tight match specifications
(which would still be withing SAMMI specs), in this case it's a chamber cut by a worn-out reamer
because the manufacturer wasn't paying attention or the manufacturer knew darn well that the tooling was worn but
thought it was OK to ship product to a customer that didn't meet spec as long as the manufacturer was "saving money".

Most 9mm chambers today aren't cut to SAMMI spec with regards to the throat. I've seen some that have the rifling at a 90° angle to the chamber with no leade.

I've got a S&W 5906 that has a correctly cut chamber. It will eat almost anything. You can visibly see the difference.

[kmw1954]

UPDATE;

The lee .451" sizing die arrived today and did a quick check with a couple of cast bullets that were sized to .452" and tumble lubed. Took 10 of those and ran then back through the new .451" die and then tried seating them into some Winchester brass. The first one still would not seat completely but much closer than before. Second one almost completely seated but not quite. On the third one I turned the seating/crimp die down just less than an 1/8 of a turn and then backed the seating stem back out. This time it dropped all the way in and dropped out with a slight shake. So this is showing promise.

I then lubed and sized 120 bullets that were untouched through this new .451" die and the 45/45/10 is drying now. Will try to load them up tomorrow and then shoot them next week in both guns to see if the smaller size is going to effect accuracy or barrel leading. The XD isn't as picky.

[Cherokee]

kmw - it was an interesting thread to read thru and could be helpful to others. I understood your comment from the beginning because I have found that for certain loads, certain brass work best. I have a stash of RP brass used only for certain loads. For 20+ years I used .451 sized bullets in 45 ACP, then tried .452 last century and things improved in my guns to be my standard now. Good luck in your quest.