Beretta Problem - Big Time

[416Rodney]

I have a friend who shoots a Beretta 96FS in .40 S&W. Everything has been fine until today when a couple of his reloads created a "bad day." While using a 170 gr. SWC (lead boolit) over 6 to 6.5 grains of Unique he got two that blew out the back of the cartridge and destroyed the magazine, not mention "stuff" in his face.

Have any of you experienced similar problems in a Beretta. My friend is a very careful and methodical reloader who checks and double checks everything when he reloads on his Dillon 550B. I know he is worried about what may happen the next time he goes out to practice much less during a USPSA match.

I/we appreciate any feedback.

[Cmemiss]

I have had it happen in three pistols, a SIG 229 an STI Trojan and a 2011 Edge. I have other problems with .40 reloads and am still tryig to figure out exactaly what is the cause. Origoinally I thought it was some "gun show" reloads I bought about 15 vyears ago that used 180 gr cast boolits. Then the STIs (using the GS reloads) and some of my own loads started having problems. I loaded 175 Lee cast over 7.1 gr HS-6 and a simuliar load using 231. Seems when they get close to major (165000) reloaded brass may start to get weak. I have debulged all my reloads so know that isn't the problem (?) One place I am looking is that when the chamber starts to get dirty (like after 200 rounds or so) the slide doesn't always go into battery. This seems to be caused by boolit lube around the case mouth jamming the case. I am speculating that this condition may allow the pistol to fire in a slight out of battery condition and the case head seperatioin to start in the ramped area of the barrel. I have a friend at the gun club who shoots a .40 1911 who has opened up the chamber on his gun and I am going to give him a couple hundred of my cast to reload to see if he starts to get build-up that creates a problem. If anyone else has a simuliar problem I'll watch this thread for any ideas.

[keyhole]

I get some erratic charge weights in a 550b using 6.0 gr. Unique in .45 ACP. Just by the report it is obvious that charges are varying somewhat. I've never had any that seemed way overloaded, though. Is 6.5 gr. Unique in .40 S&W maybe a bit stiff? don't know, just asking

[keyhole]

just checked my latest edition Lyman cast bullet loading manual. 6.5 gr. Unique in .40 S&W with 170 gr bullet is over what they show for max. charge. If your friend got a couple of "rogue" charges like I get with Unique, I could see where he got a serious over charge. He should check out his load data.

Keyhole