Delta Elite help

[Love Life]

*********DISCLAIMER**************
THE LOADS LISTED IN THIS TOPIC ARE WELL BEYOND LYMAN 49TH MANUAL MAX LOADS
*********DISCLAIMER**************

With that out of the way here goes. This actually involves a couple questions and I am hoping you more experience Delta Elite gurus can point me in the right direction.

I was out doing load developement this morning and I am having brass issues. With all loads tested I am getting a crease in my brass about halfway up. It looks like it is from impacting the top of barrel when ejecting. Is there any fix for this?

Next. As I crept up the load ladder at 9.5 gr of 800x I started to get bulged cases. The bulging continued up until 10.0 gr and I quit there. It looks like there is a very significant part of the case that is unsupported. I noticed it was not a fully supported chamber when checking for OAL when loading. Odd to me. I reckoned Colt would have fully supported barrels for the 10mm.

This all leads me to my next question. I figure a new barrel with a fully supported and RAMPED barrel will eliminate all of these issues. The only problem is I don't know which barrel company to go with. I am looking at Bar-Sto, but they have 3 different ramp options. So the bajillion dollar questions are are Bar-Stow barrels fully supported and which ramp style would be best?

Any other barrel manufacturers you would recommend? The brass picture shows the bulged cases on the left, a new unfired starline case center, and the nicks/creases on the right. The 3rd picture shows the barrel where it is leaving the creases. Base off the locations of the bulge I have deduced it is the right side of the barrel that is nicking/creasing the brass on ejection. I could "break" that edge, but it still leaves me with the unsupported chamber.

[TXGunNut]

It's not my intent to run your gun down but I think you're about to ruin a fine old gun and be very disappointed. Would hate for that to happen.
I seriously considered building a custom Delta Elite carry gun, even bought the gun. Decided against it and traded it off. As much as I love the 1911 I think the Delta Elite was a mistake. It simply won't stand up to a heavy diet of full-house 10mm loads. There are other platforms that handle this cartridge better and are easier to handle as well. If I owned one now I would probably fire the reduced (FBI) loads thru it or simply keep it for collector value.
JMHO, of course. My sad experience with the DE was quite awhile back, some folks have possibly figured it out since then.

[wv109323]

I would call Bar-sto with your questions. In my experience(with a .38Super) the Bar-sto will not fully support the case but will have more support than an OEM barrel.
With .45 ACP/.38 Super ramped barrels ,there are two popular ramp styles. The main difference is that the main frame has to be milled to different dimension to accomadate the two sizes of ramps. There may be a third ramp for the 10mm that addresses the lack of support issue. Bar-sto barrels are top quality.
I have seen bulged brass like yours from multiple Colt 10mms. I would back my reloads down to where the brass does not bulge, especially if I intended to keep all my fingers. I would be hesitant to reload the bulged cases.
I think the indentations in side of your brass is not from the barrel but the slide. I think the extractor is holding the brass until the brass comes in contact with the ejector. Then the ejector ejects the brass approximately 90 degrees and the side of the brass is hitting the back of the ejection port of the slide. Chamber one of the empty dented case and see if you can duplicate the indentations.
Another way this may be happening is that the slide is hitting the brass on the slide's way forward.

[Love Life]

I am pretty much done with load developement. I was going up the load ladder to find a ceiling for 800X. Looks like 8.9 gr is it. Now I will just load a box of those up for serious business when hiking, and stick to 6.6 gr of WSF for plinking.

I have absolutely no intention of reloading those bulged cases. Those things are done.

On to the nicked/creased cases. I have tried to get it to do it without firing the gun, but I can't. It only happens to fired brass. No matter how hard I rack the slide back I can not get it to duplicate that crease.

All very interesting. I guess I need to lay into 10mm brass while I can. I am leary of reloading the nicked cases more than twice.

Thanks a bunch for the advice.

[KYCaster]

Here's a video that shows the source of the "nicks".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=fvwp&v=LQB_zOvcNSU

The empty case rotates around the extractor and impacts the back of the ejection port as it makes its exit. The scallop at the back of the ejection port eliminates the sharp corner that causes the dent.

I'm not the least bit concerned about reloading cases with minor dents like that, but I definitely avoid bulged cases like the ones you have.

Any modifications you make to your Delta Elite will seriously affect the resale value, especially milling the frame to accept a ramped barrel.

I agree with TXGunNut. If you want to continue to shoot your DE, find a reduced load and be happy.

Jerry

[Love Life]

It is nice to hear that the nicks won't hurt the brass too much, and can still be reloaded a couple times.

I don't know what the hell I was thinking with the bulges. I should have stopped when I first noticed them. The angels were definately watching over my foolishness today.

So what is being said is I now own a 40 S&W +P. Well I guess it is time to start looking for one of the 10XX series S&W 10mm pistols.