New(ish) pistol, odd problem

[Pb&j]

My wife owns an HKP30 in 9mm. Guns shoots great and pretty much eats any brand of ammo, factory or reloaded. I purchased a bit ago, an HKP30sk in 9mm that has maybe 100 rounds through it. I don't have a nice stock of factory ammo. Factory winchester round nose ammunition cycles and shoots fine and is accurate. Now if I put any kind of reloaded ammunition in the sk it will not fully go into battery, and its a bear to even get the slide to come back. When the slide does come back, the round is stuck in the barrel. Micrometer and calipers are not shedding any light on the conundrum with regard to brass and bullet dimensions. I am willing to stick with factory ammo for much more break in time if that may be all it is. Never had a gun not like reloaded ammo, even stuff I didn't reload, so that lets me know its not in my procedure. All other guns I reload and or cast/reload have no issues. I'm open to any and all ideas.

[LAGS]

Are you doing a Factory style crimp on your cases when you load them ?

[Pb&j]

Yes. I bought some reloads from a friend some time back, round nose, hollow point, and those do the same thing. Yet the wifes full size eats everything like candy. Even shoot my reloads from her gun with no issue.

[M-Tecs]

On one of the loads that has issues take a black magic marker and color the sides of the bullet and the case. Chamber one and see where the contact is.

[Winger Ed.]

Paint a loaded round with a sharpie, load & remove it.
It will tell you where the hang up is.

My first guess would be at the mouth of the case from some sort of improper crimp.

[fastdadio]

Give the chamber a good scrubbing first, then try again. I had the same problem once. Two like pistols (1911), same ammoes, one chambered, the other didn't. Switching form a roll crimp to a taper crimp was the cure. One of the pistols simply had a tighter chamber.

[country gent]

Ink the whole case from groove to bullet Including the bullet chamber and see where its rubbed off. Some of the newer pistols have a generous chamber and porting allowing for a bulge at the base just a head of the solid head. This bulge can be rough in a pistol with a tighter chamber. With the radius on the sizing die and shell holder its hard to get it all removed.

[725]

That was my first thought; base not being fully resized. Sharpie it up and see where the hang up is.

[shortlegs]

Had the same problem with a new springfield ronin 9mm. I checked everything and was in specs. As a last resort I bought a small base sizing die...... problem solved!

[BK7saum]

Had the same problem with a new springfield ronin 9mm. I checked everything and was in specs. As a last resort I bought a small base sizing die...... problem solved!

Same here. My springfield Ronin would only chamber about 50% of my reloaded ammunition. The base was not getting sized down far enough using my RCBS carbide dies. I bulge busted a bunch of cases and that cured the problem. The chamber was about 0.002" tighter than my Glocks amd S&W pistols.

I sold the Ronin just the other day. I hate to tailor (additional steps/work) ammo for a single firearm. The problem was the tighter chamber tolerances on the Ronin and lack of sizing toward the base on using the RCBS dies.

Brad

[Pb&j]

Thank you folks. I know what I'll be doing after work anyways. Time to learn about this bulge buster.

[wv109323]

I am having nearly the same problem.
What size are your boolits? The European chamber specs are different that our USA SAAMI specs. The Europeans chambers are made around jacketed bullets of .355 diameter. If you use .356 or .357 boolits then you can run into problems.
The problem is the same as bullet run out in a rifle. In my chamber the bullet and the side of the case are not concentric. In my chamber, if the bullet is not seated straight it can cause the case to have a swelled out place. That swell and the bullet cause the round to stick in the chamber.
With a round that does not chamber put it in your calipers and observe the side of the case to the jaws of the caliper. A tapered 9mm should contact the base of the brass and then have an increasing gap to the mouth of the case.
A small base die may solve the problem as it would allow a round with bullet run out to chamber more easily.

[roysha]

Just a thought. In my SIGs, 9MM, 40 S&W and 45 ACP I have had to throat the barrel because the bullets from my reloads were engaging the rifling enough to occasionally stop the slide from a complete return to battery. As a previous poster mentioned, if you are using a slightly larger than nominal 9MM diameter bullets and seating out far enough to get a decent crimp purchase on the bullet, the bullet is probably hitting the rifling. I really don't understand why the companies don't put a bit of throat relief in their barrels. I also had to throat my RIA 9MM and son-in-law's CZ 75 so it would accept cast bullets.

[Pb&j]

I am having nearly the same problem.
What size are your boolits? The European chamber specs are different that our USA SAAMI specs. The Europeans chambers are made around jacketed bullets of .355 diameter. If you use .356 or .357 boolits then you can run into problems.

Using an NOE mould pinned for round flat nose in .356 and powder coated. The other reloads I have are of hornady round nose and hollow point. The hornady rounds jam up as well. Going to break out the sharpie and micrometer, then on to googling the bulge buster. At worst I can ask the wife nicely so I can at least chrono the ones I have loaded up. Thank you all for all insight and ideas. I love this place.

Regards
Brad

[recumbent]

You need an ammo checker. https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1016393015?pid=464540

[gwpercle]

The chambers have little or no throats ... they will chamber and extract factory ammo but reloads , especially with lead boolits , lubed or coated , the boolits are larger in size and jamb into the rifling .
You can seat the boolits deeper untill they chamber , try a truncated cone boolit design or the best fix is have DougGuy put a proper throat in the barrel to give the boolits some room .

I ran into this when loading lead ... not in an old WWII P-38 that has a long throat but in the newer made 9mm's and especially the compact models ...the chamber ends and the rifling begins ...they save 10 cents on not throating ... seat them deeper untill they plunk ... coated boolits make the problem worse ... A proper Throating Job is the best answer .

Your guns barrel is your best gauge / ammo checker ... fitting the gauge/checker does not mean it will chamber in your pistol ...trust me . Call in DougGuy he can fix .
Gary

[Pb&j]

Thanks. At least my brain is headed in the right direction as I was going to make a dummy load with an unlubed/coated boolit to see what marks are left on it. The sharpie didn't bring much info to light. My fingernail could do more scratching then what I'm seeing. Used a prepped unprimed case and lubed boolit. It did go into battery on the second try but as before, a bear to pull slide back and round is stuck in barrel. And sadly yes, I'm one of those guys that preps all my brass no matter. Just appreciate consistency in such matters, but it can be boring.

[rockshooter]

Consider a mold similar to: https://noebulletmolds.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/HTC356-135-RF_PB_AH2_Sketch.jpg. The issue is probably related to a lack of throat. Noe makes several other molds (for lube and not) that have a reduced nose portion. I had the exact same issue with a CZ barrel.
Loren

[Handloader109]

Throat 90% guaranteed. Douggguy can fix . I have a glock, two 1911s that will eat anything. By new threaded glock and a couple of newer guns just don't like any PC on several if by cast. I ended up getting a round checker
https://usa-shop.armanov.com/collections/case-gauges
Best thing since sliced bread. If the round fits in this thing, it will load and fire in any of my 3 9mm PCC and in my 7 handguns....

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

[Pb&j]

Consider a mold similar to: https://noebulletmolds.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/HTC356-135-RF_PB_AH2_Sketch.jpg. The issue is probably related to a lack of throat. Noe makes several other molds (for lube and not) that have a reduced nose portion. I had the exact same issue with a CZ barrel.
Loren

That is the same mold I purchased and is set up for, with the pins, just as the drawing shows. First NOE mold and wow, consistent drops and just a nice piece of equipment. Same holds true for the 45 mold by NOE as well.