Ring of Lead stuck in chamber

[JTknives]

Tonight i tested out my 205gr wfn for my 10mm. OAL was 1.27", powder imr 800x 8.6gr to 10.2gr, glock 20 with Lone Wolf barrel. after a few shots the slide would not return all the way. after looking i saw a ring of lead at bottom of the chamber which would hold the case out. the boolits where WW with maybe some pure. thy where just air cooled. my starting vel with 8.6 gr was 1285fps. the OAL is .01 over listed max of 1.26 but thy drop in the chamber and feed fine. what could be causing this problem. thanks

[chris in va]

Yikes, air cooled WW boolits with a high powered caliber? No wonder they are leaving lead in the barrel. Try water dropping them next time.

[JTknives]

i was thinking maybe the base was swaging out a bit and getting cut off at the end of the chamber. it got dark so the crono stoped working but i bet the 10.2gr loads where hitting over 1400 fps. do not try this load at home ;)

[randyrat]

I think your right, the boolits are getting scraped when chambered

*You had a couple rounds that after you crimped them you seated them a touch more and ended up with a ring of lead in the chamber.
Or the boolits were too fat and they scrapped off when chambered.

Thats a HOT load, are you skidding or are the boolits skidding the rifling and causing some leading down the barrel further also.

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

Got a picture? Have you captured the shot boolit?

[thx997303]

JT, the problem isn't the alloy.

Have you tried seating them deeper?

[JTknives]

JT, the problem isn't the alloy.

Have you tried seating them deeper?

I have not yet. but i did heat treat some of the left over boolits last night. in the oven at @ 465 for a bit over an hr then water quenched. this morning i checked them and could not even scratch them with my finger nail. before i could scratch the boolits by just looking at them funny.

[RobS]

The bullet may be a bit too large in diameter and is crapping off on the chamber. If you are using a Lyman/RCBS/Saeco style lubricator make sure that the entire bearing surface of the bullet is being sized in your sizing die. Some bullet designs that have a longer bearing surface and a lube groove close to the base of the bullet can be lubed in a lubricator and not get fully sized toward the nose. Also with the taper of some sizing dies it is entirely possible that the bullet looks sized but it may actually be a bit larger toward the nose than it's suppose to be. Should you be using a star or lee lubricator/bullet sizing system this wouldn't be an issue as the entire bullet undergoes a complete sizing as it is pushed through the sizing die. It could be that the bullet is just too large in diameter.

[JTknives]

The bullet may be a bit too large in diameter and is crapping off on the chamber. If you are using a Lyman/RCBS/Saeco style lubricator make sure that the entire bearing surface of the bullet is being sized in your sizing die. Some bullet designs that have a longer bearing surface and a lube groove close to the base of the bullet can be lubed in a lubricator and not get fully sized toward the nose. Also with the taper of some sizing dies it is entirely possible that the bullet looks sized but it may actually be a bit larger toward the nose than it's suppose to be. Should you be using a star or lee lubricator/bullet sizing system this wouldn't be an issue as the entire bullet undergoes a complete sizing as it is pushed through the sizing die. It could be that the bullet is just too large in diameter.

I made my sizing die and it is a push through. it sized the boolits to .4016 and my bore sluged at .401. i shoot commercial cast boolits that are .402 and thy are fine.

[Artful]

I has a similar problem in 9mm with a Mac-11 SMG - hard bullets (quenched) enclosed in case - nothing larger in front of case mouth with taper crimp solved it for me - funny thing is the UZI never had the same problem - so I suspected it was the chamber reamer throat design used by Daniels that caused it.

[thx997303]

Just remember to change ONE thing at a time.

If you load the harder boolits, load them at the same OAL you were using yesterday.

If you size them smaller, again use the same OAL you were using yesterday.

When playing with the OAL use the air cooled ones just like yesterday.

Change too many things at once and you wont know what fixed the problem if you do.

[MtGun44]

If you are seating and crimping in the same die this can push up a ring of lead ahead of
the brass. I suspect that this is getting jammed into the chamber. I think you want to
get a separate taper criimp die and seat in one die and then crimp as a separate operation.

As to the comment on being too soft an alloy.-----

Harder alloy DOES NOT ensure reduced leading! It is common for too hard an alloy to
CAUSE leading, primarily if the boolit is undersized for the bore.

I and many others shoot air cooled wheelweights at full power in all the magnum pistols
with no leading at all and very good accuracy.

This old wives tale needs to be stomped on every time it comes up. I have shot 8 BHN
.44 mag and .357 mag loads with good lube in good designs with no problems at all,
no leading, no inaccuracy, just fine. There may be reasons to use harder alloy, but
"to prevent leading" isn't one of them as a general rule.

Harder is NOT necessarily better in pistols. I cannot claim to have anything like the same
level of experience in rifles, but I have had just fine results with AC wwts in rifles with
GC designs in the 1500-1800 fps range.

[JTknives]

i am crimping with a separate die. and I'm crimping just enough to remove the flared case mouth.

[mpmarty]

Forget trying harder boolits. As has been said harder isn't better. I shoot ACWW in all my rifles and most of the time without checks too and suffer no problems.

[RobS]

JTKnives:

I've seen this before when the bullet design had a crimp groove and was shot in an auto. During the lubing process I made sure to lube the crimp groove and then seated the bullet to a depth where I could taper crimp above the lube filled crimp groove. After that the lead ring didn't happen any more in the chamber.

I don't know what your bullet design is like, but if it has a crimp groove you may try doing what I described as it could take care of the problem.

[thx997303]

I'm thinking a too long OAL still.

Let us know what fixes it.