What did you do at your reloading bench today?

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  • GuitarmanNick

    Ultimate Member
    Jan 9, 2017
    2,221
    Laurel
    Dismantled and inspected 100 - .45 ACP reloads that my brother bought and was using during his qualification when his gun blew apart. Luckily, he was not seriously injured, and still qualified.

    He said he had fired 47 of 50 rounds and had noticed damaged brass and an unusually heavy recoil all along, but the Glock was still running, and he chalked it up to his arthritis. The testing was almost completed when it failed.

    He had gotten 3 boxes of 50 rounds so only 2 remained.

    I found there were two different primers used and that when the primer change was made, the normal 5.9-6.0 grains charge, changed to 10.6-11.0 grains. This was the case in 46 of 100. The heavier charges were compressed and not quite a double charge, but very close.

    At least I am reasonably certain that the cause of my brother's incident was the reloads he was using. He was left with no permanent injuries and Glock rebuilt his gun at no charge. Lucky all around!

    I have loaded them using 5.9 grains of the recycled powder. It appears to be Unique, but there is no way to be certain. A trip to Cindy's in the near future will let me know if this operation was a success.
     

    gwfrench

    Active Member
    Aug 21, 2014
    199
    Frederick, MD
    Why, doesn't AGC allow you to have free standing target frames anymore?

    To be honest, for some reason I didn't even think of a free-standing target on the 100 yard range. Just so tied into those holes for the target stands. I've used the ones down on the pistol range before but didn't think of them on the 100 yard range. Easier than the 100 miles to my friends place in WV.
     

    John from MD

    American Patriot
    MDS Supporter
    May 12, 2005
    22,721
    Socialist State of Maryland
    To be honest, for some reason I didn't even think of a free-standing target on the 100 yard range. Just so tied into those holes for the target stands. I've used the ones down on the pistol range before but didn't think of them on the 100 yard range. Easier than the 100 miles to my friends place in WV.

    See, you learn something new everyday here on MDS. :lol:
     

    Uncle Duke

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 2, 2013
    11,662
    Not Far Enough from the City
    Dismantled and inspected 100 - .45 ACP reloads that my brother bought and was using during his qualification when his gun blew apart. Luckily, he was not seriously injured, and still qualified.

    He said he had fired 47 of 50 rounds and had noticed damaged brass and an unusually heavy recoil all along, but the Glock was still running, and he chalked it up to his arthritis. The testing was almost completed when it failed.

    He had gotten 3 boxes of 50 rounds so only 2 remained.

    I found there were two different primers used and that when the primer change was made, the normal 5.9-6.0 grains charge, changed to 10.6-11.0 grains. This was the case in 46 of 100. The heavier charges were compressed and not quite a double charge, but very close.

    At least I am reasonably certain that the cause of my brother's incident was the reloads he was using. He was left with no permanent injuries and Glock rebuilt his gun at no charge. Lucky all around!

    I have loaded them using 5.9 grains of the recycled powder. It appears to be Unique, but there is no way to be certain. A trip to Cindy's in the near future will let me know if this operation was a success.

    If he was touching off 11 grains of Unique in a 45acp reload?

    He's a lucky fella.
     

    Melnic

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Dec 27, 2012
    15,278
    HoCo
    Dismantled and inspected 100 - .45 ACP reloads that my brother bought and was using during his qualification when his gun blew apart. Luckily, he was not seriously injured, and still qualified.

    He said he had fired 47 of 50 rounds and had noticed damaged brass and an unusually heavy recoil all along, but the Glock was still running, and he chalked it up to his arthritis. The testing was almost completed when it failed.

    He had gotten 3 boxes of 50 rounds so only 2 remained.

    I found there were two different primers used and that when the primer change was made, the normal 5.9-6.0 grains charge, changed to 10.6-11.0 grains. This was the case in 46 of 100. The heavier charges were compressed and not quite a double charge, but very close.

    At least I am reasonably certain that the cause of my brother's incident was the reloads he was using. He was left with no permanent injuries and Glock rebuilt his gun at no charge. Lucky all around!

    I have loaded them using 5.9 grains of the recycled powder. It appears to be Unique, but there is no way to be certain. A trip to Cindy's in the near future will let me know if this operation was a success.


    Where did he buy the reloads?
     

    trickg

    Guns 'n Drums
    MDS Supporter
    Jul 22, 2008
    14,584
    Glen Burnie
    If he was touching off 11 grains of Unique in a 45acp reload?

    He's a lucky fella.
    A double charge of almost anything typically used for 45 ACP - Bullseye, W231/HP38, Unique, Clays, etc - would make for a bad day at the range, especially if the reloader was looking for top end of the scale. I've read in more than one place that the original "Ball" load that was decided upon for the US Army was 5.0gr Bullseye under a 230 gr FMJ RN bullet for 850 fps at the muzzle, 830 fps at 25 yards.

    10.0 gr of Bullseye under a 230 gr bullet in a 45 ACP would make for a bad day at the range. It would pressure spike something fierce. I like using Bullseye for 45 ACP because it's economical, but because it's such a light and low volume charge, it would be easy to double charge it and not catch it if you weren't paying attention.
     

    GuitarmanNick

    Ultimate Member
    Jan 9, 2017
    2,221
    Laurel
    Where did he buy the reloads?

    It appears that this guy was selling reloads to his "friends" and from what I can determine, not licensed to do so. Did it to keep busy and active in retirement. How this mistake could have been made using a single stage press, is what I have not been able to figure out. These were not quite a double charge, but very close and the charge was changed when the primer brand was changed.

    My brother suffered some minor cuts and bad burns to his hands when it cut loose. He told me that from the first shot, it felt like he was firing a 12 gauge and expelled brass that was bulged and split. In hindsight, he also said he should have stopped right away, but it was the last day for him to re-qualify, and he had no other ammo on hand. This is one mistake that he will not be repeating!

    I have read some articles on the toughness tests endured by Glock to gain their reputation. It is well deserved, IMO.
     

    Melnic

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Dec 27, 2012
    15,278
    HoCo
    I'm guessing the person doing the reloading was not taking precautions to catch over loading the rounds.
    Me, personally, do Pistol and bulk 223/300BLK on a 50 round tray with a lyman 55 powder measure
    I both visually inspect then audit about 4-5 loaded cases dumping and weighing the powder.
    Anyone doing enough pistols, you should catch the jump from 56r or so to 11gr loads visually
    whomever overcharged it made a mistake in something along the way and did not have a method to check/audit his work.
     

    gwfrench

    Active Member
    Aug 21, 2014
    199
    Frederick, MD
    Started processing 100 of my reloaded 45 Colt brass that I've fired in the last month. Decapped, tumbled and resized them.
    Gonna stick with recycling this one batch of brass and see how long they last.
     

    RuralRifleGuy

    Active Member
    Aug 16, 2018
    918
    Queenstown
    Installed the replacement linkage bar on my Lyman Ideal press that’s been broken since 12/27. Pulled some subsonic bullets, redid the charges, and reseated them. Didn’t break the linkage so that’s an improvement.

    Spent some time after that organizing all my reloading items, looking into Alliant powders, and watching videos on bullet casting while sorting brass.
     

    U.S.SFC_RET

    Ultimate Member
    Dec 8, 2005
    6,696
    Getting ready to reload 9mm 147gr XTPs. I would prefer XTPs a bit lighter like 115 or 124 however all that was to he had was 147gr..
     

    Melnic

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Dec 27, 2012
    15,278
    HoCo
    Sorted a couple hundred lead 452 swc I molded today.
    Just to try it out, I wired up a PID temp controller onto the Lyman Big Dipper pot.
    Last night I tried the auto tuner but it was overshooting so had to CRANK up the Derivative and lower the Integral and without touching the pot its holding +/- 5F
    I could get it to get tighter but I'd suffer speed in bringing it back after mixing it with the dipper or adding more lead.
    I also for grins attached a temp thermocouple to a mold today to see how much I had to heat it up to get the aluminum mold to 400F.
    I don't intend on running all my molds with a thermocouple, but it was educational to see the mold temp and then how much pause I had to give it to bring the next bullets dropped under control again after seeing the signs of a hot mold in the dropped bullets and sprue plate.

    I have the PID controller wired in to a power strip right now, but I''ll put it into a single box with an AC outlet to make it easier to manage and make a better mount for the temperature probe. The Lyman dial is just cranked all the way up.
    The pot heats up as fast as it could w/o me having to watch it the whole time with a thermometer and then adjust the dial. When adding more lead, it comes up to temp pretty fast. PID controller is a time saver not to mention my bullets stayed more consistent. Up till recently. I've just been happy to have pistol bullets within 2-3 grains of each other. Now I'm able to do better than that easily. Its one thing to read about looking for the tell tale signs of a cold or hot mold, but its another thing to be able to see it while also KNOWING the mold is hot or cold. You olde timers with decades of molding sure do not need to do this sort of thing but I'm a tinkerer SOOOO.

    Also cleaned some dirty (as in earth) 357 sig that I picked up at the range that I'll be adding to the brass trade thread soon.
    Last night I sized/flaired 200+ 45ACP cases
     

    Pinecone

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 4, 2013
    28,175
    I'm guessing the person doing the reloading was not taking precautions to catch over loading the rounds.
    Me, personally, do Pistol and bulk 223/300BLK on a 50 round tray with a lyman 55 powder measure
    I both visually inspect then audit about 4-5 loaded cases dumping and weighing the powder.
    Anyone doing enough pistols, you should catch the jump from 56r or so to 11gr loads visually
    whomever overcharged it made a mistake in something along the way and did not have a method to check/audit his work.

    I still don't get trays for loading.

    When I am running my single stage. I pick up a primed case. I drop the powder, I seat the bullet.

    NO chance of double charging the case.
     

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