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Failures w/ coated bullets


dbagwell

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I crimp coated 9mm bullets to .376"-.377". Bullets show a faint line on the coating when pulled, but the coating is still intact. No issues with residue, smoke, or smell in various 9mm Glocks. Accuracy is unaffected as well. 

 

When I don't seat bullets far enough, they won't plunk and spin in a dirty barrel, especially with flat point bullets. The same rounds will plunk and spin in a clean barrel. In my case, the square shoulder of the bullet was hanging up on the throat of the barrel when dirty . Round nose profile bullets are more forgiving. My solution was to seat the bullets an extra .01" more, even after seating them .015" deeper than max OAL.

 

It may be that your rounds are being forced into the throat of the barrel when dirty, rubbing off the coating and leaving a residue in the first 2-3 mm.

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23 hours ago, dbagwell said:

 

I pulled some more last night and I do see a ring (indentation in the coating), so I'm suspecting that I'm crimping too much.

 

I don't understand what effect that has though.  Can anyone explain?

All I know is on the blue bullets website they warn about it

http://www.thebluebullets.com/category-s/1857.htm

I've seen similar warning on the bbi website

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Update: went to the range on Saturday and shot approximately 200 ACME loaded cartridges without any failures.  However I field stripped the pistol after about 100 rounds to check things out. There was the typical carbon or coating build up in the first 2-3 mm of the throat and the remaining cartridges would plunk, but they wouldn't spin.  I continued to shoot and noticed that once the pistol was in battery that I couldn't chamber check by pulling the slide rearward slightly.  Obviously I didn't chamber check every round, but some, not all, would stick and I couldn't open the slide without applying a lot of force.

 

At this point, I'm ready to go back to jacketed bullets.  For what it's worth, I determined the MAX COAL to be 1.205" and 1.1925", for the Blues and ACMEs respectively.  So, I highly doubt using a COAL of 1.14-1.15" is the problem.  Based on the feedback that I've received, I don't believe that I'm over crimping either.

 

Additionally, I clean my pistol after every use, using SLIP 2000 Carbon Killer and Bore Tech CU+2 Copper Remover - so I know the barrel is very clean.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 2/7/2017 at 1:56 PM, dbagwell said:

Update: went to the range on Saturday and shot approximately 200 ACME loaded cartridges without any failures.  However I field stripped the pistol after about 100 rounds to check things out. There was the typical carbon or coating build up in the first 2-3 mm of the throat and the remaining cartridges would plunk, but they wouldn't spin.  I continued to shoot and noticed that once the pistol was in battery that I couldn't chamber check by pulling the slide rearward slightly.  Obviously I didn't chamber check every round, but some, not all, would stick and I couldn't open the slide without applying a lot of force.

 

At this point, I'm ready to go back to jacketed bullets.  For what it's worth, I determined the MAX COAL to be 1.205" and 1.1925", for the Blues and ACMEs respectively.  So, I highly doubt using a COAL of 1.14-1.15" is the problem.  Based on the feedback that I've received, I don't believe that I'm over crimping either.

 

Additionally, I clean my pistol after every use, using SLIP 2000 Carbon Killer and Bore Tech CU+2 Copper Remover - so I know the barrel is very clean.

 

Pull a bullet and measure at/below the crimp line, if it's less than  .356 you are resizing the bullet with too much crimp. Also measure a loaded round at the case mouth. As others stated you should be .377, I run .378 with no issues with set back or case gauging. Also case gauge EVERY round just to be certain that is not playing into this issue. Your OAL of 1.14-1.15 may be short enough but maybe not. In my Shadow I have to run ACME 124's at 1.060". Your max oal's seem overly long to me but it is possible I guess. 

 

As as far as cleaning. I go thousands of rounds before seeing issues. Also why Copper Remover? You are only shooting lead bullets. 

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