fully seated Federal primers

[Bosshoss]

23 hours ago, swordfish said:

Holy shit.

I was told to do it differently, chamfering the 627 without the extractor so you could still use it without clips, and the 929 with the star in place because it was moon clips only. But that makes sense with how aggressive you're going.

 

I gotta find a better way to chamfer. Right now I'm using the Brownell's tool or whatever, but MWP suggested a dremel. It could work with the right size and shape grinding stone, but I'd have to practice a bunch before I did it on a working gun.

The extractor has nothing to do with using without moonclips. The outside ledge on the face of the cylinder is what supports the moonclipless rounds. Now a speedloader gun should never have the extractor chamfered and it must be removed to chamfer the cylinder.

[tomv]

I got my order of .38 SC brass yesterday and made up 100 rounds using load data from an excellent local shooter which he described as "bunny fart" loads :160 gr Bayou RN, 2.5 gr Clays, 1.2 COAL. I borrowed a friend's 627 since mine isn't back from TK yet and shot it today with my ammo.Needless to say, this was a very pleasant load to shoot and quite accurate @ 15 yds.

 

However, I did have some trouble in loading the gun. Rounds were loaded in TK moon clips made for Starline brass. The chambers on this cylinder appeared to have little or no chamfer and the loaded clip seemed to hang up on the front edge of the cases. I took the rounds in the clip apart and plunked each one in the cylinder. They all fell in freely.

 

I used my 9mm crimp die to crimp this ammo and crimped them a little more than I usually crimp  9mm auto ammo. I'm hesitant to over crimp lead or coated bullets because of detrimental affect on accuracy. It looks like more crimp might make loading easier but I don't know if this is a good practice with revolvers.

 

I expect my 627 to have well chamfered chambers when I get it back. Is it better to wait and see how my present loads work in that gun or increase the amount of crimping?

[swordfish]

On 1/10/2018 at 11:37 PM, tomv said:

I got my order of .38 SC brass yesterday and made up 100 rounds using load data from an excellent local shooter which he described as "bunny fart" loads :160 gr Bayou RN, 2.5 gr Clays, 1.2 COAL. I borrowed a friend's 627 since mine isn't back from TK yet and shot it today with my ammo.Needless to say, this was a very pleasant load to shoot and quite accurate @ 15 yds.

 

However, I did have some trouble in loading the gun. Rounds were loaded in TK moon clips made for Starline brass. The chambers on this cylinder appeared to have little or no chamfer and the loaded clip seemed to hang up on the front edge of the cases. I took the rounds in the clip apart and plunked each one in the cylinder. They all fell in freely.

 

I used my 9mm crimp die to crimp this ammo and crimped them a little more than I usually crimp  9mm auto ammo. I'm hesitant to over crimp lead or coated bullets because of detrimental affect on accuracy. It looks like more crimp might make loading easier but I don't know if this is a good practice with revolvers.

 

I expect my 627 to have well chamfered chambers when I get it back. Is it better to wait and see how my present loads work in that gun or increase the amount of crimping?

I'll find some loaded rounds and measure for you. I don't think I've ever measured before, I just sorta crimp enough to put a mark in the polymer coating of the bullet and that's that. With the TK clips and Starline brass the reloads are super fast with the V Comp and stock cylinder. Although I much much much prefer a chamfer job like I put on my 929.

[Revofan]

On 12/31/2017 at 12:09 AM, MWP said:

Even after an action job like TK, fine tuning will have to be done to your gun, and possibly ammo. TK does excellent work, be confident knowing their work is top notch. 

 

On that same note, every gun is different. And, every person loads differently. I always turn up a gun 1/4 turn. I also reseat, by hand, major match primers. It seems like a lot of extra work, but it's just a few minutes for knowing your ammo is 100%. 

What do you use to hand seat your primers ??

[alecmc]

46 minutes ago, Revofan said:

What do you use to hand seat your primers ??

 

I'm of the opinion of that i'd rather run my trigger a half pound heavier than going thru the process of hand seating. 

 

Though, if you feel you do need too - I have this one and it's pretty nice - 

http://kmshooting.com/primer-deluxe.html

 

or just buy a dillon 1050 and forget about hand seating.

[MWP]

3 hours ago, Revofan said:

What do you use to hand seat your primers ??

Hornady hand seating tool thingy. It's more of a verification that they're seated than a reseating. 

[PatJones]

I use the one from KM shooting as well. I resize and deprime, then I hand seat all my primers. After that, I run the cases thru my Dillon with the depriming punch removed.

[swordfish]

Haven't had a problem since I switched to the 1050, but I seat mine really really deep. Like .015"

[Toolguy]

I have 4 Dillon 550s and I just use the press to seat the primers (all Federal) in the normal loading sequence. I DO make sure to give a firm forward push to every one, after a while it's a habit and you don't have to think about it. Mine are below flush, but I never actually measured how much. I suspect it varies with brand of case. They look like around .005 to .008 deep. They always work in all my guns, some with very light actions.

[swordfish]

12 minutes ago, Toolguy said:

I have 4 Dillon 550s and I just use the press to seat the primers (all Federal) in the normal loading sequence. I DO make sure to give a firm forward push to every one, after a while it's a habit and you don't have to think about it. Mine are below flush, but I never actually measured how much. I suspect it varies with brand of case. They look like around .005 to .008 deep. They always work in all my guns, some with very light actions.

I did that for a while but got annoyed with pushing so hard to seat them deep. Never had a problem with ignition, but the process would eventually bend the primer slide op rod and the primer slide wouldn't go all the way back out to pick up a primer.

[jhgtyre]

Both my 550's and my 650 seat primers very deep (way below flush) without my feeling that I'm pushing all that hard.  You do have to push till the handle stops but the force to seat a primer is nothing to these machines; I should know, I've crushed enough cases and smashed enough bullets in the last 20 years to see what a little push can do when you have enough leverage.

[Alaskan454]

1 hour ago, jhgtyre said:

Both my 550's and my 650 seat primers very deep (way below flush) without my feeling that I'm pushing all that hard.  You do have to push till the handle stops but the force to seat a primer is nothing to these machines; I should know, I've crushed enough cases and smashed enough bullets in the last 20 years to see what a little push can do when you have enough leverage.

I've had the same experience on my 650, as long as you're consistent with the amount of pressure you apply you should have no issues with reliability using a single head stamp.  The Dillon will seat them plenty deep.  On my press there is a lot of travel left when firmly seating a 9mm Federal case, I've measured handle position with and without a primer in the pocket.    You just need to pay a little more attention when loading. 

 

This also brings up the question of time spent vs. tangible gain if you're going to hand seat primers.  When I first got my 929 I went off the deep end trying to run the lightest DA trigger possible.  I was hand seating every primer with my match ammo and running a 4.75# trigger.  After a while that got annoying so I just increased the hammer spring a touch.  I decided it wasn't worth the time for me on a regular basis.  Now I only hand seat my primers if it's a major match.  I also found that I prefer my triggers on the heavier side anyway.  The same 929 is now set-up at 6.5# due to a heavier rebound spring and a little more margin of safety on the primer reliability.  I did the same for my other revolvers as well, all the gaming guns are over 6# now.

[caspian guy]

Frequently folks who get in trouble with 650s and high primers suffer from a press that's not bolted down tight enough to a table that can move when you use the press.   Then when they push the handle to seat the primers the press rocks or moves and they stop pushing thinking it's at the end of the stroke (causing the high primer.)  if you want to check how deep your 650 will seat a primer.  pull your tool head measure the distance to the top surface of the primer punch to the top of the shell plate  with the handle fully forward and the primer punch all the way up. That the distance from the head of the case to the bottom of the primer pocket,  and the thickness of the case rim should let you work that out.

 

Or you could prime a case like normal then smoothly push harder till you feel the handle actually stop and see what you get.  I have never had an issue with getting my 650 to bury primers well below flush.

[alecmc]

8 hours ago, swordfish said:

Haven't had a problem since I switched to the 1050, but I seat mine really really deep. Like .015"

 

 

too deep grasshopper ( probably the only time you'll hear that )

 

While they probably might go bang, too deep can fall in the category off too shallow when it comes to spotty ignition. There really is a sweet spot in between .008-.010 to yield the best results with the lightest main spring pressure. 

 

I too used to think " oh yah, deeper the better ! " and was properly given an education. 

[Alaskan454]

3 hours ago, alecmc said:

 

 

too deep grasshopper ( probably the only time you'll hear that )

 

While they probably might go bang, too deep can fall in the category off too shallow when it comes to spotty ignition. There really is a sweet spot in between .008-.010 to yield the best results with the lightest main spring pressure. 

 

I too used to think " oh yah, deeper the better ! " and was properly given an education. 

I'll second that.   Shot an entire IDPA match in SA once, it made the crowd laugh.  Never again!

[swordfish]

16 hours ago, alecmc said:

 

 

too deep grasshopper ( probably the only time you'll hear that )

 

While they probably might go bang, too deep can fall in the category off too shallow when it comes to spotty ignition. There really is a sweet spot in between .008-.010 to yield the best results with the lightest main spring pressure. 

 

I too used to think " oh yah, deeper the better ! " and was properly given an education. 

 

13 hours ago, Alaskan454 said:

I'll second that.   Shot an entire IDPA match in SA once, it made the crowd laugh.  Never again!

Hmmmm Interesting. I haven't tried messing with my strain screw, but right now the double action is about 6.5lbs but the hammer weight is like 38oz or something, which is lighter than what people on here have said to get. But I've shot about 3k with only 1 light strike but I think it was a bad primer cause I couldn't get it to go off no matter what I did. I always wondered if I could get the action lighter now that I'm reloading on a 1050, but I really don't wanna mess with it because I kinda like my trigger pull now.