sk8242

I’ve had the 150 variety keyhole as well out of a specific 92G barrel. Seems like some barrels just don’t like it.

So….I broke another one. This time a full size 92 that had a Jarvis drop in barrel and a new locking block. Started shooting the pistol at the beginning of this season - all factory. At the time it was a relatively low round count pistol that had been sitting in my safe for a while (less than 1K rounds). Ran it exclusively at IDPA and USPSA matches all year. I replaced the factory barrel with the Jarvis around mid-July of this year. The locking block on the Jarvis was new. Was at a Ben Stoeger class this weekend. Just before the last drill of the day, I decided to pull off the slide and check if it needed any lube. Slide got caught up and wouldn’t come off. Suspected almost immediately that the block was broken—lo and behold, the right wing was cracked and broken off this time. Estimate about 10-14K rounds total through the pistol, maybe about half of that through the locking block that broke. The other half was through the factory barrel and locking block that accompanied it. Shooting either factory range ammo (Blazer, BELOM, S&B primarily) or my 130PF 147gr reloads. Had a Shok-Buff for basically all rounds shot this year. Factory recoil spring for factory ammo, 10 pound recoil spring with my reloads. It’s looking like this is going to be a yearly occurrence. It’s interesting that these failures have occurred relatively prematurely on two moderate round count (less than 10K) barrel/locking block combinations that did not ship with the gun, but were swapped out mid-season. Interestingly, the only high round count locking block that HASN’T broken (yet) is the one that came with my Centurion and has close to 20-25K rounds through it without a Shok-Buff. I doubt that has anything to do with anything, but just an observation. I’ve heard of people “fitting” new locking blocks to the slide, but it sounds like Beretta does not think this is necessary. Guess I need to stock up on locking blocks or start shooting something else.

Payment options are Venmo, Zelle, or Cashapp.....run, run away, and never return

I have an LTT 92 Centurion with over 20K rounds through it - all factory. I replaced the original barrel with a cut and crowned factory stainless barrel because the original one was starting to keyhole with certain types of ammo. Less than 5K rounds later the new barrel suffered a catastrophic locking block failure resulting in some frame damage. Recoil springs were always replaced on the pistol. Shot mostly 135PF loads. Even had a Shok-buff installed. Given that this involves Beretta CS, a modified factory barrel, and running reloads, I'm not even going to bother trying to warranty anything. I still have and shoot a couple other LTT 92s. Probably going to just shoot them to failure and move on afterwards. Which is a little disappointing, because I do like how they shoot.

Might be worth a shot, although not sure I'd be able to trust the frame for anything but plinking/practice.

As the title suggests, my 92 Elite Centurion had a major failure today. Let me preface by saying I'm not bashing LTT, Beretta, RMR, or any entity in any way; I'm just reporting what failed and how it ended up likely bricking my frame. Went out today to test/chrono a new load before the snow storm rolled in. I had about 180 rounds of 147gr RMR flat point FMJs loaded over 3.5 grains of Accurate #2 in mixed headstamp brass. OAL is a nominal 1.135". CCI primers. I'd previously chronographed some of these rounds and they were making a consistent ~135PF. Today was no different. The main difference with these loads was that some were processed with a U-die, while others were processed with a normal lee resizing die but with changes made to the degree of expansion/flare and different degrees of crimp, as I've been troubleshooting some minor bullet setback issues. Right off the bat I noticed that I had groups consistently landing about 3-5" to the right at 15-25 yards - regardless of the how the cartridges had been processed at home. Initially I chalked it up to this being a new load and figured I might need to make some changes to my sights. Brought the target in to 7-10 yards, and was still hitting ~2" to the right, but still with tight consistent groups. Around my last couple magazines, I noticed that the slide was getting stuck in battery, and required more effort to open - felt exactly like when you have an out of spec cartridge getting stuck in the chamber. Again, I chalked this up to testing new loads with varying degrees of crimp, etc. I finished off the last of the ammunition, and went to field strip the gun. The take down lever required a great deal of force to rotate, and when I attempted to pull the slide forward, it was getting caught on something. I was able to free the slide, and immediately I noticed there was a huge gouge in the aluminum frame near the rear part of the locking lug recess in the rails where the barrel reciprocates. I pulled the recoil spring/rod out, and when I removed the barrel, the left locking lug fell out. At some point during my testing, I'm thinking towards the end, the locking lug ear cracked and broke off. Impressively, the gun continued to cycle and functioned 100%. It also continued to group consistently, albeit a bit right of the POA. If I hadn't field stripped the gun I probably would not have known anything was broken. Best I can tell, the lug broke, and the broken pieces of the locking block chewed away at the soft aluminum frame each time the gun cycled. For reference, the barrel that failed is a factory replacement with a crowned muzzle. It came with a new locking block. It was not original to the frame, which had about 20-25K rounds through it until today. The barrel that failed had maybe a few thousand rounds through it up until today. The original barrel is sitting in storage, still in working order. While impressive, it's a bit frustrating that the gun continued to run despite a broken locking lug. If it had completely choked up, it may have limited the damage to the frame. As it is, the frame is likely junk, even though it still had plenty of life left in it. I know the locking block is a known weak point of the 92. I was a little taken aback at how much damage it caused when it broke, although it makes sense. I'm also a bit disappointed at such a premature failure of the locking block. I don't think the ammo was excessively hot, I had no cartridges today go off that felt like they were overcharged. I am a little concerned that such a failure can cause such catastrophic damage to the frame. Even with regular replacement of the locking block, a premature failure like today's could easily destroy another gun down the road. This was my main competition gun, so for now I'll be shooting a low round count full size 92, with the fire control components from the broken gun transplanted into the backup. I did try to reassemble the gun with the original, working barrel, but the area where the frame is damaged will not longer let the barrel rails slide through, so I think the frame will be destined to the scrap heap. I'm not sure if Beretta will sell me a replacement frame, although I'll try and contact them next week. Other than the damaged frame and broken locking block, everything else appears to be in working order. Otherwise I'll have to keep watch for an M9A1 frame for sale.

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I think I'll start with the U-die first and just change one thing at a time to see if I am able to figure out exactly where the issue is.

I'm currently loading 147gr. Blues in mixed head stamp brass as follows: -9mm Lee dies -Standard resizing die -Case mouth flare to ~0.383" -3.4gr AA#2 -OAL of ~1.135" -Crimp to ~0.378"-0.379" (with a Lee FCD) Recently ordered some evaluation packs from Precision Delta, specifically their 147gr RN FMJs. I loaded up 25 or so test rounds after adjusting the powder charge, and changing the seating die to keep the OAL around ~1.135" Almost every completed round had inadequate case neck tension, and allowed for relatively easy bullet set-back with a minimal to moderate amount of pressure. I have a couple things I want to change and try first such as using a U-die to resize, and/or decreasing the case mouth flare. But has anyone else run into a similar issue with these particular bullets, or loading FMJs in general? Any other suggestions?

Yup, I've had good luck with the 147gr AE load. A bit more PF that needed but nothing excessive. Not always easy to find like you mention. When I run the Syntech 150 through my chrono using the barrel it currently tends to tumble out of, I get about around 128-130 PF (about 850-875fps) . Ran the same 150s through two new 92 barrels a few days ago and got 135PF (about 900fps). Federal rates it at 890fps out of a 4" test barrel. I think this particular barrel just doesn't care for Syntech, because it seems to shoot 147gr Blues and run of the mill FMJ without any problems.

Syntech likes to tumble and keyhole out of one of my Beretta 92 barrels. Both 150gr and 115gr varieties. It occurs intermittently, but frequently enough that I can't trust that barrel/ammo combo for match use. The last indoor match I used them at I had maybe 4 or 5 tumble (that landed on paper) out of 75 rounds total. At other times I've had close shots completely miss that I'm fairly sure that I called properly. The tumbling seems to have started after the barrel in question reached a higher (but not excessively so) round count of between 15-20K. Testing it out in a couple new 92 barrels to see if the same issue develops over time. I otherwise like Syntech for how clean it shoots - no lead primers and spent brass is so clean that you could almost reload them without tumbling.

Hi, New to the forum and to reloading and was hoping to get some thoughts on an observation. I made up a load ladder with the following with the intent of starting to load for 9mm minor: -147gr TC poly coated lead bullets from DG Bullets (.356" diameter) -mixed brass, full length resize, untrimmed -Federal Match SPP -Case mouth flare to ~0.382" -2.8 to 3.4 grains of Shooters World Cleanshot -Loaded to an OAL of ~1.135" -Crimped to ~0.378-0.379" with a Lee factory crimp die -All cartridges loaded on a Lee Classic Turret press, with Lee dies -Chrono'd using a Labradar chronograph -- target @ 25 yards, muzzle @ 6" lateral offset from the radar -32F ambient temp -10 shot average for each powder charge -- STDEV charted as error bars and generally very consistent measurements shot to shot -Tested out of a Beretta LTT Elite Centurion (4.25" barrel) and an M&P 2.0 Metal (4.25" barrel) -As a baseline control, I checked average velocities out of 2 factory loads -- 150gr Federal Syntech, and 147gr American Eagle -- I saw the same 40-50fps difference between the two same guns Very quickly during the testing it became clear that the M&P was sending projectiles on average 40-50fps faster than the Beretta. From my limited research, it seems that this is pretty common. But it's still a pretty significant difference when considering the overall muzzle velocity of the projectiles and the fact that I'm trying to load to as low of a PF as possible while still taking into account normal variations from cartridge to cartridge. Looking at the data, it would suggest that I can load as much as 0.4 grains less if shooting out of the M&P and still make 130 PF (under these testing conditions), while the Beretta requires that much more propellant. While doing plunk tests to determine what OAL I should start loading at, I noticed that the Beretta chamber was essentially at the max SAAMI spec of 1.169", while the M&P had a slightly shorter leade, closer to 1.145" or 1.150". I'd be interested in hearing from others regarding their experience, if any, with a similar situation. Did you end up changing propellants, or just load for the slower barrel? Would the OAL cause this effect this in any way, or is it primarily dependent on barrel/chamber dimension variations from manufacturer to manufacturer? Please see attached images for the graphed data. Note a velocity of 851fps is the minimum to make PF with a 147gr projectile. ?