RJ24

I got my walther pps free mag in three weeks. It really suprised after hearing a lot of complaints on walther forum.

Thanks for all the helpful replies. I didn't think the misfires and squib were related but I couldn't figure out why there was unburned powder. I am loading on a Horndady LnL with the primers seated flush or just below flush. I looked at all the light striked primers and they were all flush or just below flush. I just measured the trigger pull at approximately 10lbs double and 3lbs single even though the double action feels smoother than 10 lbs. The brass from my squib was not split but had a lot of soot on one side of the case. I checked the strain screw and I was able to turn it a quarter turn and that was all. I'll try to pick up a gap guage tomorrow to check the end shake. This weekend i'll try to test the light strike ammo with my XD or 1911 to see if the primers ignite. Also, I do use hornady one shot case lube by spraying my brass in a ziploc, shaking it and waiting a few minutes before starting to load. So, it is possible that a concentrated amount of case lube did land in one of my cases. Thanks again. I'll have more info later... RJ

I purchased a used 5” 625-8 and have put approximately 500 rounds through it of primarily handloads with Winchester primers and a few moonclips of factory loads with no problems. I started having problems on the last two visits shooting 230 LRN over 4.8 grs of w231. On the first visit, I had a squib that just the tip of the bullet was entering the forcing cone and would not allow the cylinder to turn. When I knocked it out, there was unburnt powder in the cylinder and brass. On the second visit, I had quite a few light strikes, one or two on every other moon clip. They would not even fire after a restrike. The previous owner was the second owner of the gun and didn’t seem to know much about it. I am new to N frames but the double action is very smooth, much smoother than my 586, 10 or 64, which leads me to believe one of the previous owners might have done some trigger work done on it. My primers appear to be fully seated, so I’m planning on switching to Federals. Since there was unburnt powder on the squib, does that mean it was a bad primer or a light strike? Thanks, RJ

THANKS! Lot's of good ideas for me to try out and I have most of those powders already. I'm still going to try True Blue and work up some loads with the other powders everyone mentioned. If anyone else has any other powder/ bullet combos i'd still love to hear them.

Was planning on loading some 115 grain zero jhp bullets with a slower pistol powder like true blue for a good flat shooting cartridge for plinking. Any suggestions on powders/loads or experience with true blue loads for carbine? Thanks, RJ

OK. Finally got to try some more stuff out. 1st, I doublechecked all my dies and they are all set, which where set correctly. I've never had problems loading Zero 115JHP's. 2nd. I called ZERO and the recommended 1.25-1.14 for the 125 gr zeros, but customer service rep admitted she was new to ammunition in general. BTW, excellent customer service, answered on first ring and called me back within ten minutes. 3rd, I called Ghost Holster (where i purchased the bullets) to what they've been using for their 125 flat points and they said they hadn't had them in a while but they recommend 1.11. Excellent customer service as well, they offered to swap the bullets for another style. 4th, I got with a seasoned reloader and gave my handloads loaded at 1.25, 1.14, and 1.08 oal. He measured them in all aspects and found no flaws in my loading, then he tried loading them in his HiPower, Kahr, STI, and a couple other guns and none of the length fit in any of his guns, he mentioned the 1.08's barely fit but we're hard to extract. 5th, I did try them in my Rock River AR and all lenghts seemed to chamber and extract fine. 6th, I took the following pictures for comparison: The first shows four loaded cartridges from left to right, 115gr Zero JHP loaded to 1.09, 2-125gr zero FMJ TC loaded to 1.08 (note the one on right has marks at approximately the white card level indicating where the bullet contacted while attempting to chamber not allowing it to fully chamber), and the fourth is a Magtech factory 147gr FMJ round. You can easily see how the 125gr zero bullet profile starts to taper much later than the other bullets. The second photo shows the 125 gr zero compared to the factory magtech 147gr to see the profile difference. The third photo shows a red line indicating where the bullets starts tapering from the base width of .355". The 125gr zero on the left starts tapering at approx. .276" from the base while the 115 JHP starts tapering down at .223" from the base. The top of my safe is not flat so some of cartidges/bullets appear tilted vertically. http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b169/rj24/DSC_0389.jpg http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b169/rj24/DSC_0395.jpg http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b169/rj24/DSC_0403.jpg So, I am pretty sure if I want to use these bullets I need to reduce the OAL even further to maybe 1.07". I was using a starting titegroup load of 4.1gr but should I reduce that to 4.0gr or lighter? If anything, if they shoot well in my AR I could just dedicate them to my carbine. Thanks, RJ

RJ, Do you crimp your rounds to get rid of the bell from your powder die station? Also, it will help if you gauge your loaded rounds to ensure they are sized correctly. Good luck and load safely. Yes, I use a Lee FCD in my last station to crim and resize. I made sure that I ran it through FCD before trying in the barrel. If first started just dropping the loaded rounds into the barrel after dissasembling my CZ and then when I started getting closer to fitting, I reassembled my CZ and started dropping the slide on the loaded round to check fit, and then checking the OAL again after removing the loaded round from my CZ. Thanks, RJ

I finally got a chance to load some up today. I decided to start with the zero 125 FMJ Flat nose bullets, 4.1 gr of titegroup, mixed brass, and worked down from 1.125 oal. I couldn't get the bullets to chamber until an OAL of 1.080 and they are still still snug in the chamber where you have pull the slide pretty hard to remove the round. The was plenty of room in the mags for a longer OAL but the chamber was the controlling factor. Is this safe? Should I shorten the OAL to make chambering/unloading loaded round easier? My concern is the increase in pressure from shorter OAL, but isn't there also a increase in pressure from the bullet touching the lands? Also, I'm a newbie to 9mm loading and trying to figure out OALs. RJ

Thanks for the guidance. I'll try loading some up this week. RJ

Thanks for your reply. It's a CZ 75 SP-01 I've been working on for production, so minor pf. I haven't checked the chamber for the max OAL and I really don't know how to check that. I was hoping someone knew Zero's recommended OAL but I never though about measuring the chamber/mag Max OAL. I was previously shooting 115 JHP zeros with a 1.090 OAL after reading another forum that said Zero recommended 1.085 to 1.100 for that bullet. But the JHP Zeros have been hard to find so I decided to try out the 125 TC. I would also like to be able to shoot these in my Rock River 9mm AR. Thanks, RJ

I've searched the forums but I haven't found an OAL for the truncated cone 125gr zeros. Thanks, RJ