Mark Bellon

I found Clay's didn't quite have enough energy to cycle my slide. I went to Titegroup and haven't been happier since. mark

I'm new to rifle ammunition reloading and I'd like to get some insight from those with more experience. I've got some .223 once fired brass - fired it myself. I did some measurements and see that the brass length is all over the place, anywhere from 1.7495 to 1.762. I expected that, as they're going to stretch when fired. What I notice is that all of the cases measure up differently when I rotate them, sometimes by as much as 0.003. Is this normal? Seems like I need to trim to 0.001 over my goal as chamfering and deburring cause the length to go down slightly. None-the-less I see the same slight variations in length when I rotate the cases, albeit they are now less than 0.001. Is this normal? Is there a suggested way to measure case length given the rotational variation? Are the short cases problematic for reuse (0.0005 below the target of 1.750)? Any trimming, chamfering and deburring recommendations? Thanks! mark

I shoot and reload 9 mm and .45 ACP. My prefered Powder is Titegroup. mark

Fire primers are just that... fired. Recycle them as they are "strategic metals". Old, unfired primers that must be destroyed may be soaked in WD40 to deactivate them. mark

The most common cause of eject problems is the load is a bit too weak for your gun. You have several options but two common ones are get a weaker recoil spring and see about going to a bit larger load. When test a load in a gun I normally make up several groups. Each group is 40 rounds. I start with the minimum charge (x) and make groups - x, x+0.1, x+0.2 and so forth. I fire half a group. If it fails to properly cycle the gun I put it in the erase pile. If it works I fire 100-150 factory rounds - the gun is now "dirty" (a bit) and then fire the rest of the group. If it fails, the group is discarded. By working my way through the loads I find something that appears to work. I make sure the brass is ejected well - supersonic speed isn't necessary but it needs to be robust. Now I make a 100 of the (good) load. Split it into two groups and try again. Same procedure. If it works when the gun is clean and when it is "dirty" I've got a good load - most likely. I sometimes chrono to see what is going on. If I have problems is getting a load I take the data I have - including chrono data - and start looking at things like OAL and crimp. Often the problem is OAL. Many guns are sensitive to OAL and some loads - short LRN particularly - can be an issue. I check with the powder vendor ballistic people and then experiment with a bit longer OAL than the list (this is almost always OK as the pressure is lower). I look for other loads. Sometimes there are interesting alternatives. Crimp is another factor. If a round is not properly crimped the pressure can too low there is not sufficient energy to cycle the gun. Plated bullets - I use Rainier - often say to not crimp much or at all. Another factor is powder. You may be using a powder that "just doesn't do it". I had the problem with Clays - not quite enough for my gun. I went to Titegroup and everything works fine. Look the speed of the load listing (and some chrono data if you can). If it's really slow you might want to look at another powder especially if you're near the top of the available charges for the powder your using. A bit of learning, a bit of getting advise and lot of experimentation will do it. Hope this helps, mark

I eventually caved in and went for a safe that has a digital lock (double key access for absolute resets) so I can get into it just as fast as a lock box. Before that and for fast access to a single gun I went with a V-line (http://www.vlineind.com) mechanical lock box bolted in the bedroom closet. I have a little pouch that has a cell phone, a spare magazine and flashlight in there too. It's got a loop of string attached so I can throw it over my neck and have a few things around - just in case. My gun as an LED rail light. Anything with a fingerprint reader that I tried I wasn't happy with the (rapid access) reliability, even when I was allowed to record the same finger multiple times (so it would recognize the finger from multiple aspects). YMMV. Education can't be overlooked. Start early. Kids will get into anything. Change the combination once in a while! It's amazing how patient a child is and a brute force attack on a four digit combination is likely to succeed much sooner than you might expect. mark P.S. Anything with batteries - remember the old camera rule! Replace the batteries on your birthday.

I started all hot and heavy for a 1911 when I first started. I loved the feel but it hard for me to manipulate the slide and the recoil really was too much for me - and I'm a big guy. I shot a bunch of guns and settled on an 9mm XD tactical - I could shoot it, I could work the action and the ammunition was considerably cheaper than .40 or .45. It's a joy for me to shoot. A month later I got a .22, a Browning Buckmark, for basic skills work and to use as a teaching aid - a great way to introduce new shooters. It's a joy for me to shoot. Another month later I started trying out .45s again and I discovered that it wasn't a big deal anymore, in fact, I fell in love with it. There is something about the .45 round that is just SO nice. I can't quite put words to it but I love it. I purchased a S&W M&P 45. It's a joy to shoot. I did discover that the (unmodified) trigger was a bit for my hand - so I solved that with a few, cheap GripMasters (5, 7, 9 and 11 pounds. I worked up the strength of my hands and now I can work trigger easier and rack just about any slide almost without thinking. When the time came to consider a 1911 I opted for a Dillion 550. Now my shooting costs for .45 are halved and 9mm is cut by more than a 1/3. I'll get a 1911 someday, hopefully soon. That S&W 686 .357 looks like fun too and... I shoot all three regularly however I'm starting USPSA type shooting training with the XD - ammunition costs are a factor for me. That .45 calls me back constantly through... something about it... Don't be so sure that a gun is too much for you but don't get talked into something that not reliable and comfortable for you to operate. Whatever you get you're going to grow with quickly. A 9mm is an excellent overall choice - especially considering the ammunition costs - but do try to spend some time renting different guns and finding what works for you. +1 on the .40 often being a bit hard on the hands. Personally I find the .40 a great deal harder on my hands than the .45 but YMMV. +1 on 9mm/.45 XD and M&P. +1 Gripmasters and improving your grip/finger strength and ability to move fingers independently. +2 1911 mark P.S. One of the best shooters in my county is a 100 pounds (when sopping wet) fine boned asian lady who shoots the biggest looking Les Baer 1911 you could imagine (when you see it on her). A great deal of handing a gun is mental conditioning and a bit of training. Take you time and find what works for you.

Way Cool! In particular one can see the standing waves breaking and going chaotic as one scans from right to left. The "trailing edge" is often entirely embedded in chaotic air flow. Sometimes the waves couple with bullet - which has it's own issues - and the resonance can do amazing things. I've seen the math and in simulations it is jaw dropping just what can happen. Thanks! mark

Physics background here. I'm going to do a bit of hand waving over the math to summarize the results. Perhaps people remember the "sound barrier"? We're so used to supersonic speeds now-a-days that we forget how hard it was to even get close to the sound barrier (in airplanes) and then exceed it. What happened? The airplanes shook themselves apart or the control surfaces began working in unusual ways. The old idea was that the compressibility of air was at it maximum - there was no way for it to get out of the way so one couldn't go faster than it. The maximum speed, the compressibility point, is the speed of sound. There are many bullet factors - size, mass, deformations from the ideal/normative shape (dents?), overall shape, construction, rifling spin, air temperature, air moisture content, air friction, altitude (and more). Bullets are manufactured and have natural variations and this adds (more) to the unpredictability; so does powder charge variability and uniformity and brass factors (e.g. hardness, ductility). All of these affect a bullet's flight at any speed. At any speed there are a non-trivial number of force components, some of which push the front/middle/back/side of the bullet in highly complex and somewhat chaotic ways. These smaller, highly variable and rapidly changing components usually (or largely) cancel out - they don't dominate the path of the bullet - at low speeds or high speeds. At low speeds - not too close to the speed of sound - things largely behave (largely) as they do at common human speeds. Motion is not too complex and can generally be understood - things move (mostly or closely to) as expected. Work-arounds for problems are fairly easy to find and can be overcome fairly easily. In the trans-sonic range the forces that affect the bullet are coupled with highly complex and/or chaotic air flow around the bullet - forces of air motion unique to the trans-sonic range. Complexity loves complexity, chaos loves chaos. You got it! Things add up or even multiply. Now the bullet is subject to highly complex or chaotic motions that are non-trivial in magnitude (the summation of (many of) the force components no longer (usually) cancel out) - oscillations (resonances) and/or random movements become major factors in how the bullet moves. Wobble, tumbles, apparent curves off trajectory and any number of (scientifically) cool but (shooting) unhappy things are much more likely to happen and often do. Above the speed of sound things go (largely) free flowing again albeit with a somewhat different set of conditions (same rules, different conditions). Things behave in a non-complex (or lower complexity) manner again - one can make sense of it "simply". This is why it is good to stay below the trans-sonic range or to go above it. Below things move smoothly and above it things move smoothly - it's easy (easier) to predict what's going to happen. In the trans-sonic range things are understood but the number of factors is more complex and the outcome is complex or chaotic - it doesn't go where you expect it. One the things that does change dramatically below and above the speed of sound is air friction. This is why we see subsonic bullets fall off much faster than supersonic bullets. Above the speed of sound the air isn't ("sort of") as much of a frictional problem as below it. Hope this helps, mark

WOO HOO! The last issue was that crimp was every so slight not taken off. Everything is now working exactly as it should and the rounds slip into - and out of - the case gauge as expected. Thanks again to everyone! mark

WOO HOO! It was the deprimer/resize die. I worked on adjusting it until the rounds passed the case gauge test. It was not "low enough". Now that it is lowered every round comes out of the deprimer/resize die "picture perfect" - they drop into the case gauge with no force. I now see and understand how this stage can fix an out of round piece of brass. Much Thanks! No powder and primers yet - I understand those (did it fine with the 9 mm) - and I'll add them once I'm happy with everything else. The rounds coming out of the press now fit in the case gauge however they get a bit tight at the extraction groove - it doesn't just fall in. I can push the round in - it's a bit of a push - but it takes using a tool to get it back out (not too hard but it doesn't fall out). With my 9 mm the rounds fell in and fell out just like after the first stage. I did this experiment. I put in a piece of raw brass (didn't fit in the case gauge) and deprimed/resized it. Fits in the case gauge now. I bell it, skip the seating stage and do the crimping stage (no bullet). I get the result I stated above - it's not the seating stage or the bullet that causing it. Feed it to the depriming/resizing stage and it just drops in again. So the problem is in the powder/belling stage, the crimping stage or both. The seating stage produces round of the correct OAL so I know I have the correct - but it's not the problem. The belling is ever so slight, just enough to get the bullet to "stay". Any advise? I suspect it's not quite crimped enough yet - every so slight too much - so I'm going back to experiment more. Thanks! mark

Why did I try to gauge raw, spent brass? Because I was curious. When it fit in the gun and not the gauge I was curious and confused as to what was going on. I took some Blazar Brass that I just shot yesterday and tried it in the case gauge. It doesn't fit albeit it does go in further than the Winchester brass before it gets stuck. I did a few pieces of brass in the deprime/resize die and they still don't fit. Thanks! That's a good place to start. I'll report back when I see what I can find. Thanks! mark

As I said I'm new to this. My comments and observations are from the perspective of learning. My (pre-fired) 9 mm brass fits the case gauge before and after it's been through the press. The .45 does not. I see the point about the .45 being pushed out a bit by the pressure - it's different than 9 mm - but always out of round? Not a mid case "belling"? I expect an occasional piece of brass that's been stepped on or damaged such that it isn't useful. I eyeball for those. I haven't found one (yet). Correct me if I'm wrong but I wouldn't expect anything in the loading process to alter the shape of brass throughout it's entire length. An out of round issue would be correct at the "top" due to the belling and crimping but I wouldn't expect that to extend throughout the length of the brass. I'm using Rainier bullets and so I'm not really crimping, just removing the belling. I'll take a much closer look at the base after the crimping stage. I double checked that I removed the belling - by feel and eye - but I'll caliper them for diameter. Perhaps I need to do a tiny bit of crimp? More later... Thanks! mark

I'm new to reloading so I'm all ears to learn. I'm using Dillion dies in a 550. Rainier 230 grain bullets. I created 20 rounds with the reloader AND selected 20 pieces of brass at random - none of them fit in the case gauge. I just tried another 20 pieces of randomly selected raw brass and ONE of them BARELY fits but it's so tight it's very, very hard to get out. With the one exception all of the brass - raw or through the reloader - jams in the case gauge, almost always at the 25% point but sometimes at the 50% point. The M&P .45 test passes them all. Since the raw brass - that's never touched the reloader - doesn't fit it appears to the be the problem. I dug out some new Blazer Brass plinking ammunition I had lying around and all of passes the case gauge test. I took the advise and used a caliper on the case gauge and check it against the specification found in the Speer #14 manual. Looks good. Then I calipered the brass. Every piece is out of round - at the point that it sticks - and several hundredths over specification. Looks like bad brass. Is there some magic - worthwhile - to put them into round? I'm going to call and have a talk with my source. This is once fired Winchester brass. I got some 9 mm from this source too and all of it is fine. Thanks, mark P.S. I wasn't trashing Dillion - great stuff. I did say "seems" and asked a question.

I set up my (brand new) 550 for 9 mm and had no real (set up) issues; every piece of (raw) brass and finished round fit in the (9 mm) case gauge perfectly. I switched tool heads and started setting it up for .45. As I was setting up the crimp die I started checking things with my eyes, fingers and (finally) the case gauge. Every single test round - no powder or primers yet, just basic set up - will not fit in the .45 case gauge! I tried 20 test rounds (all 4 stages of the press) and every single one failed to fit in the case gauge. So then I check 20 (random) pieces of (raw) brass and they all fail to fit in the case gauge. I pull out the ultimate case gauge, my M&P .45, and all 40 pieces fit perfectly! Seems like Dillion Precision isn't, at least for this .45 case gauge. Has anyone heard of such a thing before? Guess I need to contact Dillon... mark