markm87

I've loaded 30 or 40 thousand rounds of .223 and have never cleaned a primer pocket. I load for the AR too. I can feel the resistance of a high primer on my 550 when I index it. So I give it another bump if I get a rare high primer.

A good job of it too!

I completely agree. However, once I tried the ultrasonic cleaner and found that I could get brass 10 times cleaner in a few minutes than I could with hours of tumbling... It's more labor intensive, but it's faster. There was a guy on one of the gun boards who did a thorough test comparing clean primer pockets to dirty ones. He shot a long string of each in his rifle load of choice and found there to be no difference in accuracy.

Which part is "often not"?? Accuracy? or Cheaper than Jacketed? For RN bullets that the OP is talking about using, Berry's 230s are double struck for improved symmetry, and I don't realize a noticeable accuracy loss compared to FMJs. They're probably only slightly cheaper than Montana Golds, but I've been so pleased with the performance of Plated, I've had no reason to switch.

That's absurd! Primer pockets won't even come clean in the tumbler most of the time... let alone wear out... unless you were using some insanely abrasive media. When I want super clean brass, I tumble for an hour, decap/resize, clean the brass in a bath of lemi shine in my ultra sonic cleaner, then tumble for another hour for final polish and drying.

You might consider plated bullets. With plated you get decent accuracy and they're cheaper than Jacketed.

I had a sliver of the vinyl material that the powder jugs/jars are made of get stuck in my 550 powder system. I visually check almost every powder charge, so I caught the problem quickly.

They did an XD torture test on HANDGUNS TV show. The usual mud/sand/water/freezer stuff. The gun didn't break or anything. But it didn't make it through a thousand rounds without a couple of malfs.

My factory trigger was horrible. It took 4 or 5 hundred rounds to break in an become acceptable. That said, it is indeed a better way to go than a DAK.

I opted for 1.25 simply because I was copying a factory load that worked well in my pistols. I chamber checked the ammo and it was fine, so...

double post.

That's what I was thinking. I tried WOLF Small Rifle Magnum primers in 9mm. I got about a 2% failure rate. Why? The beauty of WOLF primers is that they're packages anvil up. You can check them for anvil and full priming compound when you slide them open. Other brands are easily checked in the primer flip tray.

This is very frustrating. Too often ridiculously conservative loadings are listed as MAX by various do gooders. It only serves to muddy up the waters and get loaders thinking that MAX doesn't really mean MAX. My GIish ball load is 5.6 grains of WW231. That gets my solidly into the 800s out of a 5" 1911 barrel.... 830ish if I remember correctly. The only downside to 231 is muzzle flash... It's a little flashy.

I think the Burwell trigger job uses the OEM sear. I polished my factory sear a little when the APEX didn't work for me. I have an M&P 45 and I could get the back of the trigger shoe to touch the trigger stop on the receiver without breaking the shot. This was more of an issue with the 45 models of M&P. APEX was going to make a sear specifically for the 45s. I ended up selling my APEX. Like I said... I polished my oem part a little and the rest of the trigger action pretty much broke in and became acceptable after 500 rounds.

I popped open my pound of WST this weekend. I was shocked at the color of the powder. VERY light gray, and it indeed smelled like pepper as someone here noted. I had read that this powder was light gray, but this stuff is nearly white in color.

No, plated bullets will generate LESS pressure, but they will go faster. R, How can a bullet that produces LESS pressure yield more velocity? I'm not calling BS... it just seems like a miracle formula.

Hey! They could have shipped ONE bullet at a time in 3000 flat rate boxes. Some people are NEVER satisfied!!

Wow. I guess. It's taken me a LONG time to look at any pistol made by S&W. I couldn't believe the block was under the rear sight. I didn't even want to ask the question on the forums because I thought I'd get laughed at for such a foolish idea.

I want to know who's responsible for the striker block being installed UNDER the rear sight. That's even dumber than a sear lever. I'll have to try that. I can remember reading about this back when the M&P was making its way on the gun forums, but I've always just used the lever. I can get it with my pinky finger nail, but I can see it being a pain for guys with bigger hands.

I've been wondering about this myself. My front white dot sight gets dirty after about 20-30 rounds and the rear dots are really bright white... pretty much the opposite of what you'd want.

That was my first thought. I had this problem with FC brass years back. I can't remember if I tried tweaking the dies or not. But I ended up buying a different resizing die and the problem was solved. I could literally push bullets back with my fingers when FC brass was used.

231 is impossible to find lately. Local shop had 1 lb of HP-38 in the "back" which I immediately bought.

What is your WST powder charge for Mil spec ball type loads?

There's a 231/147gr bullet thread just a a few lines down in this very forum.

I did, and that was the cheapest option. That's odd. Maybe they've changed their shipping rates.