dave33

I'm not trying to win any blue ribbons for super shiny brass so I go with dry tumbling in walnut lizard bedding. I do put a little nu finish car polish in every so often, helps with the dust.

Holy cow, I ordered 5k of the S&B primers Monday the 17th, got in on the free shipping offer, and they were delivered today. Was not expecting to see them til next week. So far so good, now to see if they shoot.

With 147gr coated lead I need .2 gr more n320 to equal titegroup. 3.0 titegroup = 3.2 n320 in 147gr coated lead out of my XDM 5.25.

Maybe Im not reading your post correctly. If you chamber and fire a live round into the back of a blocked barrel, such as a bullet stuck from a squib, yes you can blow the gun up. Usually the barrel bulges and redirects the gas backwards into other places, such as down the magazine well, and depending on the gun/load/circumstance it could cause a bad stinger in the hand or possibly need stitches or worse, lots of variables there. When you say you and the RO test fired the gun twice and no bang, Im getting lost. Did the round not chamber or was it a dud? Either way, if you are going to be shooting rapidly you need to develop enough trigger disipline to be able to stop yourself in the event of a squib, or any other problem that may arise. As far as your reloads go, you will always get some variance in OAL. There are simply too many variables at play to be spot on all the time. The brass will vary slightly, coated bullets will vary slightly, your press will also torque a little depending on all the variables going on it at the same time. I shoot 3.2 N320 over 147gr coated lead often and have shot that load down to 1.09 OAL with certain bullets, and with a profile similar to the BBI have gone down to 1.125, so you have some room to play.

I did the same thing today. Couldnt stand it any more, hope they work well with light hammer and striker springs. If so, and they keep them in stock, I'll order 10k more.

There's not a really good reloading supply place in Wilmington, several stores carry a few things but nobody really stocks well. Eastern Outfitters in hampstead is about the best and there's a little country store in Rocky Point that has about the best powder selection. Our club has a club store that members can order through at good prices but up until recently even our supplier didn't have anything to order. As far as gun shops shooters choice is where I usually buy as I live close to them and their prices are about as good as anywhere else. I have found Backwater to be about the highest priced around. There is a guy in hampstead that does $15 transfers so I use that option also for Internet purchases. When you start reloading coated bullets, you may need to adjust your dies to flair the mouth a tad more than what you have been doing with jacketed or plated. It's also important to keep the coated bullet as straight up as possible entering the seating die so as to not shave the coating. A light crimp, really no more than taking the bell out of the case will do. You may already know all this but thought I would mention it just in case. Loaded properly coated bullets are great.

I don't have a trigger pull gage either so I'm not sure. If I had to guess a number I would say 6 lbs. With some polishing of the internals it will most likely feel like a lot less.

If they fire on the second strike it's almost certainly high primers. Could there be any gunk built up in the firing pin channel slowing it down?

That sounds like a plan, provisions is great. A couple of years before you do retire you should put your application in at Buccaneer gun club, we always have a waiting list and it can take some time but its the best gun club anywhere around, has something for everyone. As far as the lube groove goes, dont worry about it. Traditional cast lead bullets had to be cast with the groove for lubrication, the new coatings take the place of the wax lube and dont need the groove but many bullet makers have the older molds with the groove still in them. Doesnt change the way you load them at all, and there is no difference in performance. One bullet maker told me the reason you see no groove bullets today is because they are easier to coat without it, less angles to work around. Some probably think the longer bearing surface may help accuracy, and it may, but probably not enough in a pistol to notice.

I put an 11.5 lb hammer spring in my .40 P09 and ran about 300 rounds through it yesterday just to see if it would work. I used CCI, Winchester, and Federal primers, about 100 of each, and they all went bang no problem, the spent primers all looked to have very good firing pin strikes, nothing looked lite at all. Im also using the CGW extended firing pin, but have done no other polishing or made any other changes to the stock gun, including using the stock hammer. The difference in DA pull is night and day, as I would expect it to be. I can adjust primer seat depth on my press and fully seat them, even give them a very slight pre-crush, so this may be why they work so well in mine. No, 300 rounds isnt fully vetted but judging by the good primer strikes Im pretty confident. I'll be running a bunch of rounds through it in the next 2-3 weeks so I'll report any issues.

JJP161, like I said in your other thread about Xtreme bullets, I have had the best accuracy out of the Blue Bullets no groove 200gr SWC. That being said I still get very good accuracy out of just about every other coated SWC, like Acme, Lucky13, SNS, and others. Just for whatever reason the blue bullets are just a tick better. It may come down to which one your particular pistol likes the best. BTW, I love the Oak Island/Southport area, so quaint and peaceful, would make a good place to retire.

Out of my HK USP Expert I have had the best accuracy out of the 200gr HP followed closely by the 230gr HP. The 200gr SWC sucked accuracy wise. However none of them have been as accurate as the blue bullets no groove 200gr SWC, that bullet I have clover leafed 5 shots at 25yds with. Best groups out of the Xtremes were right at 2" with the hollow points, the Xtreme SWC were more like 3-4 inches.

After seeing a few posts here regarding n310 in 9mm I tried 2.8gr under a 147 FP bullet loaded to 1.13 OAL. Averaged 856 FPS/ 125PF out of my XDM 5.25 and was super soft with no pressure signs. Didnt get good accuracy though, may bump it and try again.

Either there will be no difference or you will see a very slightly higher FPS with the lube groove as there is less drag on the bullet.

I think you will find it to be superior to 231 in about every way except price. I just started using n320 a few months ago and its my new favorite powder. I would gladly sell off my titegroup and SR7625 stockpiles if I could replace it with n320, even at the higher price.

The Lucky13's are powder coated so there shouldnt be any smell, at least not like the HY-Tek coated ones. One thing when you are loading, try to place the bullet as perfectly upright as possible. A lot of the shaving comes from a bullet going in somewhat sideways until the case lip shoves it back the other way but by then there can be some shaving of the coating. Sometimes a little less bell is good if it holds the case more upright, less chance to lean and cut the coating.

The bore of my XDM 5.25 slugs .3555. I get almost the same velocity from either, but prefer .357.

I have never used Everglades before, they may be a great bullet, but before I paid that for a RN FMJ bullet I would get 2000 Precision Delta 124gr JHP's for $178. They are about the most accurate bullet I have ever fired out of my XDM.

Out of my XDM 5.25 I use 3.2 gr N320 under 147gr projectiles. Lucky13 coated 147's average 926 FPS with an 8 SD, Xtreme 147 HP's average 890 FPS with a 7.1 SD, both loads are pretty accurate. I have only had some n320 for a couple months now and havent had time to fully mess with it, but I like it a lot so far. You may need to bump the charge up a little. I have used 3.4gr with 147's also but didnt notice any more accurate results, just more recoil.

I dont know if its a good idea or not but I have heard of folks reloading steel/aluminum cased ammo before that supposedly fired with no issue. My concern would be neck tension and the possibility of bullet setback as Im sure steel/aluminum have different tension rates after being worked, but thats all a guess on my part. Just for curiosity once I took a handful of steel cases I had laying around and ran them through my press as if to reload them, not priming, just resizing, flairing, bullet seating and crimping. They seemed to load fine and I didnt get any bullet setback on a push test against my bench. I was mostly interested in finding out how many reloadings they would stand up to so I continually made and pulled a few until they split. In the small handful I was messing with, probably 6-8, I got almost exactly the same result, 6 reloadings and they split.

What kind of Trigger pull weight do u get with the 11.5 spring? I'm ready to work on my P09 trigger and tryin to decide what parts to get.

If you are shooting under the right circumstances, like a really humid still morning, especially with really light loads and certain powders, everything is going to smoke. But typical loads with coated bullets dont smoke much, if any, more than FMJ bullets. But they are nothing like shooting straight cast lead bullets with traditional wax lube.

I wonder if it could be a factory defective barrel seeing as its so rare. I cant imagine anything in the burned powder that could do that.

I have run probably a pound and a half of e3 through different guns, but have run lots of other powders as well and dont see any type of barrel wear on anything. Unless e3 has some type of additive in it that makes the residue harmful to barrels I cant see how it would harm them. Its a shotgun powder, if it is harmful to steel barrels wouldnt shot gunners be complaining about erosion? Im curious to find out more.

Missed it, had my daughters 3rd birthday party then. I plan on shooting the steel challenge at ant hill this coming sunday, how about you?