Jump to content
Brian Enos's Forums... Maku mozo!

Herby

Members
  • Posts

    15
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Herby's Achievements

Looks for Range

Looks for Range (1/11)

  1. For two years I exclusively shot Brown and Silver Bear 145gr HP in my Glock 34. Excellent ammo. Could get it for $110 per 500. Really soft shooting, accurate, and didnt have to bother collecting cases. If I werent reloading thats exactly what Id be shooting.
  2. In a Glock 9mm chamber loading out to even 1.180" the round nose bullets I am using do not touch the rifling, much less get marred by it. At 1.170" you're not even close. The limit to OAL with Glocks is no question the mags. Above 1.171" they potentially bind when you load more than a few rounds. That entirely depends on the bullets. I've got some 9mm 130gr BBI that can't be loaded very long at all for my Glocks, and in the .45acp Glocks, 185gr JHP also have to be loaded well below max OAL to keep from hitting the rifling. 'That's why I said " the round nose bullets I am using do not touch the rifling". Of course it is dependent on the shape of the bullet. If the bullet was long and pointy you could load it halfway down the barrel before contact was made with the rifling.
  3. In a Glock 9mm chamber loading out to even 1.180" the round nose bullets I am using do not touch the rifling, much less get marred by it. At 1.170" you're not even close. The limit to OAL with Glocks is no question the mags. Above 1.171" they potentially bind when you load more than a few rounds.
  4. All, OP here wanted to provide an update. I think I found the problem and the solution. After calling Berry's and hearing that some Glock barrels do not agree with the plated bullets, I was resigned to getting a Lone Wolf or KKM barrel. Before I placed an order, I decided to do one more set of tests with OAL. I wanted to push the OAL all the way to the max and see if this would have the usual increase in accuracy that is commonly observed. Just some background info for those that have asked: - I used a bullet puller to confirm that there was no deformation whatsoever to the plating due to crimp - I checked consistency of powder charge and this was fine - I am using all Dillon 9mm dies, with a Dillon 650. So I reloaded a bunch of rounds at 1.160, 1.165 and 1.170. Well, I tried to reload at these OAL, but got a lot of variation, more on that later. In any case, I measured length of every round reloaded, and grouped them into these three categories. Here are the results. Looks like at 1.170, the accuracy tightened back up to my expected accuracy. These are 10 shot groups, at 10 yards, off hand. 1.169-1.171 OAL And representative group at OAL of 1.165" or anything less I tried to go longer, out to 1.174 ish, and the chamber of the Glock will take it no problem, but accuracy didn't improve and I started running into issued with the rounds binding in the mag. 1.170" +- 0.001" is no issue in the mags, I tested over 100 rounds and ran fine. So it looks like the issue was OAL, and I'm very happy to have solved this without resorting to aftermarket barrels or dumping the bullets and switching to another brand. There is one other issue that I'm running into however. Its the consistency of the OAL that I'm able to achieve with the Dillon Dies. In the process of doing this testing I was measuring every round by digital caliper to ensure OAL. I started seeing wild fluctuations in OAL. I'd have the seating die set to 1.170" and would produce rounds at 1.162" all the way to 1.178" with regularity. I tightened the seating die, made sure I had sufficient bell, and then resorted to measure the bullets themselves to check their consistency. I was impressed with the bullets, as they were all within .0005" at the most. I started to notice that the bullets with the most OAL variation were coming out of the press with an indentation at the nose of the bullet. A bit of digging and googling led me to find that the stem in the Dillon seating die is a common issue with plated and lead bullets. Its curvature doesnt fit the contour of the round bullets very well and at the nose it has a hole roughly 1/8" in diameter. So the nose of the bullet gets deformed by this hole by varying amounts as the loading resistance varies. Another issue to resolve.... I used some JB weld and mold release to fill the stem and mold the shape of the Berry's 147gr in it. Will let it cure and report back if I'm able to achieve OAL consistency. In any case, the accuracy issue with Berry's 147gr in the Glock 34 barrel is solved, but need to consistently load at 1.170 +- .001" now.
  5. Well I called Berry's today and explained this issue. The response I got was that in their experience the plated bullets have trouble with the glock rifling. The gentleman I spoke with said that they work in some guns, and have poor accuracy in others, depends on the particular barrel. He mentioned that if the crimp is not damaging the plating then its 95% chance its the barrel. He did suggest that their 124gr hollow base bullet has a much thicker plating than the 147gr, and would send me a sample of those to try. Its too bad I have 12k rounds of the 147gr! After reading about all the folks on here that use this bullet in their glocks with titegroup I figured it was a non-issue. Any other ideas for things I can try to get some workable accuracy out of this bullet? Thanks
  6. I'd like to understand the logic behind why I'm seeing such poor accuracy. Why would powder cause lateral dispersion in my group? If the velocity deviation is large it would cause vertical dispersion, but not lateral. I know many people here use titegroup with Berry's 147gr and report high accuracy. I'd like to try to get an understanding of what variable is causing poor accuracy in my case.
  7. I've investigated the crimp variable. I started with .380" crimp, pulled a bullet and no marks whatsoever. I tightened it up to .377" and still no marks, and no change in accuracy. My thought was that OAL might be the issue. The factory loaded Blazer Brass 115gr had a longer OAL even though its a 115gr. Anyone else loading Berry's 147gr with a longer OAL in a Glock?
  8. I considered that crimp might be the issue. My original crimp was 0.380" and after reading a bit I tightened it up to .377". I pulled a bullet to make sure I wasn't crushing the plating, and it looked fine. I also considered that I might not be belling the cases enough and might be tearing the plating when seating. I opened up the bell slightly and bulled a bullet to confirm plating was fine.
  9. Carl, I considered this, and will try a different bullet, however, so many folks use these bullets with the same powder in the same gun. It would be hard for me to believe that my gun is different. I will try a FMJ bullet however.
  10. Hi, I'm having very poor accuracy with this reload, and it's been driving me nuts. I also posted this in the 9mm reloading forum, but figured glock folks may have more specific feedback. For some time I wondered whether the problem was with the gun (has approximately 20k rounds through it, bone stock, and has brand new stock recoil spring) but I've now confirmed no issues with factory ammo. I would appreciate any help and have posted pictures of targets I shot last night with my reloads and with factory 115gr Blazer Brass. I've been reloading with 147gr Berry's Plated, Titegroup and Tula primers. My load is 3.6gr of Titegroup loaded to an OAL of 1.145". I know that the 3.6gr seems high, and I worked up from 3.2gr as some others on this forum suggested, but the gun would not cycle at all at 3.2-3.4gr. 3.6 is the lowest that functions 100% and the brass spills just a couple feet to my right. I contacted Brian and talked to him for some time to get advice about why my powder charge was higher than other people's, and he suggested that this was totally normal and likely due to lot variations. I called because I'm using his digital scale and wanted to ask about inaccuracy that he might have observed. In any case, I've reloaded and shot about 1000 rounds of this load, and have noticed really poor accuracy out of my bone stock G34. At first I thought it was me, so I bench rested it, and compared it to factory ammo and I observed a difference in accuracy. I used to shoot factory 145gr ammo and always felt the ammo/gun were more accurate than I could be. I originally started thinking maybe my barrel was shot out, but factory ammo shoots fine so this is unlikely. Here are targets from last night, 30 feet, 10 shots, off hand.Notice the flyers. I am at the point where I can call my misses, and these flyers were shocking to me because they were not expected misses. And here are the targets shot with Blazer Brass, 115gr FMJ. Same distance, 10 rounds off hand. One thing I noted was that the POI was different, not just vertically as expected, but that the reloads group to the right, thats why my sights were adjusted and the factory loads grouped left. I also didnt observe any tumbling of the Berry's which I thought might explain this. Any ideas would be much appreciated, this is driving me nuts and I can't figure it out. Thanks
  11. Hi, I'm having very poor accuracy with this reload, and it's been driving me nuts. For some time I wondered whether the problem was with the gun (has approximately 20k rounds through it, bone stock, and has brand new stock recoil spring) but I've now confirmed no issues with factory ammo. I would appreciate any help and have posted pictures of targets I shot last night with my reloads and with factory 115gr Blazer Brass. I've been reloading with 147gr Berry's Plated, Titegroup and Tula primers. My load is 3.6gr of Titegroup loaded to an OAL of 1.145". I know that the 3.6gr seems high, and I worked up from 3.2gr as some others on this forum suggested, but the gun would not cycle at all at 3.2-3.4gr. 3.6 is the lowest that functions 100% and the brass spills just a couple feet to my right. I contacted Brian and talked to him for some time to get advice about why my powder charge was higher than other people's, and he suggested that this was totally normal and likely due to lot variations. I called because I'm using his digital scale and wanted to ask about inaccuracy that he might have observed. In any case, I've reloaded and shot about 1000 rounds of this load, and have noticed really poor accuracy out of my bone stock G34. At first I thought it was me, so I bench rested it, and compared it to factory ammo and I observed a difference in accuracy. I used to shoot factory 145gr ammo and always felt the ammo/gun were more accurate than I could be. I originally started thinking maybe my barrel was shot out, but factory ammo shoots fine so this is unlikely. Here are targets from last night, 30 feet, 10 shots, off hand.Notice the flyers. I am at the point where I can call my misses, and these flyers were shocking to me because they were not expected misses. And here are the targets shot with Blazer Brass, 115gr FMJ. Same distance, 10 rounds off hand. One thing I noted was that the POI was different, not just vertically as expected, but that the reloads group to the right, thats why my sights were adjusted and the factory loads grouped left. I also didnt observe any tumbling of the Berry's which I thought might explain this. Any ideas would be much appreciated, this is driving me nuts and I can't figure it out. Thanks
  12. I know that I can put a lighter recoil spring in and make it work, but I'd like to resolve the current inconsistency I'm observing. It seems like other folks don't need to use 3.6gr to get the stock G34 to run. Furthermore, I want to run the G34 stock for several reasons, so I won't be replacing the recoil spring. I talked to Brian by phone and his feedback was that if the scale calibrates correctly that he feels there is almost no chance that it is not reading accurately. His take was that it is most likely due to variations in the powder from lot to lot.
  13. The bullets are definitely 147gr, weighed them to make sure. Glad to hear that someone else needs to load 3.6 gr to make minor with this bullet and powder. I haven't chrono'd but I can tell from the soft recoil, the weak ejection, and the look of the spent primers that this is not a hot load at all! I have shot approx 5000 factory 9mm 145gr loads loaded to 950 fps in the same gun and these loads are much softer, with weaker ejection of the brass.
  14. 3.3 grains makes 125 PF in my 17. Gun cycles 100% with factory springs Calibrate your scale and double and triple charge weights for accuracy testing of reading? I've calibrated the scale several times and re-measured the loads and same reading. The scale is the brian enos digital scale, received new last week, and includes the 100 gram calibration weight. I've weighed 10+ cases in a row to make sure I'm getting a good sample size, so I don't think these are the issues. Its still a head scratcher for me. Hoping someone else has had a similar experience.
  15. Hi All, New to reloading and last week was scrambling to develop a load and get some rounds ready for this past weekend's speed on steel match in Old Bridge NJ. I am loading 147gr Berry's plated bullets, Titegroup, and Tula primers and shooting an all stock Glock 34. I found all the posts I could on the forum for this powder/bullet combo and figured a good starting point for a Minor PF load would be 3.2-3.3 grains based on all the responses and chrono data people were posting. I loaded a bunch of rounds with 3.2gr and 1.15 OAL on Wed and went to the range to try. Not a single one would cycle the action, every singe round either stovepiped or stayed completely in the chamber. Went back, increased load to 3.4gr and reduced OAL to 1.145. Tried those, and about 70% would cycle with a very anemic ejection, no more than 8" to the right of the chamber. The other 30% wouldn't cycle. Finally, tried 3.6gr at OAL of 1.145. I was conscious of the fact that Hogdon lists this as MAX load for a 147gr bullet, and no one on this forum was loading this high. I shot these loads on Friday and Saturday and they functioned perfectly. Felt very soft and ejected just a couple feet to my right. A couple people commented how light the load appeared and questioned if it would make minor PF. Luckily for Speed on Steel PF was not a problem. I'm happy I found a load that works, and I will chrono as soon as I can get access to one, but it does raise some interesting questions. Why is this high of a loading producing such soft results for me? And the loadings that so many folks use here with the same gun won't work at all with mine? I'm even questioning the accuracy of my digital scale, though I recalibrated multiple times to make sure. Note Im running a brand new stock recoil spring, but I did try to use an older stock spring with same results. Is this type of inconsistency in loading to be expected? Is there something else going on that I should be worried about? Appreciate the help
×
×
  • Create New...