brian45acp

Just wanted to update you guys: I appreciate all the help and all the advice helped me produce a finer finished round and tuned press. So its not a ammo issue its a brass issue. Having said that I love the new U die and FCD. Before my bullets would have a mushroom dent from the taper crimp and it was a very fine adjustment to eliminate that and yet still have enough crimp. It would also take 1 not so hard hit of the bullet puller to extract a bullet. With the FCD crimp is perfect and takes 5 or more hard hits to remove the bullet and there is no sign of it having been crimped on the bullet itself. It comes out perfect. Here is what I found and its going to be a CZ thing I have to address or buy better brass: From the CZ forum Ok I figured it out. The brass is long and out of spec on some cases. Both pieces are Blazer and one is 15 thousandths longer then the other. The only solution is to ream the barrel about 5 thousandths longer to assure all pieces feed reliably. I dont want to ream my barrels but I dont see another option. You can see the difference in both just with the eye so its quite a bit. With just the slide in my hand and barrel I pulled both bullets and fit the brass under the extractor and then tried to lock the barrel up. On the longer piece of brass you can feel it bind and drag up the breech face. I have read some of you guys polish the breech face but I dont see how that could help. Possibly if the breech face were really smooth the brass might slide up into position better. With the gun together on some questionable pieces if I let the slide rip forward with the stock recoil spring the round will jam itself into place. If you guys think a polished breech face would help how should I go about that? I figured I would remove the extractor and use 1500 paper on plastic flat head driver tip or similar and just have to work it back and forth. Not a lot of room in there to work with though.

Ok I figured it out. The brass is long and out of spec on some cases. Both pieces are Blazer and one is 15 thousandths longer then the other. The only solution is to ream the barrel about 5 thousandths longer to assure all pieces feed reliably. I dont want to ream my barrels but I dont see another option. You can see the difference in both just with the eye so its quite a bit. The issue though is the brass is with in spec. He longer piece is .754. Most of you guys I think aren't teaming your barrels and I really don't want to mess with that. There has to be another trick I'm missing. With just the slide in my hand and barrel I pulled both bullets and fit the brass under the extractor and then tried to lock the barrel up. On the longer piece of brass you can feel it bind and drag up the breech face. I have read some of you guys polish the breech face but I dont see how that could help. Possibly if the breech face were really smooth the brass might slide up into position better. With the gun together on some questionable pieces if I let the slide rip forward with the stock recoil spring the round will jam itself into place. If you guys think a polished breech face would help how should I go about that? I figured I would remove the extractor and use 1500 paper on plastic flat head driver tip or similar and just have to work it back and forth. Not a lot of room in there to work with though.

I cant figure out what it is and have looked at the brass over and over. The Tula piece I measured had an out of round head stamp for sure but to the eye there isnt much to see. I need to try a few more tests and will take some pics. These pieces fail in all my CZ's so its not a gun issue that I can see. Having taken apart that round and loading it again with the new dies in place I thought was a pretty good indicator the brass was junk. Even before taking it apart I tried running the finished round through the FCD. I am quite sure all of this is pointing to a head stamp issue especially since the rounds drop in and out of the barrel but just wont lock up the barrel once fed from the mag. I am going to try to take apart the round this time and feed just the brass with the bullet out. This should eliminate and possibility of the bullet. I did measure my bullets and they are .355 so I dont think thats the issue. Its the whole drop in the barrel and spin but not feed from the mag that has me stumped. I would think the OAL would have some part of this because being too long means it drops in the barrel but hangs out the back end so much the barrel cant link up to the lugs.

Oh and by the way this happens on the Rami as well. The Rami uses a traditional breech face and barrel hood so I wanted to see if that had any impact. It also failed in the Rami as well. Of course the glocks will all have looser chambers and wider breech faces as to accept out of spec ammo. I may have to stop buying once fired bulk brass and start finding once fired sorted all the same head stamp. Im getting all kinds of add ball brass I never heard of which can cause all kinds of issues.

OK guys I need some help here: I asked for help on the Dillon reloading section but this has more to do with CZ then Dillon. I got the FCD and the U die from EGW and I have to say despite being Lee these are some nice dies and are kicking out much nicer finished rounds. The crimp is amazing. The bullet puller now takes me like 4-5 hard hits to remove and the bullet has zero signs of having been loaded. Prior to that the Dillon crimp was a very fine balance between leaving a mushroom look to the bullet vs not having enough crimp. So now that this is solved I think the FCD is helping my situation for sure. Its very interesting to me how this is happening and I havent come across it yet in 13 years reloading. Just on my CZ's this is happening where the slide stick open on some rounds. I looked for patters here and it seems the most problematic is Tula brass. How ever the issue isnt just Tula it has been various others so that doesnt really narrow it down much. For the life of me I cant figure out how the same round that will drop in the barrel and spin and case gauge wont chamber from the mag when the gun is put together. I took the top end off and with the barrel in the slide moved forward I slipped the bad round under the extractor then slide the barrel back and this is where I can see the problem. The round chambers but the barrel has lots of resistance to push down in order to lock into the lugs. It this point where the round slide up the breech face and the barrel is about to lock up to the lugs that my issue is presenting itself. Since the same round drops in the barrel and spins it cant be an OAL issue. It has something to do with the point the barrel is bumping up into the breech and about to lock up on the lugs. This is why I havent really seen much in the way of marking the entire outside of the case and bullet with a sharpie because I dont think the issue is happening at those areas. I was looking for spots the sharpie was removed to identify the point of contact. Its something to do with the case rim and head stamp area. I measured one of the Tula head stamps and it wasnt symetirical all the way round. One area was about 3 thousandths more then the next measured area. This was the calipers resting on like 12 and 6 then 3 and 9 etc. Im stumped here and dont know what to do. The new dies and the advice from the Dillon rep have helped a lot. Actually all the ammo I have made with is only about 100 rounds since the new dies and re adjusting has all chambered fine. Dillons suggestion was to loosen all the die lock rings at every station and then cycle the press down to the rounds and then with the rounds in the dies lock them back up. This was supposed to keep the bullet seating at an odd angle and bulging the brass more toward one side then the other when looking at the base of the bullet area around the brass case. So what I did next was removed the bullets from the brass that failed to chamber and then loaded them up again with the same bullet to the same piece of brass. It failed again. I then changed bullets to a new bullet, not different style, and same brass and it failed again. So now I know its something to do with the brass. What about the brass is bad I have no idea but of course this crap loads fine in the glock.

Saw a Dawson precision video for rear sight set screw he used red loctite just on last few threads. Maybe that would keep it locked in but not to the point you couldn't still remove it. Typically for vibration prone areas I use a gasket maker that doesn't harden from auto zone type places. It fills the threads and stays sticky but won't fracture or crack like blue loctite and is easy to remove unlike red. Loctite also sells a blue silicone type which would work. I need to find a driver for that screw. Maybe my next cz order will be that screw so I can take it with me to lowes and find a good driver. I haven't taken a cz apart past that yet and would like to be prepared to do so.

I have been wondering, what screw driver you guys are using for that screw? It is staked and I'm scared to mess with it. I imagine it needs to be a very tight fit in the slotted screw and long enough to get some torque on it. Is it possible to link me to a good driver for the job? I would love to buy a quality driver for this. My brownells magna bit set would be good to find the tightest fitting bit but k don't trust it for a job like this

Crap, I didn't know that. In some research I found some guys replacing the pawl and swags rod with after market high strength stuff. I decided it wasn't needed and would likely make a more expensive part fail. But in reading about it saw that the swage station should be set using a non sized case. Now I know why it was so hard to screw that die down. I need to try it again with a spent case that hasn't been resized yet.

No the 1050 is the same as all dillon powder drop stations. The powder is placed and case belled at the same time. The GSI is just another tool head so that a station isnt lost like the other type of bullet feeders. Its a PITA to get right but I think its just about dialed in and I will try the new advice you guys have all given me this weekend. Along with the FCD and U die I should be good to go. Perhaps those arent needed but seems like good insurance. I did find a primer stuck near the pawl today after taking the suggestions on here and I think that may have been part of my issue. I wasnt getting crushed cases before then all of a sudden it was happening so it makes sense something went wrong. The Dillon Rep had some good advice and I never thought to mess with the lock rings. Seems like a good idea. After all these dies have been locked down and adjusted 1 by 1 maybe there is some forces happening there that tweak the shell plate. By loosening the lock rings with the rounds all in the dies then locking them down may center it just enough to fix the bulge issue. Obviously those guys know what they are doing. Thanks again and I will report back what comes of this so others may learn as well.

So add more bell for expansion? Yes the zeros are what I'm using. They measure up to .355 though. The U die isn't necessary only but the FCD should help after the bullet is seated

Thanks for the tip. I m using GSI bullet feeder so this may change some things as well. The bulge ring is not even and more toward one side which is why it's locking up in the chamber. What about the pawl arm stop set screw hidden on station 5? Is it possible that because of my GSI tool head I need to adjust the shell plate indexing a bit to better align with the seating die? The few crushed cases I'm getting I think indicate my index is slightly off and possibly also why the bullet is bulging the brass more toward one side. How can that set screw be adjusted? I mean which direction of turn changes th shell plate clock wise or counter clockwise.

I have yet to narrow it down to head stamps. I already added more bell and it seems to be causing more issues and smashing cases so I am going to back that off like it was. The next time around I think it will be montana golds that I will try. I have about 6k more of these Zeros to use. They are nice bullets so I dont think they are the issue but who knows. So this FCD is supposed to straighten out the entire length of the cartridge as the final step? If so that would be perfect and solve my issue. My buddy seems to think it just adds crimp but I thought that was the standard dies like my Dillon crimp die. The difference with the FCD I thought was it resized all the way down to the base to remove any bulges. I hope it doesnt just remove a bulge near the head stamp because my issue is about mid length in the brass right at the bullet base.

I never saw a "ledge" in any case. All are straight wall but maybe some +p have a bevel at the bottom for extra strength and weigh a few grains more but the side walls are all straight.

Yeah I do all that already. Honestly having shot glocks or 1911's this issue never presented itself. These CZ's have tight short chambers and like perfect ammo. I'm glad I have no issues with factory or carry ammo because I plan to have some CZ's in my carry rotation. I think these LEE dies will solve the issue. I just hope like all LEE products I've tried before these don't suck or break.

Most ammo I see has a bulge near base of the bullet but some of my reloads come out perfect so I'm not sure what's causing it. There is so much going on with a 1050 and GSI feeder it takes a lot of work to dial in

That's exactly what I ordered. I don't think I can adjust the shell plate indexing on a 1050 since it has those pins which align the plate as the tool head moves down. If I have any more issues with this GSI bullet feeder it's coming off. I am not sure it has and hand in this but I still need to spend time on the machine and dial it in.

Its a 2 part issue which I think made this so hard to figure out. It made no sense that one round at 1.098 wouldnt chamber from the mag while another of the same length would. I sharpied the entire round and did it again and could see the marks removed on the brass from the bulge in the brass near the base of the bullet. There is no bulge at the bottom of the case. Apparently the LEE FCD is supposed to resize and crimp the finished round at the last station so that sounds like the trick. I need to look at my 1050 some more and see if the shell plate can be adjusted because every now and then the bullet is smashing the brass at the seating station which might be an indicator the bullet is being seated crooked a little causing too much of that bulge as it seats. Its not the 1050 its the dang GSI feeder that keep giving me trouble. I swear I bought this feeder thinking it looked more finished and professional which should mean less tinkering but I dont think that is the reality. Oddly dropping a round in the barrel by hand will pass the plunk test etc. The same round wont feed from the mag. I think once the extractor holds on to it and the breech face positions the round in the chamber things change a bit. I think the plunk test is only good for length testing. I had to load up all my mags and hand cycle them through the gun and eject the good ones into a box and out of about 300 found around 20 that didnt feel right. Perhaps at full slide stroke they would slam into the chamber but by hand they hung the slide up so the trick was finding those and getting them out of my stage ammo.

I ordered both dies the EGW and the FCD. I need to check my press and its possible I need to adjust the shell plate index because I think the bullet is starting itself crooked and bulging the brass to the side as the bullets seats. This would explain why randomnly I am getting crushed cases in the seating station. So the FCD will not just get the bulge out of the bottom of the case but the full length of it? This would in theory be the best idea for a truly perfect finished round. I am not sure why someone other then LEE hasnt made one.

sorry 9mm and I am using zero 125grn JHP. I have been reading and I think I am going to order EGW undersized die for station 1 and the Lee FCD for the last station. I hate Lee and think there products are junk so I hope these dont let me down like their other products have. I like to think they cant go wrong on a carbide sizing die and since I learned EGW has Lee make them their dies that seems like a good thing.

I have a 1050 with GSI feeder so its using the GSI tool head and GSI seating die. I have had this before on my 650 as well so its not something new. After seating the bullet some times I am getting a blunt ring or bulge at the base of the bullet. They have been problematic in my CZ chambers which are quite tight. Any idea how to get rid of this bulge? I seen the LEE FCD but I am not a fan of LEE so if there is something similar that I could use that would be great. I dont think there is a way to eliminate the bulge from happening but I figure there must be a die that will resize the finished round.

OK, so I figured out why this is so hard to understand. Its a 2 part issue I am having. 1 was the easy part the OAL being a little long. What I could not understand was why a round at 1.098 wont chamber but another would of the same length or even a little longer. I marked the brass this time with sharpie and the bullet and found that the brass is bulged near the base of the bullet and for what ever reason will drop in the barrel but once fed from the mag and being held by the extractor it will stick. Is there some die other the the LEE that I can use which would resize the finished round to even out the bulge? This isnt near the bottom of the case this is caused when seating the bullet for some reason.

Seems like I was almost there, lol. This particular bullet seem to like 1.080 but less then 1.095. I aimed at 1.085 and the +/- seems to keep me with in where they will still chamber properly. I guess I was close when I was previously at 1.095 but on the + side I had issues here and there.

Like I said I cant explain what the deal is. Why would it drop in the barrel and not chamber from the mag. Its hanging the slide out about 1/4 inch. I pushed the rear of the bullet and it doesnt exactly stick and does fall out but not as freely as it should I suppose. I colored the bullet with a sharpie and could see where it was hitting the rifling so maybe my test is a failure but for sure there is evidence of it hitting. I want to stick with 124 grn but I think the montanas are next on the list then. I am sure the FMJ would load longer but I have been using JHP so perhaps that is also part of bullet profile giving me more trouble. FMJ can load out long and even my duty/defense JHP ammo have a more FMJ profile and no issues feeding. Any of you loading on a 1050 and getting a wide variance in OAL? Using mixed brass I am not sure how can contribute to this but it must be part of the reason. I cant wrap my mind around how mixed brass has an effect on the OAL.

I noticed of my 2 SP-01's that my rounds just barely touch the corner of my slide stop lug. Is there any harm in filing that corner down about 5-10 thousandths and finishing it with 1500 sand paper to a polish? I noticed the CZC and CGW have a modified slide stop but seems easy enough to knock a corner down and not have to buy a new one. My rounds are super close to hitting and on the one it just touches it every now and then. I can see some copper marks on the slide stop corner so at some point they must be hitting on both. I just want to be sure there is not something I am missing here and about to butcher. I cant see any harm in doing this and the bottom corner which needs to be removed I dont see providing any function the the gun other then hitting my bullets.

So figures Saturday the one round that didnt chamber all the way happened after activating a clam shell which was good for 2 "mikes". I am using Zero 125grn JHP and the shape of the bullet is having me run these suckers shorter and shorter. I did the plunk and spin test with the barrel out of the gun and they pass. What I didnt realize is that this test doesnt work so well in a CZ barrel because the case sticks about the barrel hood. So once fed from the mag into the chamber the slide keeps forward pressure on the round in the chamber then the problem reveals itself. I think the plunk test had the bullet touching the rifling and still allowed it to seem like it passed but once in battery it stuck. I kept that round and took it home to check it out. The odd part is that it was a good length and other rounds the same length feed fine. I cant figure this out and its driving me nuts. At this point I dropped down to 1.080-1.090 and they all seem to be happy now and this is passing from the mag test not the plunk test. I cant explain why same length rounds feed and one here and there wont. I am using mixed once fired brass so my theory is that there is just enough difference in the brass that the shoulder of the bullet will either be more above the end of the brass or below causing this to happen. I am using a 1050 with GSI feeder and tool head and for what ever reason getting some rounds that are on the plus side by 15 thousandths. Mostly my new load is now 1.083 but here and there I get a 1.090 and I even caught one at 1.095. I checked everything and I think some military brass causes the press to torque the tool head a bit dealing with punching and swaging the primer and pocket causing the differences. Once I get through these Zero bullets I am going to try the Montana Golds. Those seemed to have a very blunt shoulder but I loaded one bullet I had to 1.090 and it felt fine in the barrel. Any advice on whats going on? I dont want to ream the barrels of all my CZ's and I dont think its necessary. I just need to dial in my load here and should be fine. I never had a gun where the barrel hood is below the head of the cartridge. I am not sure the advantage to this but the round must sit nice and flush to the breech face with this design. On the other hand coupled with a short chamber it makes things interesting for picking bullets and COAL. Thanks