ChemistShooter

Yeah, I think you're right. I've been looking around. This technology just flat isn't there yet. One day it will be. You'll be able to dial in the kick you want and have a perfect simulation shot--but it ain't there quite yet. Fudge. Fudge-fudge-fudge-FUDGE. I was really drooling at the prospect of pulling a trigger instead of pulling a handle. Just have to keep an eye on these guys till they or somebody like them comes up with something workable. I'll bet you when they finally come up with something workable, it'll sell like snow cones in Hell and these guys will make more money than they ever thought was possible.

The main reason I reload is to save money. I recently ran across a handgun training system that looks like reloading, at least for pistols, is no longer necessary and seems to be a smarter thing to use. Up till now, there has been no way to completely simulate the experience of firing a pistol. The thing that, as far as I know, is the most important thing to learn to handle is the kick. You can dry-fire all day, but there is no kick. You are forced to go to the range to get that particular experience. These Coolfire guys (http://coolfiretrainer.com/) have finally come up with a way to simulate the kick with a CO2-driven recoil and a laser pulse thingy. And I can't really see why pistol reloading is really necessary any more. Let me list some advantages: 1. I like reloading, but it is a VERY high-concentration thing. There is little room for error at the reloading bench. Plus there is all the knowledge necessary---different kinds of powders, bullets, how much to use. Plus equipment---chronographs, scales, and so forth. Unless you have to have high-precision pistol bullets, I don't see the need to acquire all this any more. I don't shoot to reload. I reload to shoot. 2. This CoolFire thing is actually CHEAPER than reloading. I think .$.03 a shot is the number I heard mentioned. Plus you need ZERO equipment and no special knowledge. 3. It's safer. Can't blow yourself up with bad ammunition you didn't make. No squibs, no undercharges, no overcharges. 4. The time spent pulling a handle is now time you can spend pulling a trigger. That's hours and hours and hous practicing handling kick and doing transitions. This is actually the most attractive aspect for me. Yes, you still need to go the range, but once a month would be sufficient. Add it all up, this CoolFire thing looks cheaper, faster---and BETTER. I can think of one minor drawback. You can't dial in how much kick you want, at least not yet. Has anybody out there actually gone this route? Anybody know any reasons why this won't work? Right at the moment I am seriously leaning toward consigning my 550B to the technological junk heap right next to horse-drawn wagons and moving into the 21st century with my very own laser pistol.

I have a mantra I recite: "Size" "Seat" "Powder" "Rotate" "Bullet" "Brass" Same damn thing, if I have to stop, only after "Brass". Then I think long and hard and check every station before I start cranking again. Interruptions are when the screw-ups happen.

I know it was supposed to be light. The depth of the primer had me feeling a little paranoid, though. Thanks for the link.

Yeah, I think so.Got a little bit of a crater but the primers are not flattened. Going to eventually make another pass with the same load and matched cases. Might set up the chrono for this one, keeping in mind you can still have overpressures even with what looks like light loads. I sorta wonder what a set-up to measure CUPs would cost. I make my living handling gadgets like that.

Ah. Learn something new every day. Thanks for enlightening me.

Haven't tested it with factory ammo. It shot thousands of rounds of my current load before developing this problem. And it's been gradually getting worse. I would expect a load problem to show up immediately. The brass get kicked out 4-6 feet. Magazine springs. Ok, now that's a real possibility. I have several magazines but have always been using the same magazine. I'll give it a shot with a different magazine.

The slide on my 9mm XDM 3.8 Full-size started failing to lock back a couple of months ago. I replaced the guide rod spring (the big spring under the barrel) with another guide assembly from Springfield but that had zero effect. Instead it just kept getting worse. Today it started jamming. The slide won't go back far enough for the brass to eject. You can only shoot one round at a time. Weirdly enough, it will successfully eject if there is one round in the gun and lock back about half the time. I have about 12,000 rounds through the gun. I clean it every time I shoot it. I have replaced the striker spring and striker safety spring but that was general maintenance. I don't see how that could be causing this problem. Yeah, something is worn out and needs to be replaced, but I have no idea what. It's going into the shop but those guys never explain exactly what went wrong (plus taking eight weeks to get the gun back), and I imagine this is something simple for the experienced gun owners around here. I'd just like to have some idea what's wrong.

Cases after cleaning were clean but dull. CCI primers. Hmm, I did notice after firing the interiors of the PP cases were cleaner than TiteGroup. Point taken about different cases. I'll try it again with matched cases.

I used all the numbers I had developed for the TiteGroup load, which has been working fine for several thousand rounds. Everything was the same except the PP.

Fired out of an XDM 9mm 3.8 Full-Size. Not chronoed. This was the first test load to see if the charge would cycle the gun. I used Lyman lead data to estimate a load. Yeah, the brass on top is FC but Blazer with that load looks exactly the same as the FC. The PP crater difference is due to the PP.

I am experimenting with Power Pistol. The top three are my normal load, 3.9gr TiteGroup using .356 Eggleston 115gr OAL 1.149. The bottom two are the same except using 5.0 gr Power Pistol. The Power Pistol primer pits are definitely bigger, maybe twice as much. No rim on the pits but definitely bigger. No question the brass is hitting the striker a lot harder. Too much? The weird thing is the kick didn't feel any different. I also noticed a bright white flash.

I had a problem similar to this once. The cause was the bolts connecting the Strong Mount to the bench had wiggled just the teensiest bit loose, and this was causing just slightly high primers. I tightened the Strong Mount bolts, bang, no more high primers. This discovery made me paranoid, and I did some checking. The bolts connecting to the Strong Mount can wiggle loose. Guess what, the die lock rings can also wiggle loose. Checking and tightening if necessary all these bolts and die lock rings is part of my pre-loading ritual now.

Ok, got it, thanks.

Anybody have a load for Power Pistol for 115gr Eggleston Munitions RN coated lead? Eggleston doesn't have anything for Power Pistol, and Allliant has apparently never heard of either lead or coated lead. Nothing fancy, hmm, right at the moment I'm at 123 PF with TiteGroup.

Yeah, but I believe you have to do seating and crimping in one step as opposed to two different steps. I got nice accurate rounds now and I'd like to keep it that way. I have been YouTubing 650s. I'm gonna get me a 650, as much for the speed increase as the powder-check die. Won't be that much as I've already got a lot of the parts and I can sell the 550B. I'm doing 600 rounds per session now and that takes a while. Won't be any time soon as I have all sorts of income tax and property tax and patent lawyers to pay.

Damn, you guys are all right. There was NO frigging powder in the case. That makes all the sense in the world. I pulled the trigger and it went click. I thought it was a mis-fire because I didn't hear the primer pop because I had earpro on. Yeah, it had to have happened during a break in the routine. I have enough experience now to know that's when the screw-ups happen. I always visually inspect but had to have missed one. This is actually a relief. I know exactly what happened. You can set up a 650 with a powder-check die? Okay, gonna have to check a 650 out closer. I'll have to download the manual. Thanks for the feedback. Addendum: All cases are lubed with OneShot. Squirt OneShot into a plastic bag, drop brass in, seal and roll cases around. That way no lube IN case where it will do no good.

I am shooting COL 1.159 9mm .356' 115 gr Eggleston coated lead with 3.9 gr TiteGroup out of an XDM 3.8 full-size. I check the powder weight with a ten-throw average at the beginning and ending of every reloading run. I have never seen the weight change over a run. The gun wouldn't go into battery. I locked the slide back. A VERY dirty 9mm case fell out. The round had fired but the case hadn't come out. First time I had ever seen that. Upon releasing the slide, the gun wouldn't go into battery. A round would not even load. I locked the slide back again and dropped a pencil down the barrel. Sure enough, there was a bullet jammed in the barrel just in front of the lands. I guess I'm really lucky the bullet hadn't traveled any distance down the barrel. I clean the gun after every range session. It's never gone more than 200 rounds without being clean. It was cleaned before this session. This event has shaken me a little because it looks like an undercharge. An undercharge has been my nightmare from Day One, and I have been doing everything I knew to avoid it. 7500 rounds loaded and fired so far without having this particular problem. The odd thing is the bang didn't feel any different. Felt exactly the same. Questions: 1. Has anybody fired a round down a barrel that had a bullet jammed in it, or know of an occasion where this happened? Did any kind of physical damage result? I'm worried about what the possible consequences might have been. 2. Is is possible the bullet was a little wider than it ought to have been? 3. Assuming it was an undercharge, is there anything I can do to improve my powder-weight quality control? Any gadget I can buy that can check powder charges? I own a 550B.

I'm learning on a 550B. It's not too difficult. I only load 9mm. One thing I discovered is you can put a powder check die in a 650 but not a 550. If I had known that in the beginning, I might've gone with a 650. And I have wound up buying a single-stage press. I decap my brass with it. The 550B throws used primers all over the place. I found a dead primer in the primer-loading cup once. That pushed me over the edge.

When you pull the dummy bullet, the coating should be intact. The goal is for the seating and de-crimping to NOT remove any of the coating.

Fairly new loader here too, but I'll pass along what I've seen here. And confirmed for myself, as I'm currently using coated lead. 1. You want the minimum bell. Coated lead appears to require a little more bell than copper. 2.Also just enough on the crimp die to remove the bell. Make some dummy rounds and pull them. There should be no streaks where the coating has been removed. 9mm holds by neck tension only. There should be no crimp. Cartridge width at the case mouth should be exactly the bullet width plus twice the wall thickness. For example, I'm loading .356" with .010" thick wall. Bullet width at the case mouth is .376.

For absolute cheap, you won't be able to beat this: http://www.midwayusa.com/product/626107/caldwell-ballistic-precision-chronograph . . . but this is the one I have and it works. I am also new to reloading. https://www.amazon.com/Caldwell-Ballistic-Precision-Chronograph-Premium/dp/B00HTN5290/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469399303&sr=8-1&keywords=caldwell+premium+ballistic+chronograph

My .02: Don't set it to beep when it detects a primer. That would be annoying. Set it to beep when it DOESN'T detect a primer when it ought to.

Interesting information. Thanks.

Range: Indoor Gun: SA XDM 9mm 3.8 Full-Size Brass: Blazer Bullet: Eggleston coated lead Average wt: 113 gr Bullet diameter 0.356 Bullet Length: 0.572 Powder: TiteGroup Powder amount: 3.9 gr COAL: 1.159 in 1078 1071 1080 1075 1090 1083 1079 1078 1070 1069 Average: 1090 SD: 6.1 ES: 21 Average PF: 123 Range: Indoor Gun: SA XDM 9mm 3.8 Full-Size Brass: Blazer Bullet: Eggleston coated lead Average wt: 113 gr Bullet diameter 0.356 Bullet Length: 0.572 Powder: TiteGroup Powder amount: 4.1 gr COAL: 1.159 in 1100 1106 1107 1132 1119 1128 1102 1112 1111 1103 Average: 1132 SD: 10.4 ES: 32 Average PF: 128 The numbers don't look much different, but the feel was radically different. The 4.1 gr was right snappy for unknown reasons.