ChemistShooter

I shoot an XDM 9mm 3.8 full-size. I started out with 3000 Hornady 115 gr FMJ (,355'). Very nice bullets but I'm down to my last 200 and I want to experiment with coated bullets to reduce costs. (I am about to burn some Amazon points and get a Caldwell Premium chronograph basically for shipping.) I set my calipers to .355' and they would just barely go into the end of my barrel. .356' would NOT go in. Springfield says my barrel is a "Match-Grade" barrel but does not specify what that means. Hmm, I am using Titegroup. 4.1 gr TG with Hornady 115 gr FMJ set to 1.151 OAL, to be precise. (I have read TG has a tendency to produce smoke with lead bullets. Coated should not have this problem. I think.) I note coated bullet manufacturers seem to mostly sell .356' but .355' is available upon request. This seems a tad strange. I'm thinking either Bayou Bullets or BBI. (Not Blue, from what I've read here.) I'm not really sure what size I should buy and confess to not understanding the .356 option at all. Opinions?

I'm putting together a little tool kit to work on my 9 mm XDM 3.8 (Full-Size). I've already got some punches. I observe on YouTube the gunsmiths have a little brass and/or wooden hammer. McMasterCarr has a plethora of brass hammers, and I'm wondering which one to get. Or anything else specific to a 9mm XDM. Anybody have any opinions? TIA.

I had a problem a LOT like this just recently. Everything was working on my 550B, then suddenly the exact same set-up starting giving me high primers. My Strong Mount mounting bolts had come loose. The machine was moving up on the upstroke instead of staying rock-steady. I couldn't feel it, but I when put the wrenches on the mounting bolts it was immediately obvious. And when I tightened the mounting bolts, bang, the high primers stopped.

Speaking as somebody who has never even been to a Steel match . . . Did some quick Excel calculation. At equal power factor, the smaller bullets will have a significantly greater impact energy and will knock the targets over better---IF: All bullets hit in EXACTLY the same place and at EXACTLY the same angle. it's going to depend on how the plates are constructed. The lever principle will play a big part. The farther away the bullet impacts from the point of attachment, the less impact energy will be required to knock the target over.

My cases are all the same, Blazer brass. I would guess mixed cases but am interested in what the experienced loaders say.

Copied to my Reloading SOP, MyWife. Solid gold.

It's more variance than I get. I haven't examined every round (but will on the next run), but I check at the beginning and the end and get around +/- .003-4 inch variance. I haven't been keeping records. Right at the moment I load the plate with blank cases at the beginning and the end. I keep a case with a fired primer as a placeholder in the powder die and just dump the powder back in the hopper. A little bit of experimenting seems to indicate it is the sizing die that always has to have a case in it in order to get as uniform an OAL as possible. Lubing will affect OAL? I actually have some One-Shot. Now I need to do some experimenting.

Step 1 is to clean everything, You did that. Step 2 is to replace the return spring.They don't last forever. 15-20K rounds? That's a LOT. My guess is the spring has just enough oomph to work if everything is clean.

I don't own a chrono and have never used one, but there's one in my future fairly soon so I've been researching them. You might try painting the suspect bullets black with a Sharpie and seeing if that helps consistency.

I wipe them down with rubbing alcohol. I have discovered rounds that won't case-gauge quite often just have tiny bit of crud on the case. Clean the case and the round case-gauges perfect. I might be stopping a jam at the range doing that.

Thanks for the links. That set look exactly like what I need. Plus pins and parts. "Every 5000 rounds" I'm already past that and I swear the trigger feels the teensiest bit mushy. Can't get a thing out of Springfield or HK Produkt about a maintenance schedule.

I have one 8-lb container of powder. I keep it underneath a table and against a back wall, surrounded by 4 gallons of water in plastic bottles and 4 boxes of sodium bicarbonate. The idea is if it burns, it'll immediately release water and carbon dioxide. Since gunpowder contains both oxidizer and reducer, don't know how effective the carbon dioxide would be but the water should be a definite help.

I am a relatively new gun owner. I own an XDM 9mm 3.8 Full-Size. I've already busted something I believe is called a "roll pin" through extensive dry fire (Yes, I had a snap cap in. The roll pin broke anyway.) and had to pay a gunsmith big bucks to replace it. You still have to do dry-fire practice, of course, and I expect that damn pin to eventually break again, even with the snap cap. (A-Zoom. Trying a new brand after the last fiasco. We'll see how it performs.) So I thought I'd ask what tools it takes to work on my gun. Far as I can tell, I only need the following: Brass hammer (size undetermined) Wooden hammer (size undetermined) Squib rod (size and where to find such a thing unknown) Three punches (I have found differing opinions about which three are needed, the difference being metric or English units. This is confusing.) I have also seen "XDM kits" for sale. Presumably I can buy spare parts directly from Springfield. Thoughts/opinions on what tools to get and where to get them? TIA.

That tip is gone. Put in a new one. I can think of two reasons you're getting two primers. 1. The tip is too high. Since you claim you're rotating and pushing down---there has to be something in the tube obstructing it. Can you push the feed rod all the way through the tube? Have you been cleaning the primer magazine tube every once in a while? (I clean mine by pushing an alcohol wipe through it with the feed rod after every reloading session, but that's probably overkill.) 2. The primer cup is too low. Get out your calipers and measure the distance. Hmm, there is one other possibility. It's possible you have already fixed the original problem, but the original problem damaged the tip and now simply replacing the tip will make everything work right. But check the primer cup height and make sure it's within specs. Let us know how it goes.

If I understand you correctly, your shell pate isn't rotating because primers are being seated high and are catching against the insertion hole when you try to turn the indexing star and stopping the star from turning. I recently had this exact same problem. There are a number of things that can cause this, but in my case it turned out the mounting bolts had worked themselves loose. When I pushed up on the handle to seat a primer, the machine itself would move up the teensiest bit because it wasn't tightly clamped to the table anymore. You can't detect this by wiggling the mount. My mount still felt rock-solid. When I put the wrenches to the bolts, though, I could tell immediately the bolts had come loose. I tightened the bolts back down properly---bang, end of primer-seating problem. Checking the mounting bolts is now part of my pre-loading procedure.

Can you take a picture?

Not much. Just enough for one primer, if I recall correctly. I wish I had a picture. Next time I load I'm going to take one.

Primer magazine not in proper position? I've discovered it's possible to think it's down and it turns out to be way too high. Take the primer feed assembly off and lay it horizontally with the bottom over a bullet bin or small box so if the primers try to go scattering they won 't have anywhere to go. Then look at it. You'll probably discover the primer magazine is clearly way too high. If none of the primers are twisted around, you should be able to push down on the primer magazine tube while turning it and you'll see the primer magazine tube slide down into its proper position. If the bottom one is twisted, you'll have to straighten it. This is where it's smart to be holding it over a box. Get a dentist's mirror (which I'm trying to find for the same reason, and which Dillon ought to include in the kit) so you can visually inspect it after you load primers into it.

Personally I went with the 550B. More versatility down the line. You don't know how your tastes are going to change.

Damn, yeah. Such a simple solution.

I'm awful tempted to take an empty case with a primer in it somewhere safe and find some way to make it go bang from distance. I'd really like to know how much bang primers make.

Not yet. I have some Hornady One-Shot but have not experimented with it. I'm working on getting Reloading & Maintenance SOPs down.

Wrong. Load in pistol and shoot. Chemshooter, look back through this thread. Most of the guys that use a case gauge still fire the ones that fail the case gauge. In all likelihood, they're fine. FYI, the ring around the base can come from either you or previous reloaders sizing brass with carbide dies and no lube. Glocked brass looks like it has a blister, and you're likely to see it one out of about every never. You just broke down what is in all likelihood a perfectly good round. Took no action until I got some feedback. I'll drop in my barrel. If if fits, I'll shoot it. It's quite likely to fit. That weird ring is right at the case head.

A-n-n-d predictably enough, I just had a round fail the case gauge. There's this weird little circle around it at the bottom. In the beginning, I wasn't marking my brass, just picking up anything that said "Blazer." This is probably one of those "Glocked brass" cases, I would guess. Pull, recycle bullet and powder, squirt case full of WD-40 to dissolve primer, allow to sit for a week and discard. Right?

I should've mentioned I only use Blazer brass I bought and know the history of. I don't use random range brass. I put a black circle on my brass with a Sharpie and normally get 90% of it back. Hmm, I think I will start using my chamber rather than the case gauge. And wipe them down with rubbing alcohol to remove crud before I case-gauge. "100-round case gauges", learn something new every day. Thanks to all for their comments.