Guy Neill

Peter the Power Meter was a ballistic pendulum that was used to determine the power factor of a load. It had a steel plate that was shot and swung, with a scale to see how far it swung. . The amount of swing determined whether or not a load made the power factor. It was calibrated using 230gr FMJ from a Commander to establish Major power. While they also established a Minor power factor using 9mm Luger FMJ ammunition, most shot Major using 45's. It did not take a long time, but Charlie Funk and a buddie cast some pewter bullets in a nominal 200gr SWC mold that weighed, as I recall, about 135gr. They were very hard. They absolutely flipped the pendulum. As a result, chronographs became the standard for determining the power factor. This was actually predictable as an early method of hardness testing used a hammer to bounce off the material. The higher the bounce, the harder the material. Thereby, really hard bullets moved the steel pendulum plate much more than softer materials, like lead.

Just to throw it out there when thinking of shooting steel - remember what "killed" Peter the Power Meter"!

Most tilt thjeir head to bring the dominant eye behind the gun. You could try placing a piece of tape over the right eye glasses lens to blur the vision to allow using the left eye.

But how do you really feel about it ...?

Sure. Buy stock in Vista Outdoors, Olin Corp., SIG and others making ammunition. Assuming politics doesn't go bad and eliminate ammunition.

No option of shooting Major with the 38S in SS.

So you were leaving a target on the right to sweep across all the poppers to engage them left to right. Why? Since you were coming from the right, why not engage them right to left instead of by-passing two to get to the third? But once you were on a target - popper shoot it rather than waste time moving to another and then back to it.

You should not do anything about starting a business until after the coming election. If the wrong people are elected, there may be no chance for a new gun related business. You may also think about the route some other gunsmiths have taken. It will take more time but has some advantages. Some have taken jobs with well-known gunsmiths for a year or two with each, learning their methods. It's likely you would learn something about running such a business as well as the skills of working on and building guns. The skills will be of great benefit when you do set out on your own. Good luck whatever directi0ojn you take.

Is there a required power factor? If so, that would be a factor when considering the load. USPSA Multigun rules, if I'm reading them right, states a 150 power factor for rifle. With a 34gr bullet, that needs something over 4400 fps.

Quite commonly the first firing pin strike on a high primer looks like a light hit. If any fired on a second firing pin hit, it is high primers.

If you have remaining loaded ammunition, check the primers. You may be able to feel a high primer by running your finger over it, or set them on a flat surface and see if they wobble (indicating a high primer). Alternately, place a straight edge across the base of the cartridge and look for light coming under it and the case as it's held up by the primer. If you have high primers, you will need to press even more firmly to completely seat the primers. A fully seated primer is normally 0.003" - 0.005" below flush with the case.

STI, for a while, had a grip modified for single stack magazines.

40 and 10mm have identical breech face. 40 magazines, if different at all, would have an internal spacer for the shorter cartridge length.

I have thought an M1 Carbine in 9mm Win Mag would be interesting. Dead cartridge though, so not going to happen.

If the bullet is moving into the case when feeding into the chamber, the bullet tension is not adequate. Bullet tension is a combination of several factors, including bullet diameter, case wall thickness, expander ball diameter and sizing die diameter. I've not heard of it recently, but many years ago Remington 45 Auto cases had thinner walls than others and made it hard to get good bullet tension. If it is not happening with other makes of brass, it may be related to the cases.

An overly large firing pin hole, perhaps combined with a w4eak firing pin spring can be contributors. Have you taken the barrel out and dropped a round into it to see if the bullet may be contacting the rifling? Headspace, for straight wall cases, is more fluid than with bottle-neck cases. There have been instances where quite short cases have been fired, held only by the extractor, and gave no problem, even though technically the headspace was excessive. The bullet contacting the rifling, or telescoping into the case, or the firing pin stuff mentioned seem most likely.

It looks like there was primer flow into the firing pin tunnel that was then sheared off when ejected.

As long as they are completely seated in the case, there should be no problems. What does "atm" stand for?

Given the mechanism that elongates the case, I'm having difficulty understanding how annealing would eliminate the need to trim. Good if it does, but ??

If the base of the bullet is blackened/dirty with residue, there was no powder. The residue is from the primer. If the base of the bullet is clean, there was powder.

What sort of accuracy are you getting? How much run-out are you seeing in the ammunition? Accuracy is best when the ammunition )case to bullet) has minimal run-out. Also, in general, how was 5the load developed? Working up the load is as much about assessing accuracy as guarding against excess pressure. What bullet are you using? Some guns show a preference for the bullet they do best with. The rifling twist is also a factor. The typical 1:8" twists and such are over spinning bullets like the 55gr. If you have a fast twist, a heavier bullet may do better. Over spinning shows any imbalance in the bullets.

To add - I have "SAS" prefix frame as well as "EM" What did you not like? Thanks. Guy

I would like it.

Perhaps old news, but I missed it if so. Processing some range brass 10mm, I discovered a percentage with small primer pockets. The cases were CCI-Speer-Federal. Most were Blazer headstamp, but Federal as well. Stopping to think about it, it shouldn't be a surprise, but I don't load a lot of 10mm, so it was the first I knew about it. This was the first brass I've gotten in 10mm in quite a while. More sorting required.

Many years ago, the Air Force designed a more accurate 20mm projectile. Later, when they first started testing 9mm pistols, they concluded the bullets then available were not accurate enough for their tests. They got with Hornady and used the 20mm design process to design a new, supposedly, more accurate 9mm bullet. That was the 124gr Hornady truncated cone bullet. Hornady later used the design process for a new 45 bullet, resulting in the 45 truncated cone bullet - tha6t should actually should have been 235gr, but they kept it at 230gr. I've not been able to find the original Air Force research - assuming it was published in some paper or standard, but the concept was that the center of pressure needed to be in front of the center of gravity. Hollow points do that naturally, along with the truncated cones. All that said, I feel it still comes down to individual guns as well as the bullet. Some guns have distinct preferences for what they will shoot well. Generally, however, hollow points and truncated cones should be accurate. I have not seen anything about semi-wadcutters, but expect they are a modified truncated cone.