Ramshot Silhouette charge bar issues?

[Dawgfish]

I'm not a novice handloader by any means, having loaded about 4 million rounds on 1050 and 650 machines, but I ran into an issue for the first time ever, powder binding up the charge bar.

My current 650XL is about 6 years old, and I had just finished loading 500 rounds of .300 blackout. Switch everything over to 9x23 Winchester, trade out charge bars on the powder measure, get the powder charge correct, 8.9 gr of Silhouette, and have at it. Loaded 10 rounds, fit and functioned well in the pistol, and chronographed at 1465 FPS. Very little difference between the 10 rounds with a high of 1469 and a low of 1462. Very consistent charges. Used the pistol charge bar assembly (two pieces, stationary upper, moving lower).

So I start loading 500 rounds. About 300 rounds into the session the charge bar starts binding up. I remove it, tear it down, clean it out and it had a very fine grit, almost as if the powder was being fine ground. Reset, check charge levels, and start again, getting about 150 rounds more into the session, same thing. Cleaned it up, more fine grit, then reassembled and worked through the remaining rounds. Tore it down, cleaned, and then loaded another 500 rounds of .45acp, this time with 231, and I used the same powder measure, different charge bar. Ran like clockwork.

Anybody ever run into this before? In 25 years of reloading this is the first issue I've had like this.

I have 8 powder measures and this one is new, but it is doing double duty at the moment between .300 blackout and 9x23 Winchester. Changing out charge bars is a lot cheaper than buying a whole new powder measure, and after buying a few powder measure, I have a bunch of spare charge bars.

Thanks in advance.

[rishii]

I had the same problem with sp-2 years ago

Apparently it was enough of a problem that Arredondo made a special powder bar just for it

I've never had that problem with silhouette or WAP in the 10's of thousand of rounds I've loaded with that powder

[Justsomeguy]

Me either! I use a lot of Silhouette and this is the first time I have heard of a problem. Perhaps that powder measure has some wear in the slot the charge bar rides in, or it is undersized. In 9X23 I only use 8.0grns of the stuff to get 1400fps out of a standard rifled Tanfoglio 4.75 barrel that started life as a 9X19 barrel that I reamed for the 9X23 build. I was kind of surprised that you used 8.9grns of Silhouette. What kind of gun are you using?

Edited January 14, 2014 by Justsomeguy

[Dawgfish]

The charge bar is a very old one, from my first 650 and was unused but also 20 years old. Had a yeloow/brasslike anodized finish to it, not the bare aluminum ones like now. I'll try a newer one.

Pistol is a Caspian Arms receiver, Scheutzen gun works slide. Not sure of the barrel, but it is plainly marked 9x23 on the chamber section (engraved insided a milled oval), viewable through the ejection port. 5" barrel, with an additional 5/8" extended and ported. The pistol was a gift to my boss a number of years back, and then he gave it to me so I don't know a number of particulars. He doesn't shoot, so it had no utility for him.

Factory rounds went through at 1468fps (Win 124gr silvertip), so I attempted to match and achieved that with 8.9 grains using WAP data from Dane Burn's site. Fully supported barrel using the Starline 9x23 supercomp brass. WSR primers looked fine after firing. Cases were similar to the factory brass as far as condition is concerned.

[Justsomeguy]

Ah... I see. I had chrono-ed some of the original Winchester stuff myself and got 1473fps for 10 shots using another gun I built up on a single stack 1911 frame, so our results are similar. I am familiar with the old Burns recommendations, but thought it a bit stout using Silhouette/WAP. I might kick it up a bit just to see when I use the Silhouette again. I too use the Starline 9X23 Comp brass, though I have 1000 new Winchester I haven't loaded yet. The Starline stuff is better for 147grn bullets with which I experimented using 8.7grns of AA7 and Wolf SR primers to get about 1176fps for a 20 shot average on a sunny 70 degree day. I did 3 20 shot groups and all were similar for that load. OAL was 1.250 using the RMR/Extreme 147grn bullets. Good to see another 9X23 user here. Good luck with your charge bar change. I don't think Silhouette is the problem.

[CocoBolo]

I've done about 50K of 9 major using Silhouette on my Dillon 650, the charge bar has never given any trouble.

[Dawgfish]

I'll try another powder measure and charge bar the next time I reload for this pistol. The round is very stout to shoot, and fun. I handed the pistol and a mag to a buddy and after firing 19 full tilt rounds, he had the same grin as when I handed him a 10 round mag and my .458 SOCOM. Permagrin. Nice shooting a stout pistol that is entirely controllable. My test for an accurate pistol is a bit redneck. Pop can at 10 yards, and bounce it out as far as I can until the mag runs dry firing about 1 round per second. The can ended up about 35 yards away, and more holes than can. Rounds are accurate as loaded.

[Justsomeguy]

I really like 9X23 also. There is no problem making "major" with the round with room to spare and it has been very accurate using several bullet and powder types so far. I really don't know why more people don't use it. Good magazine capacity, makes major with no pressure problems, easy to reload and the brass will last forever. What's not to love?