WSF & 124gr = Dirty Gun?

[RickT]

I'm posting to ask for confirmation of the obvious. I've got my wife shooting 4.2gr WSF of 124gr coated which gives her a soft shooting load. We each ran through about 200 rounds a few days ago and racking the slide afterwards on her gun (1911) it was really gummy. I was shooting more 147gr and didn't find a similar issue. I'm thinking those light loads of a medium burn poweder combined with 124gr really doesn't build up enough chamber pressure to provide a proper seal Make sense?

Just to interject another possibility. When we switched over to 1911s from M&P I continued to use FrogLube; using it on two of our 1911s, Mil-comm on the other two. I may have overdone applying the CLP to the slide which could have caused the issue. I'll try running her gun much dryer next time. These are guns are all stainless so I'm trying to err on the side of slightly more lube, bur FrogLube IMO doesn't lend itself particularly well to lubing slides on an all steel gun.

Were taking some training the end of the month which will involve 1000+ rounds each and I really don't want to clean the guns (or her gun) after every 200 rounds!

I have 16 lbs of HP38 on the way which should be much more suitable for the 124gr loads, but for now I can stick with 147gr unless the lighter lube load solves the problem

[bowenbuilt]

Unless you can get the pressures into the mid range of a powders maximum most are very dirty. WSF is slow enough to become nasty on the low end but cleans up nicely in the middle and toward the high end. The quicker burning powders tend to be much cleaner when using lighter bullets at minor. What you describe sounds very normal with the heavier bullets making more pressure. If you pump the lighter bullets up a few notches they will clean up also. I have been testing the new ETR7 for the past several weeks and in 9mm with 147's and in .40 with 180's and 200 grain bullets it is extra clean shooting in minor and major. When I tried it in .45 ACP it was dirty until I got to factory ballistics even with 230 grn. bullets. The .45 just does not make enough pressure to clean it up at major PF.

[aceinyerface]

I'm no super expert, but I believe that if the brass doesn't seal the chamber the symptom is blackening of the outside casing.

Powder fouling is usually dry turning to caked on as it gets increasing foul. Gummy would indicate the presence of some liquid.

However, I'm not a super expert and haven't seen every situation.