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Need Coated 124’s recommendation


oteroman

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Is there a coupon code for being a new customer or something or did you just use the other assorted codes and forum memberships? Did you just go with the regular .355” diameter?


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When I signed up the discount was automatically applied. Don't know if they are still doing it. I think I ordered the .356 since that is what I typically shoot.

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I really love Brazos 124. They are very easy to load on the press then ACME. They are really cheap but have shot really well out of my Canik. I plan on sticking with Brazos.

That’s what I thought, and bought thousands of them, then all the sudden I started getting about a 10% failure rate from bullets hitting the rifling in my barrel even after dropping the oal by 0.04” after about 1k rounds with no problems and nothing else had changed. I’m still not sure why I’m having problems, but I’m just finishing what I have then I’m gonna have to pull all the ones that won’t work and move on. Although it sucks cause those bullets are the most accurate Iv shot out of my Glock 34 so far


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32 minutes ago, looking4reloadingdeals said:


That’s what I thought, and bought thousands of them, then all the sudden I started getting about a 10% failure rate from bullets hitting the rifling in my barrel even after dropping the oal by 0.04” after about 1k rounds with no problems and nothing else had changed. I’m still not sure why I’m having problems, but I’m just finishing what I have then I’m gonna have to pull all the ones that won’t work and move on. Although it sucks cause those bullets are the most accurate Iv shot out of my Glock 34 so far


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The 124g RN with the shoulder and bevel base?  Has to be the easiest coated bullet to load out there, even in .358" dia.  I can't see how you could hit the lands with a good plunk test length -.040" . Sure its not your flare or expansion in combo with brass variables?  Working with .358s that's a fine line sometimes.    I agree they are easy to work with, cheap, and accurate.  My only problem is that I just can't eliminate the leading problem completely.  I don't know why but even the .358s will foul the bores of my guns slightly to moderately,  the .356 and .357 were terrible.   Maybe its a combination of the lube groove causing limited area with the barrel,  the coating, and a faster(but typical) powder.  My buddy notices more smoke from the gun as well when I shoot the Brazos  compared to the Precisions I have moved too, which are also easy to load even in 147g and keep the bore clean.   Maybe I'll try some different loads with BE86 or Power Pistol just as an experiment (different pressure rise) but not what I would want to shoot a match with. 

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The 124g RN with the shoulder and bevel base?  Has to be the easiest coated bullet to load out there, even in .358" dia.  I can't see how you could hit the lands with a good plunk test length -.040" . Sure its not your flare or expansion in combo with brass variables?  Working with .358s that's a fine line sometimes.    I agree they are easy to work with, cheap, and accurate.  My only problem is that I just can't eliminate the leading problem completely.  I don't know why but even the .358s will foul the bores of my guns slightly to moderately,  the .356 and .357 were terrible.   Maybe its a combination of the lube groove causing limited area with the barrel,  the coating, and a faster(but typical) powder.  My buddy notices more smoke from the gun as well when I shoot the Brazos  compared to the Precisions I have moved too, which are also easy to load even in 147g and keep the bore clean.   Maybe I'll try some different loads with BE86 or Power Pistol just as an experiment (different pressure rise) but not what I would want to shoot a match with. 

I’m loading the 147 .357”, but I see where you’re coming from. I’m not quite sure what’s going wrong either, but like I said, it was going a ok then randomly went downhill quick. Maybe I’ll try messing with my flare and see. I’m using the lee powder through expander and I’m looking for a 38 expander right now. Maybe that’ll help a bit. Thanks for the help


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2 minutes ago, looking4reloadingdeals said:


I’m loading the 147 .357”, but I see where you’re coming from. I’m not quite sure what’s going wrong either, but like I said, it was going a ok then randomly went downhill quick. Maybe I’ll try messing with my flare and see. I’m using the lee powder through expander and I’m looking for a 38 expander right now. Maybe that’ll help a bit. Thanks for the help


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What are the headstamps of your failures?  That will be a big clue.  Perhaps you acquired some less than desirable pick up brass that is skewing your results.  I now cull my brass of all questionable headstamps and things run a lot smoother.

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What are the headstamps of your failures?  That will be a big clue.  Perhaps you acquired some less than desirable pick up brass that is skewing your results.  I now cull my brass of all questionable headstamps and things run a lot smoother.

Anything and everything haha. There is no correlation between failures and headstamp which I thought was kind of odd after reading a whole bunch of other’s comments


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6 minutes ago, TrackCage said:

An old saying in the bullseye community was something like "clean scores, dirty bores."

Brazos made their name in the bullseye community. 

Yet it's surprising to everyone that they are experiencing leading issues.

Thats funny.  Can only be true though for so long before fouling throws accuracy out the window.  Also I would think action pistols get hotter faster than bullseye guns.  My initial range tests, slower fire on paper indoors, looked pretty good and I bought a lot of bullets.  Once I started shooting more rounds and faster outside in the heat this summer things seemed to change.  

 

Its not just Brazos though.  I tried that exact same 124g bullet profile from SNS with the same results. 

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1 hour ago, looking4reloadingdeals said:


That’s what I thought, and bought thousands of them, then all the sudden I started getting about a 10% failure rate from bullets hitting the rifling in my barrel even after dropping the oal by 0.04” after about 1k rounds with no problems and nothing else had changed. I’m still not sure why I’m having problems, but I’m just finishing what I have then I’m gonna have to pull all the ones that won’t work and move on. Although it sucks cause those bullets are the most accurate Iv shot out of my Glock 34 so far


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That’s very interesting. I just set mine close to 1.15 and it shoots very good. I hope I don’t run into your problem.

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26 minutes ago, Derdang said:


That’s very interesting. I just set mine close to 1.15 and it shoots very good. I hope I don’t run into your problem.

Those two bullet profiles are completely different.  I doubt you will have OAL problems with the 124.  I think L4RD's issues are other than bullet/land interference.

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Just now, GMP said:

Those two bullet profiles are completely different.  I doubt you will have OAL problems with the 124.  I think L4RD's issues are other than bullet/land interference.

Thanks

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Those two bullet profiles are completely different.  I doubt you will have OAL problems with the 124.  I think L4RD's issues are other than bullet/land interference.

GMP, what do you think the problem I’m having is? Not enough expansion? Iv been meaning to get an actual expander instead of the Lee one that came with my dies. Or something else? Since I get it with all different headstamp s I don’t think it’s so much brass? But I honestly am not sure. I had just kind of accepted it at this point tbh


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4 minutes ago, looking4reloadingdeals said:


GMP, what do you think the problem I’m having is? Not enough expansion? Iv been meaning to get an actual expander instead of the Lee one that came with my dies. Or something else? Since I get it with all different headstamp s I don’t think it’s so much brass? But I honestly am not sure. I had just kind of accepted it at this point tbh


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I just don't get how a reduction in .040" does not fix a true OAL issue, providing the original plunk test and OAL setting was good, unless the profile was changed.  My best guess, from some experience, is that you are pushing the long bullet deep in the case, slightly bulging it, causing your tight chamber fit.  Can also happen with pushing an expander deep, which at least won't swage down a bullet.  I don't know the specs of the Lee expander but I doubt its too long.  It can happen with various headstamps.  Does it happen with good Federal, Blazer, Speer brass ?  They always chamber and look the smoothest when loaded.  I use an NOE expander that I custom cut for seating depth so I don't swage the .358 bullets down.  Some brass I just can't use.  Other stuff is borderline, like GFL.  The American brass is no problem.  Guns are different too of course.  My CZs have a short lead but generous chamber, while my Beretta has a generous leade and tighter chamber, so rounds that will plunk in a CZ may hang in the Beretta barrel long before they are close to the leade. 

 

Paint some problem rounds with a sharpie, chamber them and spin them around a bit.  That should tell the story.

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I just don't get how a reduction in .040" does not fix a true OAL issue, providing the original plunk test and OAL setting was good, unless the profile was changed.  My best guess, from some experience, is that you are pushing the long bullet deep in the case, slightly bulging it, causing your tight chamber fit.  Can also happen with pushing an expander deep, which at least won't swage down a bullet.  I don't know the specs of the Lee expander but I doubt its too long.  It can happen with various headstamps.  Does it happen with good Federal, Blazer, Speer brass ?  They always chamber and look the smoothest when loaded.  I use an NOE expander that I custom cut for seating depth so I don't swage the .358 bullets down.  Some brass I just can't use.  Other stuff is borderline, like GFL.  The American brass is no problem.  Guns are different too of course.  My CZs have a short lead but generous chamber, while my Beretta has a generous leade and tighter chamber, so rounds that will plunk in a CZ may hang in the Beretta barrel long before they are close to the leade. 
 
Paint some problem rounds with a sharpie, chamber them and spin them around a bit.  That should tell the story.

I’ll try to put up some pictures tonight or tomorrow, I did do the sharpie test and they were running on the bullets. The first 1k or so were loaded with an OAL of 1.13-1.14”. Then all the sudden I got a 25% failure rate and as I worked down to 1.10” I still get about 10%. I expect there to be variation in my seating depth, so I would have expected the failures to be longer, but that’s not always the case. I’ll try and get a tally of what brass Iv had problems with so far as well and maybe that’ll help.


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4 hours ago, looking4reloadingdeals said:


Then all the sudden I got a 25% failure rate and as I worked down to 1.10” I still get about 10%. I expect there to be variation in my seating depth, so I would have expected the failures to be longer, but that’s not always the case.


Check your crimp and the die to make sure it hasn’t changed.  Recently I too after thousands of rounds started to have more failed cartridges and then I checked the crimp and it had changed slightly. Reset it and it fixed issue.

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5 hours ago, looking4reloadingdeals said:


I’ll try to put up some pictures tonight or tomorrow, I did do the sharpie test and they were running on the bullets. The first 1k or so were loaded with an OAL of 1.13-1.14”. Then all the sudden I got a 25% failure rate and as I worked down to 1.10” I still get about 10%. I expect there to be variation in my seating depth, so I would have expected the failures to be longer, but that’s not always the case. I’ll try and get a tally of what brass Iv had problems with so far as well and maybe that’ll help.


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So am I correct in understanding that you just did the sharpie test and found the ink scratched off the bullets, not the brass?  

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So am I correct in understanding that you just did the sharpie test and found the ink scratched off the bullets, not the brass?  

Yes, a lot of them are at the bullet. This one has a little bit on the bullet, but more at the bottom of the case. All of these cases passes case gauge before they were loaded


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Check your crimp and the die to make sure it hasn’t changed.  Recently I too after thousands of rounds started to have more failed cartridges and then I checked the crimp and it had changed slightly. Reset it and it fixed issue.

I can’t set my crimp any heavier sadly, there is already a light mark on the bullet


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