Problem with new Lone Wolf barrel

[Mr. Chitlin]

I've been shooting a G35 in competition for about 6 or 7 years. Never the slightest bobble with it. In the last year, I have started shooting lead bullets to try to stretch the shooting dollar. As I see more and more Glock KB threads, I have become more and more concerned about shooting the lead in the factory barrel.

I received a new Lone Wolf barrel this past week, and I am now having trouble with the ammo feeding into the chamber. The load was a 175 grain lead SWC over 4.1 gr of Titegroup loaded to 1.140". I've used this load since last summer with the factory barrel and it has fed like a champ. I got to try it out yesterday, and had problems with it hanging on the feed ramp. I came home and loaded 100 at 1.130". Back to the range today and I still have the issue.

Naturally, I forgot to take my parts box to the range today, but yesterday I did put the factory recoil spring back in and was still having the same problem. I'm running a 13# captured spring on a steel rod. I have a 15# in the parts box, and the original factory guide rod in the box, too. There again, the 13# has worked perfectly with this load for about a year now using the factory barrel. Now I can't get through a full mag without it either hanging on the feed ramp or not going fully into battery with the LW barrel. I've done the test where I hold the trigger back and slowly let the slide go forward. It goes completely into battery every time and seems to have good force behind it, not dragging at all. I've also polished the chamber and feed ramp on the barrel to make sure it was clean, no metal removal, just a good polishing.

An interesting side note: With the factory barrel, these loads average 965 fps. With the LW barrel, they average 1000 fps, same day, just swapping barrels.

Any suggestions?? It will be next weekend before I can hit the range again.

Here are a few pics of the problem...

Hanging on the feed ramp

Not going into battery

A pic of the ammo

[ima45dv8]

Tighter chamber would be the obvious first guess.

Try taking that barrel out of the gun and case gauging your reloads with it.

Are you running a U-die?

[Mr. Chitlin]

Not running a U die, but they are loaded on a 650 with a Lee FCD on station 5. They also seem to drop in the barrel just fine, and also drop in a case gauge just fine.

Just thinking out loud, but I wonder if I need to seat the bullet another .005 or so deeper, to 1.125".

Edited June 10, 2007 by Mr. Chitlin

[wcmesa]

Try turning the case and droppin it in. Chances are that it will hang up due to the belly in the case . I had this problem w/ my storm lake until i got a egw u die. I Just got a lone wolf 35 barrel and am having some seating issues also but im having the throat lengthened on it. Iwill post the results here as soon as i get the barrel back

[Jman]

I might have tried a round nose bullet first. Semi-wad cutters can be a bit finicky on some feed ramps.

Jim

[ima45dv8]

I might have tried a round nose bullet first. Semi-wad cutters can be a bit finicky on some feed ramps.

Jim

Good point. And they're very sensitive to OAL.

[Mr. Chitlin]

I might have tried a round nose bullet first. Semi-wad cutters can be a bit finicky on some feed ramps.

Jim

... and I have ~5 K on the bench and another 2 K loaded...

That would be my luck.

[Jman]

I might have tried a round nose bullet first. Semi-wad cutters can be a bit finicky on some feed ramps.

Jim

... and I have ~5 K on the bench and another 2 K loaded...

That would be my luck.

...ssshhh...ugar.

[vrmn1]

I have been running some 180 truncated cone bullets in my Lonewolf barrel without a problem even with a 15# spring.

I am seating them at 1.120.

I think the feed ramp has a bit steeper angle on the LWD barrel and the tighter chamber all of this can cause some little problems.

Good luck.

Edited June 11, 2007 by vrmn1

[SouthpawG26]

We have 6 relatively new LW barreled G35's on our team, most have shot just 2000-2500 rds, 180gr cast SWC (Lee nr 90256), loaded to 1.115.

For IPSC (international rules) major (170 PF) we load 4.4 gr A1 Vectan or Bullseye (172 PF);

A few observations:

-We haven't come across round nose casts, so we work with swc's as well;

-Taper crimp to .410 on these (slightly oversized) lead bullets;

-Bullet grease build-up in the chamber is the no1 cause of ftf's, our guys clean the chamber (much more than the entire barrel itself) religiously, every 200 rounds. This is the critical part: removing buildup of grease/powder at the chambers front end, where the case seats, in conjuction with the crimp I've mentioned.

Adhering to the above, we've only had about 5 ftf's for the combined 12000-13000 rds shot through the 6 guns so far. On each of those 5 ftf's (of the kind just like in your pics), there was excessive grease buildup at the end of the chamber, without exception. After cleaning, all was well.

Hope this helps.

PS: 5 guns runs 15lb rs, 1 runs 13lb.

Edited June 11, 2007 by SouthpawG26

[Lee]

I have a Bar-sto in my G35. It will feed perfect with everything but SWC. I have a box of 175SWC that I can't get to run at any OAL.

I always use a minimal crimp and it works fine even in the tight chamber. Maybe the .410 crimp will work. I don't like to crimp that much, but I might try it.

[RePete]

I, too, was going to suggest that you use a RN bullet as opposed to a SWC.

[Mr. Chitlin]

Thanks for the info. It will be the weekend before I can try anything else out. I have some 180 gr Montana Gold round nose (TMJ I think they call them). I usually save them for my 10mm, but may try a few in the 40. I'll also try seating them down to 1.120, and also try the different springs and see what happens. I really think this is a small problem, I just need to figure out what is going on.

I'd sure like to keep using these bullets as they are only $35/K.

Edited June 11, 2007 by Mr. Chitlin

[bountyhunter]

I've been shooting a G35 in competition for about 6 or 7 years. Never the slightest bobble with it. In the last year, I have started shooting lead bullets to try to stretch the shooting dollar. As I see more and more Glock KB threads, I have become more and more concerned about shooting the lead in the factory barrel.

I received a new Lone Wolf barrel this past week, and I am now having trouble with the ammo feeding into the chamber. The load was a 175 grain lead SWC over 4.1 gr of Titegroup loaded to 1.140". I've used this load since last summer with the factory barrel and it has fed like a champ. I got to try it out yesterday, and had problems with it hanging on the feed ramp. I came home and loaded 100 at 1.130". Back to the range today and I still have the issue.

The "not going into battery" photo looks to me like the round is ahead of the extractor hook, as iff it fed up wrong.

I would try some factory 180 gr .40 standard ammo and see if the gun feeds. If it is only misfeeding on that shape bullet, you could try cutting the feed ramp until it does...... using the stock barrel as the guide.

It's possible you just need to "roll over" the top of the feed ramp where it enters the chamber. I had to do that on a para to get it to stop doing exactly what yours is doing. You give away a bit of "coverage" on the case to get it to feed.

Edited June 11, 2007 by bountyhunter

[Mr. Chitlin]

The "not going into battery" photo looks to me like the round is ahead of the extractor hook, as iff it fed up wrong.

I would try some factory 180 gr .40 standard ammo and see if the gun feeds. If it is only misfeeding on that shape bullet, you could try cutting the feed ramp until it does...... using the stock barrel as the guide.

It's possible you just need to "roll over" the top of the feed ramp where it enters the chamber. I had to do that on a para to get it to stop doing exactly what yours is doing. You give away a bit of "coverage" on the case to get it to feed.

Those photo's were set up in the living room to show what was going on. In the field, it is actually under the extractor.

I'm going to work on it this weekend. I hope to not have to do any metal removal, hopefully polishing and adjusting the load lenght and working with the springs will tkae care of my problem.

[Mr. Chitlin]

Well, I spent a couple of hours at the range yesterday and between changing springs, setting bullets deeper (down to 1.120) and polishing the feedramp until it was smooth as possible, I still have the problem.

Next step will be to try to run down some lead round nose bullets and see how they run. I have a ton of these swc bullets, but if I can't figure out a way to use them, I'll just have to try something else.

I have thought about rounding the bottom of the feedramp just a little, but hate to start taking metal off a new barrel. It seems like it would take just a little to get the round to toggle over, but I really would like to get this done without using the dremel.

The saga continues...

[Rik]

If you haven't already, I'd contact LWD before removing metal. They have a pretty good reputation for service.

Rik