Jack Suber Posted August 18, 2003 Share Posted August 18, 2003 Howdy, During the last couple of months, I have been experimenting with 165 grn JHPs in my STI Edge (I have been shooting 180s). I really like the load I worked up using Speer and Winchester brass. So, I decided to go ahead and use them for a local match. I took my "new" Speer and Winchester nickle brass (actually its once-fired) and loaded the same load I was using in the standard brass. I used the same tool head, OAL, charge, lot of bullets, primers, powder, etc. I took the loads out to chrono and practice a couple of days before the match. I was shocked to discover that about every 5th round key-holed. So, I took out the non-nickle brass rounds I had and these fired fine (very accurate). So, I figured I had a crimp problem or something. I went back and loaded new rounds in the nickle brass with a heavier crimp; lighter crimp; longer OAL; then a shorter OAL. Regardless of what I changed, the rounds loaded with nickle brass key-hole. Identical loads with standard brass will not. I am stumped. Any ideas? Could it be that the nickle brass is not getting a hard enough "pull" on the bullet during ignition? Crimp related? I can get by with my standard "practice" brass but I would like to use the pile of nickle brass I have. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Jack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexmoney Posted August 18, 2003 Share Posted August 18, 2003 What brand of bullet? Pull one and take a look...see if your crimp is cutting into the jacket...or if you are loosing any jacket material (maybe not enough belling, due to varience in the brass length?). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Suber Posted August 18, 2003 Author Share Posted August 18, 2003 Flex, They are Star 165 JHPS. I will take a look and make sure I am not cutting the jacket. Perhaps the crimp is crushing the bullet enough to deform it to where it will not fly straight???? Thanks for the reply. Jack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benny hill Posted August 18, 2003 Share Posted August 18, 2003 bad bullets, stick with zero or montana gold and things will be good again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chriss Grube Posted August 19, 2003 Share Posted August 19, 2003 Yep, Just found out the ammo problem I was having is from the star bullets. The bases of the bullets are all out of whack. Some mic .356 some are not round and mic at .357 and .358. Causes a bulge in the case just enough to cause a failure to feed the whole way. Called Chuck today and 5000 Zero's on there way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Habicht Posted August 19, 2003 Share Posted August 19, 2003 Every time I've had a bullet tumbling problem, it's been because of a too tight crimp.... When I adjust the crimp die now, I pull cartridges apart as I go; I tighten until I see a crimp in the bullet and then back off until it disappears... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gm iprod Posted August 19, 2003 Share Posted August 19, 2003 I test a whole bunch of bullets when the gun shop I work at was looking for a supplier. I found that Star and a couple of other brands have terrible consistancy problems. My boss suggested I get a sample from each manufacturer and two other samples from other retailers who sell those brands and see if there are any problems from batch to batch. He also wisely suggested that some may pick the batch they send you for testing. The best was Sierra, Hornady and Nosler. But we were looking for a more modestly priced supplier. Zero and Montana Gold were excellent. Star and a couple of other (who were much, much worse than Star) were not up to what my customers would want, or what I could sell them and then face them at the range. The price of Star bullets is exceptional, but I felt they were not cheap enough to make up the difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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