Powder coated 45 ACP not fully chambering

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Brianma65

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I have some .225 g LRN PC cartridges that I recently made, and Somme of them will not completely chamber.
I have to push the slide the lay 1/8 of an inch.
And a few of them ,I can not manually close the slide on,are difficult to extract.

I ran all the bullets trough a .45 acp resizer die , before loading.

Is it possible, that my new Spring field RO 1911, has a tight chamber?
 
That why we use the plunk test before loading a bucket of ammo.

Do you have a Lee Factory Crimp die you can run the loaded rounds through? That might solve the problem.

You might have a little bulge at the case mouth. maybe you need a touch more crimp.
 
Sounds more like a short chamber and fat nose on the bullet.
Sizing after coating reduced the diameter of the bearing surface but the bearing surface is a little longer now as the coating made it a bit fatter a bit further forward. Do the uncoated bullets sized to the same diameter and loaded to the same length chamber?

The answer to using these is probably to seat them deeper with care taken not to overdo it as far as increasing pressures excessively.
 
Try setting your resizing die a little lower - almost touching the shell holder rim.

Run one of the (loaded) cartridges that won't quite fit through the resizing die.

Hard to see how it would have anything to do with the powder coating itself.
 
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I did a plunk test on some but not all.
I came to OAL, using calipers and measuring the entire cartridge.

I have them crimped, so don’t think I can sit them any deeper.

All I have are RBCS carbide dies.
 
Brianma65 said:
I did a plunk test on some but not all.
I came to OAL, using calipers and measuring the entire cartridge.

I have them crimped, so don’t think I can sit them any deeper.

All I have are RBCS carbide dies.
Click to expand...
I’m not a reloading guy but I don’t think the depth at which the bullet is sitting is the problem , most likely the sizing at the top of the case where the bullet gets crimped . Maybe the powder coat didn’t allow some of them to be crimped enough
 
Brianma65 said:
I did a plunk test on some but not all.
I came to OAL, using calipers and measuring the entire cartridge.

I have them crimped, so don’t think I can sit them any deeper.

All I have are RBCS carbide dies.
Click to expand...

1) How did you determine (not measure) what OAL would work in the gun before you settled on a magical number? How to determine OAL

*Note: If your bullet won't easily press/collapse into the case take it over to the press and starting at max OAL keep shortening the round until it plunks a spins freely.

2) Does your sizing die kiss the shellplate?

3) What's the crimp measurement at the case mouth? Their should be little to no crimp, basically you want to just remove the flare.

4) Show us a few rounds that won't chamber.
 
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Hrsplit said:
I’m not a reloading guy but I don’t think the depth at which the bullet is sitting is the problem , most likely the sizing at the top of the case where the bullet gets crimped . Maybe the powder coat didn’t allow some of them to be crimped enough
Click to expand...

Why not? What happens if a round is too long?

P.S. PC won't stop a bullet from being crimped.
 
A difficult to extract round is hitting the rifeling, therefore oal is too long. I beat my head against a wall on this one . Check the lead on the ones that extract hard. Bet you will see rifeling marks. Don't take the oal the bullet supplier gives as gospel, the gun will tell you what it wants.

Corey
 
CoreyMac said:
A difficult to extract round is hitting the rifeling, therefore oal is too long. I beat my head against a wall on this one . Check the lead on the ones that extract hard. Bet you will see rifeling marks. Don't take the oal the bullet supplier gives as gospel, the gun will tell you what it wants.

Corey
Click to expand...

This.

OAL's from manuals/data etc. are completely useless.
 
CoreyMac said:
A difficult to extract round is hitting the rifeling, therefore oal is too long. I beat my head against a wall on this one . Check the lead on the ones that extract hard. Bet you will see rifeling marks. Don't take the oal the bullet supplier gives as gospel, the gun will tell you what it wants.

Corey
Click to expand...

I was lucky someone told me exactly this when I started loading. Campro recommends an OAL of 1.250” with their 230gr but in my 1911 the bullets hit the rifling until around 1.235-1.240 so I load to 1.230” OAL
 
FoxAlpha said:
I was lucky someone told me exactly this when I started loading. Campro recommends an OAL of 1.250” with their 230gr but in my 1911 the bullets hit the rifling until around 1.235-1.240 so I load to 1.230” OAL
Click to expand...

Just so we're clear the manuals/data aren't recommending an OAL, they're simply stating what OAL they used when they tested the load. Hence warnings like this one found on CamPro data:

"Never exceed the maximum load. Ballistic data varies depending on many factors (types of fire arm, components used, assembly and
reloading techniques). Because we have no control over components and equipment to be used, this information must be regarded as a
guideline only with no express or no implied responsibility and no warranty as to results obtained through its use."

Remember, many of the loads in manuals/data were tested in a universal receiver, like this:

[youtube]kWXRuzbS7ZY[/youtube]
 
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I got the data from hodgedon , I did a plunk test on a few,that were good, so I did a few hundred.
I used a slight crimp, so can these still be seated a bit deeper?
 
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You may be able to seat deeper, or not. I'd try some and see. If it starts peeling/shaving PC off there's an issue. Even if it does they can likely still be fired (once the shaved/loose PC is removed) but don't expect them to be accurate. They may seat further without issue as well.

When I load I tend to do 1 round and a plunk test. Then 3-5 dummy rounds with no powder or primers and cycle them through the gun in the basement to check OAL, crimp, etc.. Then 100ish rounds (a box full) and go to the range and shoot them. Then I'll load bulk from there.
 
I tried 230 gr polymer coated bullets (Xmetal) in my 1911; regardless of the COAL and crimp, they never did feed well. Before and since I have loaded all kinds of light, heavy, FMJ, Hollow point, copperplated, SWC bullets with zero issues.

I have had similar issues with PC coated bullets in my .40. Not a fan.
 
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