Newbie here. My reloads for 45acp are getting a light strike on primers for my 185g.HP/ O.A.L 1.200" First shot went bang.....second ...click.....nothing waited 30sec. then rack slide and tried third shot...click...nothing waited again and ejected round. Firing pin issues? The thing is I tried my 230g./O.A.L 1.260" next and all fired without any hiccups? Thanks in advance for any advice.

First thing is check is to do a plunk test with both rounds - the 185 verses the 230 grain. See if the former is sitting deeper in the chamber. Could be a case length issue or the 185's have too much crimp allowing the shell to head space too deep in the chamber.

+1 to mother.

Headspace too deep was my first thought as well. More often than not, it's always the first thought that's correct.

To add to mother's post you may also be seating the 185 grain bullets too deep. So much so that instead of crimping on the flank of the bullet you are crimping into the Ogive. That will reduce the diameter of the crimp at the critical point where the case headspaces in the chamber.

Crimping .45 ACP???? Am I missing something?

A great many people taper-crimp or factory-crimp (as opposed to roll-crimp) auto pistol cartridges.

To expand on robertrwalsh's post, I do a taper crimp on semi auto cartridges to help eliminate bullet setback issues when feeding to the chamber from the magazine..

Also may want to check and make sure primer is all the way seated.

A hangfire is a bang AFTER the trigger is pulled and you hear the click of the hammer. You have a misfire. I agree, seating depth is where to start.
David

It is most probably seating depth and/or too much taper crimp. Another possibility is primer seating. If the primer is not fully seated it may be driven forward by primer impact and that absorbs the impact and the primer does not ignite. The primer needs to be seated firmly to the bottom of the pocket.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

+1;
on the above post.

Light primer strikes are almost always due to the slide not going all the way forward on the gun. The light strikes are also usually off center. You might think the slide is 100% forward after the misfire but if there is enough resistance to keep the slide from going forward all the way, often the momentum of the striker is enough to push that slide the last fraction of an inch.

The cause is usually the shoulder of the bullet getting hung up in the throat of the barrel (past the chamber and before the start of the rifling). That is provided you have a clean breech face, extractor cavity, good recoil spring and you aren't "riding the slide closed". Use the slingshot method of closing the slide instead of the slide lock (using the slide lock as a slide release tends to make you limp-wristed and absorbs the momentum of the slide trying to close into the gun).

Here's a quick vid I made trying to show the effect on my M&P 40 FS.

Yep, a lot of folks call it "crimping", but that's a misnomer. A whole bunch of problems arise when a new reloader "crimps" 45 ACP ammo, as this thread indicates. We should start calling the operation "de-flaring"...

If this is working for you, great! But neck tension should be enough to keep bullets in place for semi-autos. Even a hair too much "crimp" will cause problems...

It would be great to know what firearm is being used.

Sometimes it is the gun and not the reloads.

We have had some great discussions about FTF with some models.

So is it a Smith or another brand and how much has it been shot and how old is the pistol?

Model number helps and how it is cleaned and lubricated.

BLM

Did you trim your brass? 45 ACP headspaces from the front edge of the case. If your brass is too short, your rounds will chamber too deeply, which can cause the issue you describe.

Mike

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NRA Certified Pistol Inst.

Agree 100% with mikld and Dwalt. Crimping auto cartridges is a misnomer. Only the flare produced by the expander die should be removed. No actual crimp at all. If fact crimping can easily destroy good case neck tension and create setback issues.

In revolvers with heavy loads and cannelured bullets, a firm roll crimp into the cannelure is needed to prevent "bullet jump." Totally different from setback.

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Vietnam, 72-73

Thanks for all the advice.... a lot to absorb. Model is a Smith Wesson Shorty 45....I'm only putting a slight taper crimp .471" using a cartridge gauge to check. This is all new brass. I cleaned with Tetra, then a light oil also Tetra with just a very small drop on slide. Is that to much? Someone also said I might be limp-wristing? I checked primers, they are seated firmly. I did the plunk test with both reloads and they look the same as far as depth. If it is seating depth, what O.A.L should I look at? Thanks again.... I really appreciate all of your knowledge.

That .471" is good if it's measured right on the case mouth. That measurement would be lower if it was deep seated so your good. I don't use a cartridge gauge. When you did the "plunk test" did they sound the same? I rotate the cartridge around also to get a feel for it's fit.

I generally load my auto cartridges as long as I can but still pass the plunk test and still not exceed the max COAL.

.

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Waiting for the break of day

On the plunk test, what am I listening for? Just the same sound? sorry I'm new to all this. On my reload of 185g. HP Im using my nosler reloading manual which shows an O.A.L of 1.200" what length should I start at? Thanks for your time.

You want to hear a nice crisp metal to metal clink (the brass case mouth cleanly hitting the chamber's headspacing rim) verses a dull thud (the bullet's ogive hitting the rifling).

Next time you load again try seating the bullet out more than needed & do the plunk test. You'll hear the difference (remove any case flaring first or you'll get misleading results) in the sound. Then slowly seat the bullet a little bit deeper each time, trying the plunk test inbetween, until you get the right sound. Also the cartridge should rotate around smoothly in the chamber once the depth is set.

.

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Waiting for the break of day

Yeah, taper crimp to .469-.471 at the case mouth, then plunk test.

Plunk test;

Attached Images

1plunk test1.jpg (20.6 KB, 48 views)

Have you tried a second strike, alot of times a second strike firing indicates primer too high and the first strike actually seated it all the way

There was an interesting article in Handloader a few months back that addressed this age old belief that rimless semi-auto cartridges headspace on the case mouth. They really don't. The headspace specifications in SAAMI for cartridges and chambers proscribe a minimum chamber length with an over tolerance. SAAMI additionally proscribes a maximum cartridge length with an under tolerance. The two dimensions are identical. What happens when an oversized chamber encounters an undersized cartridge case? Simple. The cartridge goes bang because it is held in position against the firing pin's blow by the extractor. There's the dirty little secret of rimless case headspace. They really don't headspace on the case mouth. On the other hand, if the hapless reloader cooks up rounds that are too long, by just a few thousandths of an inch, or if the bullet ogive hangs up on the rifling leade or a dirty chamber, the slide will not go completely forward. The firing pin might line up exactly, and the striker won't be cocked quite as far. Seems counter intuitive, but a too-long, or incompletely seated cartridge might induce a light primer strike. The plunk test might indicate trouble, but remember that it's done out of the pistol with no extractor in place. A better test would be to simple place a cartridge in a barrel's chamber (out of the pistol) and see if it fits flush with the barrel's breech face.

That is technically is not a hang fire but a misfire. If it goes on the 2nd or 3rd strike, it's you not seating the primers correctly. Push on it! The primer needs to bottom in the pocket. Limp wristing or the gun's lube, nothing to do with it. Yes it could be your crimp, but if the round is plunk testing, I doubt it.

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Thanks....I'm going to the range tomorrow to see if the problem has been corrected with the primers possibly not being seated all the way. I rechecked them all. I know, I have been corrected with it being a "misfire" and not a hang fire. I'm reading reloading manuals and learning from you guys everyday. I really appreciate everyone's knowledge and advice. This site is awesome

You did the right thing. It's good to wait when having a misfire because it may actually be a hang fire!

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

I read that article also and thought it was very good. I spot ckeck mine in the barrel but when fiddeling with a new combo/bullet I make some dummy rounds and rack them for function. It's a one time deal and I save one of the dummies in a little box for reference.

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Trucks and guns.

The only reasons I plunk test mine are to make sure the cases are being resized enough to easily chamber, or to see that the cartridge is actually headspacing on the shoulder of a SWC.

I became aware of the SAAMI specs for both cartridge and chamber back in the 1970's. That's when I stopped trimming brass meant to be used in handguns.

I expect ggibson511960 will be roasted for even suggesting that semi-autos headspace with the extractor instead of the case mouth.

Well, at least three of us discovered the complexities of headspace.

Having exploded a myth, I agree that the "plunk" test is a good idea to find reloads that won't chamber easily for a number of reasons. It bugs me little that you cannot resize rimmed cases all the way down to the grove, a necessity of providing grip room for the shell holder. If somebody would make a collet resizing die, similar to Lee's neck sizing die, that would resize rimmed cases all the way to the groove, I would be first in line to buy one. It would have to be heavy duty, but there is a market. I used to get annoyed by hot .357 reloads that would occasionally hand up on revolver cylinders. That was back in my hot-headed youth when max boom-boom was always required. Bent rims on both rimmed and rimless cases are also a peeve. I've gotten around that one by using a Forster Coax with its clever retracting shell holder. It will swallow anything. I've spent too much time driving bent cases in and out of tight shell holders.