With the first competition of the new "season" next Saturday (1st September, the first day of spring Down Under) I had 650 rounds of 9mm ammo loaded and chamber dropped a few weeks ago. As the competition is one day IPSC and one day Speed on Tuesday I spent several hours at the range practicing with my 9mm 1911 Kimber and fine tuning the sights. On Wednesday I stripped the pistol down and gave it a good clean and a bit of lubrication.

Thursday two new 10 round 9mm magazines arrived by courier, so at lunchtime I grabbed the new mags and 50 rounds of the ammo calling into the range for my afternoon break.

Loading both mags I set myself up, loaded the pistol and proceeded to function check it was working correctly. First round chambered and fired, second round hung up on the feed ramp.

Checking the offending round I saw that the projectile had been pushed back into the case quite a bit by the feed ramp. The rest of the magazine fired off without a problem but with the second mag I had three more hang up with the bullet pushed inwards.

After getting home tonight I went out to the shed and tried to load up some dummy rounds to play with the mags a little bit. That's when I found that my just loaded dummy rounds were also pushing projectiles back into the case. Obviously the crimp was not strong enough to hold the rounds securely in the case!

Now the lock ring on the crimp die was still tight and the adjustment knob, set in place with locktite also had not moved. But after loosening the lock ring and turning the die down rounds are now crimping properly and running through the pistol.

And I have also discovered that one of the new mags will only just take 10 rounds withthe top round failing to feed properly. It is really a 9 round mag with incorrect markings. I'm not sure why as the other three mags of this brand are very reliable with 10 rounds.

I have run the rest of the 50 function test rounds through the crimp die again and will test fire them tomorrow.

Just as well I decided to function check everything again, as I would not have had a very good two days next weekend with badly crimped ammo. In the meantime I now have 600 rounds of 9mm to run through the crimp die again before next Friday.

__________________
View from down under

Not the biggest of a problem. But I had some powder caking up in one of my dillon powder measures. I also had, years ago, don't know how some cases where there were empty shells loaded. Primer only. I luckily caught those.

Now with that you would have a bad couple of days or worse. Primer would be enough to push the bullet into the barrel, next round fires. In competition in rapid fire no way to feel/hear a squib in time to stop....loo down into each chamber before seating the bullet.

Good luck!

Using the crimp die to secure the bullets in the case is not a good idea. Too much of a crimp affects accuracy, if the case is properly sized, holding the bullet with a heavy crimp is not needed. The problem is that there is a lot of variation in the thickness of 9mm brass. I've addressed the problem by using a U-Die which sizes the case smaller than the stock forming die. Then I crimp the flare to just flush. Every "keyholing" round has been traced back to too much crimp. The U-die is cheap since it's a standard Lee die that is machined undersized. Lee Undersized Carbide Sizing Die 9mm Luger - MPN: 90313

__________________
Minimize the variables

I have to admit that in final testing yesterday grouping at ranges past 25 yards was concerning and I did wonder about the effects of the extra crimp.

An undersized 9mm die is on the list of things I have to pick up from Midway when I am in the US. Pity the do not make one for .45 Colt as I recently had some issues with that calibre when loading for my 1866 Yellowboy replica, but a .45 ACP would also come in handy.

__________________
View from down under

Maybe you could use the .45 ACP one for the .45 Colt too?

Just curious..........

what weight/type bullets are you using for your matches?

Are they seated at least 50% of the bullets length into the case?

I found that a "Long OAL" with a light 115gr jacket can be problematic in some weapons.
Usually a 124gr or longer work ok, due to the longer bullet.

Glad that most of the new magazines worked and the ammo will be corrected for the up coming match.
Nothing worse than a bad feed that does not even let you pull the trigger.
I hate them even worse than an ejection problem, however neither is good.

Tight groups.

ThT’s what I was thinking

__________________
View from down under

I’m using 124 gn projectiles seated a little long to compensate for the .38 Super mags I’ve been using. I did try to seat the bullets to normal 9mm length but accuracy suffered so I went back to the longer OAL.

While I did get the new mags to function I will not be using them this weekend. I know all the old mags will function and will want to run more than 3 mag fulls through each mag before I will commit to them in competition. (Would do the same if they were carry mags too. At least 10 jam free cycles before I would commit to them).

I have run all the ammo through the crimp die again set up on my Lee Turret press. Did it all in one sitting after work Sunday evening.

I still intend to get some Wilson 10 round 9mm mags when I am in the US.

__________________
View from down under

Kiwi Cop
When i had the same bullet push problem with 9mm hand loads I went to taper crimp. At a case mouth O.D. of .377" the bullets stayed tight in my 9mm pistols.

Good Luck And hope your competitions go well. I expect they will because of the dedication and practice that you put into it.
Jim