Recent content by SteveG48

It's been years since I loaded .32 ACP, but back when I did I'd occasionally get a slightly bulged case that wouldn't chamber. I just ran the loaded cartridge back through the sizing die, and the round would work just fine.

Fired 150 rounds of 9 mm and 100 rounds of .22 today. Did some loading yesterday- 124 grain 9 mm over 4.7 grains of Bullseye.

Update: The unrelated problem that I mentioned above was a broken extractor. During the last testing session on the original problem, I had a .22 case fracture when I fired. Most of the case stayed lodged in the chamber. The rear 1/8 inch, including the rim, took off for parts unknown, and...

I've often thought of upgrading from my 1/4 century old Square Deal to a 650. The one weakness of the SD, IMO, is the priming system. I know that the 650 uses a different priming system. How reliable is it? Do parts in it wear out quickly?

Agreed, but you need to buy by the case (around 4000 for 9 mm, 115 grain) for the really good prices. Note that their prices include shipping.

Thanks. This one is a real puzzler. That amount of powder should not have allowed a multi-bullet blocked barrel without a large kaboom. I'll be interested in the results of the flame test.

It's hard for me to imagine that a bad crimp or no crimp could cause this drastic a failure. When you pulled the bullets on the remaining rounds, did you weigh any of the charges? Did you check any of the recovered powder to see if it would ignite?

I wouldn't blame the loading data. With 3-5 bullets actually stuck in the barrel, something more than inaccurate data is involved. Either the powder went bad or little to no powder went into the cases. If there are any rounds left from that batch, pull the bullets and check the charge.

My worst "oops" came after 10s of thousands of rounds of .38 SP loaded on my Square Deal. It's not easy to do with a SD, and I'll never know for sure how it happened, but I loaded a substantial overcharge- maybe double. I didn't know it at the time, but I sure found out when I took that round...

Interesting! I'll try that. Meanwhile, I have another, unrelated problem with the gun. It'll be a couple days before I get it resolved, so I won't be able to do any more testing until next weekend. :(

Thanks, Wiley. I'll be ordering another mag. Ought to have one anyway.

Buying components in bulk, I load 9 mm JHP for a bit under 0.12/round. There's an awful lot of equipment that you can buy, but, IMO, it's not desirable to get carried away. In addition to components, the equipment that you must have includes: 1. Some kind of press. A single stage is fine to...

Thanks, Tom. I only have one mag for the pistol, so I haven't tried any others. It's a steel follower. The mag is clean and seems to have good spring tension, but that's something else for me to check again. Do you have any ideas on how it could cause this problem if the spring were weak...

Thanks, John. These are all good suggestions. I've already tried the cleaning to no avail. I'll re-check the firing pin, but the fact that all but the last round fire correctly suggests that that's not the problem. I think this is significant. The fact that the last round fires if you...

Thank you all. It's good to be here.