9mm plunk test eye opener

The reason I use a dedicated taper (or factory) crimp die is that traditionally almost all seating dies incorporate a roll crimp, some heavier than others. if you back the seating die sufficiently to barely close the flare on the case mouth, then it is possible to establish a very consistent taper crimp on each case with the “other” die. I use case checking gauges, made to minimum spec, because it’s not always convenient to disassemble my guns to check ammo, and I don’t like to randomly drop loaded rounds into a complete firearm while inside. YMMV depending on your dies and how they are adjusted as well as chamber specs of your gun(s). Also if loading the same ammo for multiple guns, chamber variations may be an issue.

Froggie
 
armorer951 said:
Seems like if they go "plunk" in your particular firearm's chamber the reloaded ammunition should feed and fire just fine. Am I missing something?
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No

It's just with the plunk tester/cartridge gauge. You can just leave it beside your loading bench and you don't have to have your gun stripped down to use barrel.

Is it a must to have? NO But many of us reloaders like our gadgets haha.
 
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Miracle Man said:
So I ordered a Hornady 9mm plunk tester and got it couple days ago. I decided to test her out and see what's up.
Click to expand...

OK, the plunk test is done with the barrel of your handgun removed from the gun and used to make sure the ammo that you loaded freely fits YOUR chamber. If it does, it should feed reliably.

What you bought was a cartridge gauge. A cartridge/round that fits freely and completely in that gauge, meets SAMMI specs for that caliber. The chamber in your firearm is made larger than a properly dimensioned cartridge.

I'm not sure why, but the 9 mm cartridge seems to have a lot of variance in case rim diameter, depending upon source. That can cause gauging problems as you noted in the OP, but the case rim isn't inside the chamber. I've found that a round whose rim goes about half way into the gauge will absolutely work. I don't recall any malfunctions caused by the rim diameter.
 
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I'm far away from a pistolsmith or barrel expert. But I'm fairly convinced the chamber on my Kimber Micro9 is tighter that the one on my New and awesome Sig Sauer P365.

I put the Sig thru it's first test fire this morning. And I took a half dozen of the reloaded rounds that were just barely not seating with me. I loaded 3 in a Sig mag and 3 in a Kimber mag. The Sig blew right thru them zero issues. The Kimber failed to chamber firrst round on racking the slide, had to use forward assist - palm of my left hand. And it failed to go fully into battery on last round of the 3.

I know from many years of high powered rifle reloading that the leade/throats/freebore in rifles do vary greatly from one manufacturer to another. So I'm guessing the Kimber has less throat than Sig.
 
WR Moore said:
OK, the plunk test is done with the barrel of your handgun removed from the gun and used to make sure the ammo that you loaded freely fits YOUR chamber. If it does, it should feed reliably.

What you bought was a cartridge gauge. A cartridge/round that fits freely and completely in that gauge, meets SAMMI specs for that caliber. The chamber in your firearm is made larger than a properly dimensioned cartridge.

I'm not sure why, but the 9 mm cartridge seems to have a lot of variance in case rim diameter, depending upon source. That can cause problems as you noted in the OP, but the case rim isn't inside the chamber. I've found that a round whose rim goes about half way into the gauge will absolutely work. I don't recall any malfunctions caused by the rim diameter.
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Thanks

I'm learning. I'm still a noob at the semi-auto reloading business.
 
Most of my semi-autos can be field stripped in a minute or less (Masada is closer to 30 seconds Ruger P90 is near 4 minutes). If my handloads plunk in the gun's barrel, I can be confident of 100% chambering. My Masada and my Taurus G3 have the tightest chambers, my Ruger and FMK are "looser", and my 9mm Tokerev is the largest and I can and often do, load .358"+ cast bullets, in mixed brass that chamber freely...

I do not "crimp" any of my semi-auto handloads. I just deflare with my deflaring die (aka "taper crimp die). I do not measure case mouths post deflaring, that's what my plunk test is for. These are my methods and have worked quite well for many years and many thousands of rounds of 32 ACP, 380 ACP, 9mm and 45 ACP. If one chooses to purchase and use a cartridge gauge, sort brass, trim brass and measure "crimps", cool! Do it. My guns rarely have a feeding or firing failure and I have produced some very accurate and reliable/consistent handloads...

I have never measured the rim thickness nor rim diameter on any 9mm case I've ever handled, just no need.
 
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Thanks everybody for all your input, I'm learning. So I've done a little digging. I just went and found one of the worst rounds that is sticking up a good deal in test gauge. Doesn't even come close to fully seating. It will chamber and drop free in Sig barrel.

It will not fully chamber or drop free from Kimber barrel when it's dropped in/plunked.

I've measured and remeasured the suspect round over and over again. I've got a Rem 115gr FMJ for comparison. The factory round OAL is 1.127. The reload that won't chamber is seated to OAL of 1.129 also an 115gr FMJ with very similar profiles/ogives.

The only difference I can find is factory round measures .376 barely behind mouth of case. The suspect reload measures .380.

Perhaps I bulged it while using the Lee bullet seating die?

Like I posted nearly all of the recent reloads I did performing bullet seating to OAL in Lee die with die backed out to apply zero crimp. And then crimping in Redding taper crimp die all set fully in the cartridge gauge.

The Kimber chamber and test gauge must be tighter than the Sig ?

Thanks again everybody !
 
Hardest to load and chamber in my opinion is 357 Sig. Had to remove the decapping pin and run several through to chamber in a Sig 226. Be careful not to push the neck back. Makes a nice little bludge.
 
Plunk Test

I have shot .380, 9mm, and .45 ACP pistols for about 55 years and never heard of a plunk test. What is it?
 
Miracle Man said:
Perhaps I bulged it while using the Lee bullet seating die?

Like I posted nearly all of the recent reloads I did performing bullet seating to OAL in Lee die with die backed out to apply zero crimp. And then crimping in Redding taper crimp die all set fully in the cartridge gauge.

The Kimber chamber and test gauge must be tighter than the Sig ?

Thanks again everybody !
Click to expand...

I tried to find a link to post, but I couldn't find it. It has always been my understanding that Lee combo seating/crimping dies apply a roll crimp to revolver rounds and a taper crimp to auto rounds. That, IMHO reduces the need for a separate operation unless you are loading bullets with no cannelure for a revolver.

Also my understanding was that if if crimping were to create a bulge, it would be at the neck end. The incident I spoke about in posts above had a bulge at the base end.
 
Dziadzi#1 said:
I have shot .380, 9mm, and .45 ACP pistols for about 55 years and never heard of a plunk test. What is it?
Click to expand...

I don't doubt it in the least. The more I read the advice on here. The more I've learned through investigation on my own, the more I'm convinced my Kimber micro9 just has an extra tight chamber.

I reloaded several boxes of 45 acp probably 2 years+ ago and didn't have any issues IIRC. Or very, very, few anyways. With my new Sig it's running just fine with my reloads.

I read in some thread on here I believe? About the new chamber reamers at the factory vs. older well broke in ones. And the new reamers cut a smaller dimension chamber than one that's hundreds of chambers in. Perhaps I just got a barrel with new reamer?
 
If I have a clean, proper length, smooth case with a undamaged mouth;

I have had no cases fired in my pistols that did not feed c/o the last 1/3 of the case
unless damaged by the extractor.

99% of my fail to chamber or go into battery in my pistols has been due to the
front 1/3 of the case, be it by not enough crimp to get to .380" or less, or
trying to seat a bullet that is over .3565" in diameter, in mixed cases.

Coated bullets at .357" might work but I could not get a coated .358" 125gr
to go home in my C9, 3.5" pistol.
Those samples ended up being loaded in my 38 special cases.
 
I found mu 45 ACP cartridge gauge! I was looking through some older die sets (first Lee set 45 ACP, replaced by a newer Hornady set). In the box was a cartridge gauge wrapped in an oil soaked cloth. Just fer grins I got out some of my "Just In Case" ammo (230 gr FMJ over Bullseye)) and tried some in the gauge. Every JIC round chambers easily/cleanly in my 3, 45 ACP guns, but about 25% failed the gauge, standing anywhere from mebbe .003" to .007". Wrapped the gauge up, put it back in the box and put the box back in my "old dies" drawer...
 
Wife and I shoot many rounds in competition all from range brass. Everything gets roll sized prior to reloading. All those problems disappeared. Unless it's your own pickups one never knows. 40 is also notorious for issues.
 
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