So, my buddy calls me and tells me that some of my reloaded 45 ACP rounds did something weird.
First of all, here is what the reloads are:
- mixed brass, all large primer
- Winchester primers
- 4.8 grains of bullseye
- Standard brand LSWC, 200 grain bullets
- Overall length of 1.250 if I recall correctly
- loaded on a single stage press 50 rounds at a time with a separate powder measure
Here is what happened. My buddy and his brother were out shooting his brother's new 1911 earlier this week when the temp was in the single digits. Everything seemed to function fine.. Gun cycled and fed normally with no abnormalities noticed. My buddy was picking up the brass after and he found what appeared to be bullets that they just shot just feet from where they were shooting. The bullets look normal except there are rifling marks on them to indicate they have been shot. Otherwise, they are not deformed like they hit anything.
So how in the heck is this possible? If I shorted the powder, you would think that gun would not cycle properly. But it cycled fine.
The only thing I can think of is related to the Standard bullets. The lube on them was bery brittle and in some cases broke and fell out of the lube groove in the bullets before being loaded into the cases. I did not think it would be a problem so I just used them. Now thinking about this scenario, could the lack of lube allow the gases to get past the bullet such that the bullet still get expelled, but at a much lower velocity??? Not sure if this even sounds reasonable.
Has anyone else seen anything like this? Clearly this does not sound like a squibb load since the gun cycled and fed and fired everytime.
Thanks for any input...
Mark
First of all, here is what the reloads are:
- mixed brass, all large primer
- Winchester primers
- 4.8 grains of bullseye
- Standard brand LSWC, 200 grain bullets
- Overall length of 1.250 if I recall correctly
- loaded on a single stage press 50 rounds at a time with a separate powder measure
Here is what happened. My buddy and his brother were out shooting his brother's new 1911 earlier this week when the temp was in the single digits. Everything seemed to function fine.. Gun cycled and fed normally with no abnormalities noticed. My buddy was picking up the brass after and he found what appeared to be bullets that they just shot just feet from where they were shooting. The bullets look normal except there are rifling marks on them to indicate they have been shot. Otherwise, they are not deformed like they hit anything.
So how in the heck is this possible? If I shorted the powder, you would think that gun would not cycle properly. But it cycled fine.
The only thing I can think of is related to the Standard bullets. The lube on them was bery brittle and in some cases broke and fell out of the lube groove in the bullets before being loaded into the cases. I did not think it would be a problem so I just used them. Now thinking about this scenario, could the lack of lube allow the gases to get past the bullet such that the bullet still get expelled, but at a much lower velocity??? Not sure if this even sounds reasonable.
Has anyone else seen anything like this? Clearly this does not sound like a squibb load since the gun cycled and fed and fired everytime.
Thanks for any input...
Mark