wanneroo wrote:Interesting. Usually I find Glocks are very generous about such things and CZs like short OAL 9mm.
One thing I would do is check your chamber, there could be a ring of brass in there or some buildup which is giving you issues.
Forcing the slide home with a mallet I would say is a no no. I had a Glock jam like that one time and of course finger off the trigger, put a nub of the front slide along an edged hard surface and push down to rack the round out.
I imagine we are talking 9mm here, what sort of OAL are you running and what sort of bullet? What case gauge are you using?
Macross wrote:Yes the 34 is 9mm. We did try and do your trick of putting the slide against the bench and pushing down to rack it out.. but it was stuck real good. Range officer grabbed the mallet, gave it a few gentle taps forward and pulled the trigger... it extracted ok. but you are right, i would have thought that was a no no... but it worked.
OAL for my rounds is 28.4mm and im using Tigershark 123gr copper plated round nose bullets. All my rounds go through a Dillon 9mm case gauge.
The pistol is new and only fired a few hundred rounds. It has had two good cleans and no build up in the chamber. Im just wondering if maybe its throat is a bit on the small side and dosnt like reused cases??
Macross wrote:Hi Guys... thanks for these replies... some great info there and some things to think about.
Wanneroo, I am reloading on a Dillon Square Deal, so not able to change out the Dies as it uses proprietary ones just for this press.
ob1, Im using ADI powder, specifically 4.0gr of ASP450. I've found this to burn very cleanly and have never found unburnt powder in the frame of either my CZ or the Glock. Before reloading, i would often find granules of unburnt powder from factory ammo in my CZ, but have not seen any since switching to reloading and using the APS450. Also, doing the plunk test on the barrel has always been fine.
Diamond Jim, I have been gathering brass from the range so its a mixed bag. I am wondering if i may be reusing some brass that has a bulge in the base and even though its passing the case gauge, it may be too big for the glock... not all the time but just the odd round. As I mentioned, my CZ seems to eat anything ive put through it. Perhaps the new Glock is a bit picky.
I've only got the stock barrel in it. I have run a bunch of factory ammo through it and its been fine. The three times Ive had the slide lock up on me has been with my reloads. So I think I can safely say the issue is with my ammo and the Glock. Ive got some virgin brass that i was using to make comp loads with. Perhaps i will switch to that unfired brass and try that in the glock for a while.
Tubs wrote: I have given up on my square deal powder thrower - it was throwing anywhere from .9 to 4 gn of aps 450 so I got three or four instances where the bullet was only half chambered,
Macross wrote:Wanneroo, I am reloading on a Dillon Square Deal, so not able to change out the Dies as it uses proprietary ones just for this press.
Macross wrote:Thanks again for all this input guys. Its really started my cogs going and I have tried to go back over everything to find a cause. I think this morning I have worked out what's happened. Early on when i started reloading, i was case gauging and plunk testing my rounds... I was being over cautious and double checking everything as I was learning. I started to find that range pickup brass would sometimes be slightly too tight on the gauge but plunk test fine on my CZ Shadow 2 barrel. This lead me to the conclusion that the throat of my CZ was generous and a case that was boarder line in the gauge was fine to shoot.... IN MY CZ. So i started to let slightly tight rounds pass the gauge and into ammo supply.
wanneroo wrote:I've never been big on the "plunk test". OK the ammo fits, well what if it doesn't?
What is nice about reloading is that we can tailor ammo to specific guns if need be.
That said, with most everything I have, I load to SAAMI spec and the case gauge. Reason being whatever ammo I grab, whatever gun I grab it needs to work. If I have a bunch of 300 blackout rifles or 9mm pistols or whatever, everything needs to interchange with one another. Even if I make something custom like the hot 9mm I make for the Uzi and the Suomi, it still needs to work in all of the 9mm pistols.
A proper case gauge is always going to give more data points on where the case is hanging up if it doesn't fit. I case gauge every single round I make and if it doesn't fit I reject it(make sure you keep your case gauge clean too). Even with all the diligent work I do, I reject anywhere from 1 out of every 100 to 200 rounds on average. It could be the bullet got seated funky, could be some issue with the rim, a bulge in the brass that made it through the resizing or some other defect. The bullet gets pulled, powder gets dumped back in the hopper if possible and brass gets discarded.
All that has served me well as I don't have jams in my guns whatever it is I'm doing. I go to these pistol matches like the one I went to last Saturday and there are always a couple of guys that have multiple jams every stage, racking endless live rounds onto the ground. I have asked in the past if they case gauge their ammo and not a single one has ever said they do. Clearly they've got something going on with their reloading but wont spend the $20-$50 for a decent case gauge to check their work.
Macross wrote:
Yeah really good points. No more sneaking rounds past that fail the gauge cause they fit one of my guns. As I am newly returning to shooting after handing all my guns in in 1996, i only had one 9mm pistol initially... My processes worked fine, for one gun, but adding a second of the same caliber has uncovered a bad decision to allow slightly large ammo through. Looks like my bullet puller will start to earn its keep, as I seem to get a fat round every couple of hundred rounds or so from range pickup brass.