As promised in my intro, here's another New Guy question....
Background
- I load on a Dillon 550
- I purchased the press in 2012-2013 when ammo supplies were tight and promptly got overrun with work, life and dad responsibilities so I'm really just digging in now...
- As component supply was just as bad as OEM ammo back in 2012/2013, I picked up what I could as I traveled and had a supply of Berry 115gr RN bullets, some mixed head stamp/once-fired brass and Power Pistol powder
- From: https://www.berrysmfg.com/faq#FAQ1 I have a top end velocity of 1,250 fps for these bullets
- From Hornady 9th, pg 771, 115gr RN bullet over Power Pistol has a charge range from 4.8gr@1,000 fps to 6.7gr@1,250 fps
- I want to build a single load which works safely in all my 9mm pistols
- I loaded up 10 rounds/pistol (all case gauged fine) and took them to the range recently.
- all fired fine, no strange report/recoil, no FTF/FTE
- I had marked the primers with a purple sharpie so I could ID them from the other empties on the range floor and I collected/bagged all the marked empties I could after each pistol and placed in a marked bag with the pistol used to fire them.
Load:
- Berry 115gr RN @ 0.356 #19355
- Power Pistol @ 5.6gr ( +- 1,100 fps per Hornday 9th, pg 771)
- Primer WSP
- COAL 1.100"
When I got home and inspected them, I noticed a couple of things:
- the primer strikes all looked good IMO - no flat primers or cratered primer strikes
- the cases fired thru the Walther PPQ/ H&K P30 all seemed to have a bottle neck shape to them now (like a 357sig). The cases all seem to bottleneck at roughly the same place.
- none of the empty cases fired from the PPQ/P30 drop all the way into a Wilson Case Gauge
- the cases fired thru the Sig 226 do not 'bottle neck' and look like a straight wall cartridge
- all but one of the Sig fired cases plunk into the case gauge. One doesn't quite plunk and sits just a bit proud of all the way in
Questions:
- Given no cycling issues and primers looking ok, is the 'bottle necking' of the cases in the P30/PPQ indicative of pressure issues or is it maybe caused by another issue? Neither of these pistols have many rounds thru them and are effectively brand new
- Can I use the bottle necked brass again or are they best placed in the recycle bin
If the bottlenecking is due to pressure issues in the PPQ/P30, I'll reduce the Powder charge and run the test again. I'm at a loss for what else it may be hence the question....
I'll add pix from my phone
PPQ case not plunking into case gauge
PPQ Cases- the cases all measure roughly 0.390 and then ‘neck down’ to roughly .38 at the case mouth
Load data
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