Reloading Results

[PhillyB]

Hi everyone. My last few posts were about my recent reloading adventures. I figured a follow up would be a good idea.

32-20 worked beautifully. 115 grain solid lead bullets, .3cc dipper of Unique, Starline brass, Winchester primers.

38 Special did not go as well. 140 grain JHP Sierra bullet, .5cc dipper of Unique, Remington brass, Winchester primers. Pretty much sqib loads. Bullet sometimes makes it out of the barrel, 4/10 times it would get stuck in the barrel. Gonna unload all of this batch, get some Accurate #5 and try again.

 

[nortac]

See my reply to your other post, Unique powder was not your problem, I use it in .38 spl. loads all the time.

 

[PhillyB]

See my reply to your other post, Unique powder was not your problem, I use it in .38 spl. loads all the time.

How much do you normally use? I used a Lee .5cc dipper, which equals out to 4.6grains.

 

[HARMON]

I agree with nortac, powder is not the problem unless it became contaminated somehow between the last time you used it and now. More likely would be a primer issue or perhaps to weak of a crimp.

 

[nortac]

My last loads were 5.4 gr. of Unique topped with 158 gr. JHPs. But 4.6 gr.s should not result in a squib load. The Lyman 46th Ed. starting load for a 140 gr. JHP is 4.3 gr.

 

[PhillyB]

I agree with nortac, powder is not the problem unless it became contaminated somehow between the last time you used it and now. More likely would be a primer issue or perhaps to weak of a crimp.

Primers look ok, but I am seeing unburned powder. Not a lot, but some.

Crimp is exactly the same as factory.

 

[nortac]

A small amount of unburnt powder is not unusual with Unique.

 

[HARMON]

Looks like a primer issue given the fact you said that the powder was well kept.

 

[HARMON]

A small amount of unburnt powder is not unusual with Unique.

Sometimes it is hard to distinguish unburned powder from the all the residue unique leaves too lol.
I was talking about a significant amount of unburned powder though.

 

[ColtRevolver]

I agree Unique ain't your problem. I could toss all my other powders in the trash and do all of my handgun loading and some rifle loading with Unique.

 

[Ricksplace]

I read your other post too. I think you need to weigh your powder charges. The bases of the two bullets in your pic look pretty carbonned up, a characteristic of low charges of unique. It shouldn't do that at 4.6gr. You may have a faulty dipper, giving you a lighter charge than you expect.

 

[Ad Astra]

Hm. I love and use dippers, but always use a scale first.

"Trust, but verify."

AA

 

[nortac]

I read your other post too. I think you need to weigh your powder charges. The bases of the two bullets in your pic look pretty carbonned up, a characteristic of low charges of unique. It shouldn't do that at 4.6gr. You may have a faulty dipper, giving you a lighter charge than you expect.

These dippers usually have two sides and may not be the same measure on each side. If you inadvertently used the wrong side, you may have used less powder than you thought you have. Weigh your charges.

 

[PhillyB]

The dippers are actually the yellow plastic ones from Lee, one sided.

Still gonna check all components involved.

 

[PhillyB]

I got these. Hopefully this helps.

 

[PhillyB]

I'll also be going back and getting some standard primers as well.

 

[nortac]

I personally would not use magnum primers in .38 Spl. loads. Reloading data was derived using standard primers. While it might work, pressures would be an unknown. YMMV. I'd try another brand of brass and the CCI standard primers. How were the indentations on the primers from the firing pin with the "Squib" loads as compared to those that fired normally?

 

[PhillyB]

I personally would not use magnum primers in .38 Spl. loads. Reloading data was derived using standard primers. While it might work, pressures would be an unknown. YMMV. I'd try another brand of brass and the CCI standard primers. How were the indentations on the primers from the firing pin with the "Squib" loads as compared to those that fired normally?

All the primers look pretty much the same. They are overall more rounded at the tops than my factory ammo, even before firing.

 

[PhillyB]

I personally would not use magnum primers in .38 Spl. loads. Reloading data was derived using standard primers. While it might work, pressures would be an unknown. YMMV. I'd try another brand of brass and the CCI standard primers. How were the indentations on the primers from the firing pin with the "Squib" loads as compared to those that fired normally?

Come to think of it, the primers were a struggle to remove from the Winchester ammo I deprimed.

They seemed extremely soft, distorting before they would come out of the cases.

 

[nortac]

@PhillyB, what I was asking was about the primer indentation made by the firing pin on the squib loads, was it a lighter indentation than the others. If those primers were not fully seated, they could seat when struck by the firing pin, thereby cushioning the blow of the firing pin and maybe have a lighter indentation resulting possibly in erratic detonation of the primers. That the primers were difficult to remove or were deformed by their removal would be fairly normal and not indicative of any problem.