Springfield Armory has a new .22 bolt action rifle. It looks interesting from several perspectives. One, it’s a bolt action rimfire, so that has my attention immediately (I love bolt action rifles and I love rimfires). And two, it is being offered in both a composite stocked (read: Tupperware) competition version (something in which I have negative interest) and any of several grades of walnut. Fancy walnut…that works for me.
The Springfield Armory 2020 rimfire rifle stocked in what they call AAA walnut. It comes with a Picatinny rail for mounting a scope, or you can remove the rail and use conventional scope mounts.A view from the right. If that’s AAA walnut, I’m the Pope.Another shot of the Springfield 2020 rifle with fancier walnut and a Leupold scope. It is a good-looking rifle.
It’s the last part about the fancy walnut that has my attention. Springfield’s graded walnut runs from standard (they call it satin select) all the way up to AAA (or finely figured) walnut. That’s cool, as most manufacturers don’t give you a choice on the quality of the walnut figure. Judging by the photos on the Springfield website, I’d say they are grading their lumber way too generously; what they show as AAA walnut I would classify A grade stuff, but hey, it’s a start, and it’s a move in the right direction.
A Springfield 2020 rimfire rifle with satin select (or plain) walnut.As mentioned above, Springfield is also offering their new rifle with two versions of a composite stock. One is black, the other is a speckled charcoal affair.
The Springfield .22 with a black composite stock. These are on Gunbroker for as low as $389.
The Springfield 2020 .22 rifle wearing a sage wtih black webbing stock (their description, not mine).
I’ll be watching the Gunbroker.com and Gunsamerica.com listings. These rifles are already up on Gunbroker. When the listings that include photos of the actual rifles (and not just a standard print media photo) are up, I’ll pay attention. The gunshops will show the wood if it’s really good, and if it is, it’s likely I’ll pull the trigger (pardon the pun). If that happens, I’ll write about it here.
High end rimfire rifles appeal to me, and I own two or three that have exceptional wood. You can read about them here.
I promised a story on the Ruger No. 1 photo I shared a little while ago and this is it. It’s on my Ruger No. 1 chambered in .257 Weatherby. I’ll try to keep it short, but there’s a lot to this story. The bottom line up front: Ruger’s customer service is among the best in the business. They are one of two companies that all others should emulate (Leupold is the other). Ruger’s No. 1 single shot rifles are the most elegant rifles in the world. That’s a strong statement and you might disagree, but hey, it’s a free country and if you want to disagree, it’s okay by me. Go ahead and be wrong. I know that after seeing the photo at the top of this blog, you have to be wondering if the stock looks as good from the other side. The answer is yes.
The .257 Weatherby No. 1 from the starboard side. Red ped, exotic walnut, and a fabulous cartridge with a laser-like trajectory.
Back to the tale: Ruger has essentially discontinued the No. 1, but that’s okay. Inexpensive and tasteless rifles with black Tupperware stocks are all the rage now and if they float your boat, more power to you. But it’s not me. I own a few Ruger No. 1 rifles and their value has increased tenfold since I started collecting back in the 1970s. Not that I’m interested in selling; that’s not going to happen. I mention the No. 1 rifles’ appreciation just because…well, I’m not sure why. It makes me feel good, and that’s enough.
The .257 Weatherby cartridge. The parent cartridge was the .300 H&H Magnum. Roy Weatherby blew out the case with a rounded bottleneck, trimmed it back a bit, and voila, 4,000 feet per second. The cartridge is also known as the .257 Roy, to honor its creator, Roy Weatherby. Weatherby felt the .257 Weatherby cartridge was his finest creation.Solids made by Barnes work best in the .257 Weatherby. Jacketed bullets can distintegrate in flight due to velocity, aerodynamic heating, and rotational inertia, as evidenced by the tell-tale molten lead spiral seen on this 100-yard target.
The .257 Weatherby cartridge is brilliant. It’s one of the fastest in the world at around 4,000 feet per second, which creates a unique problem: If you do not load with the right projectiles, the bullets travel so fast they tend to disintegrate in flight. The Ruger No. 1 in .257 Roy has a 28-inch barrel (two inches longer than the original Weatherby Mk V rifles in which it debuted back in the 1950s), and that extra two inches bumps the velocity up even more than the fabled round was achieving in its namesake Weatherby rifles (they have 26-inch barrels). The bottom line here is that you almost have to use monolithic (and expensive) Barnes bullets (they are solid copper, not lead sheathed in a copper jacket) to push the bullets at their max velocity without the bullets coming apart in flight. There’s something appealing about that. I like it.
The original Circassian walnut on the Ruger No. 1 wasn’t bad, but it cracked during load development. I wanted something as good on the replacement lumber. The first set didn’t answer the mail for me.Another view of the rifle’s original stock. It looked good. I still have this stock, with a small crack in the wrist.
So, back to the main story. When Ruger first announced their limited run of the No. 1 in .257 Weatherby, I started watching the ads on Gunbroker.com for one with nice wood. It took a little while, but I found one and I pounced. I encountered the bullet disintegration problems mentioned above, I got some good advice from a guy I met on Facebook, and I got the rifle to group under an inch using Barnes monolithic copper bullets. Then while at the range one day I noticed the stock had cracked. My heart was as broken as the Circassian walnut stock, and the rifle went back to Ruger. I told them the story about wanting good wood, and they did their best to oblige. I also told them to make sure the stock was relieved behind the tang, as the first stock (the one that cracked) was not and that was what had caused the stock to split.
When the rifle came back, the stock had been relieved but the inletting and the gap between the receiver and the stock was excessive. The wood was not as good the original set, but it was not bad. The inletting was the real disappointment. I shot it a bit and the rifle grouped well, but it looked ridiculous with the gap around the receiver. I put the gun in the safe and it remained there for a year. Then one night I had a few beers and I wrote an email to Ruger. I wasn’t too complimentary. I told them the story. The beer helped get it all out.
I had an email from Ruger the next morning, and at their request I returned the rifle to them again. A few days later I received an email from a guy in Ruger’s No. 1 shop. He sent a photo of a matched stock and fore end that had just come in, he said. and he told me it was probably the last they would ever receive of this quality. Did I want it? Hell yes, I said. That was followed by another email: What color pad did I want? Red is the more collectible of the two colors (the older Ruger No. 1s had red pads; they switched to a black pad back in the 1980s. Red it would be.
When the restocked Ruger arrived (this rifle had now worn three sets of lumber), I was totally blown away. The wood is exquisite on both sides of the stock and the fore end. I’m pleased with the photos you see here, but trust me on this, they don’t do the wood justice. The fore end matches the stock on both sides. The figure is what stockmakers would grade as XXX and the rifle is just stunning. If there’s such a thing as rifle porn, this is it. And it’s XXX rated.
The Ruger No. 1 fore end on the right side. The fore end and the stock almost certainly came from the same tree.The fore end from the left side.The entire rifle from the right.The entire rifle from the left side. This model is called a No. 1B. It has a standard weight barrel and a beavertail fore end.
So there you have it: Two promises fulfilled. When you buy a Ruger, if you’re not pleased they will make it right. I promised you the story on this amazing set of walnut furniture. And if you are wondering, the answer is no. The rifle is not for sale.
It seems I am the only one of your ExNotes writers not on the road. Joe Gresh rode his resurrected Kawasaki ZRX to Laguna Seca (where he is camping and spectating this weekend), Bobbie Surber rode her Triumph Tiger up to Canada for a Horizons Unlimited event, and Mike Huber is rolling around the Pacific Northwest on his recently repaired BMW GS (presumably headed for the same event as Bobbie in Canada). I need to get out on my Enfield. Soon, my friends, soon.
Me? I’m home, continuing to play with things that go bang. That big photo up above? It’s a Ruger No. 1 in .257 Weatherby, with the best piece of wood I’ve ever seen. Keep an eye on the ExNotes blog; we’ll have a story on how my .257 Roy No. 1 came to wear such exquisite lumber.
Stay tuned; there’s good scribblings coming from all of us.
Nearly 15 years ago, TALO (a firearms distributor) offered a unique version of Ruger’s 10/22. It was a model with a French walnut stock. As a guy who appreciates good wood and a long time 10/22 fan, I knew I wanted one. The rifles were offered initially at $419, but I knew the price would only go. It’s hard to go wrong with a Ruger 10/22, especially if it is a limited edition.
I contacted an executive with Turner’s (a sporting goods chain) and told them I and several of my friends wanted to buy these, and asked if they would consider buying a group of them and allowing us to select the ones we wanted before they went on the shelves. Turner’s went along with my nutty idea, and I and my friends each bought one.
TALO’s French walnut 10/22 on the bench at the West End Gun Club.I’m pretty sure Ruger and TALO subcontracted the 10/22 French walnut stocks to Altamont. The checkering, fit, and finish is flawless.The French walnut 10/22 starboard side view.
The French walnut 10/22s were flawless, and I actually bought two. I gifted one to a friend who steered a big chunk of consulting work way my way, and I kept the one you see here. I tried several different brands of .22 ammo to find the one it liked best (it was Aguila Target ammo), and I bought a bunch of that shortly after I finished my testing.
I already knew that I liked the Mueller 4.5×14 scope on a .22, so I bought one and mounted it on the rifle. It’s a great scope, sharp, clear, and with several features I like.
The 4.5×14 Mueller scope.The Mueller scope incorporates a parallax adjustment feature on the objective end. I dialed it down to 50 feet.The Mueller scope cranked all the way up to 14-power magnification.
Most recently, I had the French walnut 10/22 out at the range. As always, it performed brilliantly. I’ve competed with this rifle in the WEGC metalllic silhouette matches, and I sometimes bring it to the range just to plink. It’s a fabulous rifle.
The famous Ruger 10/22 rotary magazine in the rifle. It holds 10 rounds. I load only five at a time.Cartridges in the 10/22 rotary magazine.
I took the 10/22 with me on the same day I shot my old Winchester Model 62, using the same three types of ammo on a 50-foot NRA target.
I’m nearing the end of this old box of Federal high velocity ammo. It was good while it lasted.CCI standard velocity .22 ammo. This is good stuff.Aguila .22 Long Rifle target ammo. I found this to be very accurate in my .22 rifles.
The 10/22 did a fine job. As usual, the Aguila ammo turned in good results. The Federal high velocity and CCI ammo did a surprisingly good job, too.
The results on a paper target with Federal, CCI, and Aguila ammunition. The distance was 50 feet.
If you are looking for a good .22 firearm, the 10/22 is hard to beat. At more than 7 milli0n produced, the 10/22 has sold more rifles commercially than any other firearm (there are military rifles that have higher production numbers, like the Mosin Nagant and the AK-47, but in terms of commercially available .22s, the 10/22 is it). There’s a huge aftermarket in 10/22 parts, too. You just can’t go wrong with a 10/22. I’ve owned several over the years and I still have three, including an older 10/22 Mannlicher with exceptional walnut and a 200th year 10/22 Deluxe model (Ruger roll marked “Made in the 200th Year of American Liberty” on every rifle they manufactured in 1976). Sometime in the near future I’ll dig out the 200th year 10/22 and post a blog on it.
The gun that has been in my family the longest is a Model 62 Winchester chambered in .22 Short, Long, and Long Rifle. I remember it being in the gun cabinet when I was a little boy and being told never to play with it (you can guess how well I listened to that advice).
I could go into a bunch of technical details about the Model 62, and I’ll provide a little bit of that below, but that’s not my intent with this article. I decided to instead focus on the rifle, how it shoots and handles, a little bit of its history, and what it means to me.
The starboard side of my Winchester Model 62 rifle. It’s a sleek and lightweight .pump-action 22.A port side view of the Model 62 on the range at the West End Gun Club.
When Dad had the rifle up until the time I went into the Army (and that would be in 1973), the rifle’s metalwork was flawless. Then I disappeared from the scene for about 10 years (the Army, work, and other things). I guess during that time my father stopped paying attention to the rifle. Dad passed in 1982, and when I came home for the funeral, the metal parts had taken on the patina you see here. New Jersey is a unforgiving and humid place; if you don’t keep your toys oiled, they corrode quickly. But the Model 62 still looks good and it shoots well.
Shooting in RAW (the camera, that is), a macro lens, and even lighting bring out the inherent beauty of this fine old rifle.
I like the Model 62 Winchester’s straight grip stock. It felt right to me when I was a kid and it influenced my future preferences in firearms. I have more than a few rifles with that same straight grip stock now…a Winchester 1886 .45 70 clone made by Chiappa in Italy, several Ruger No. 3 rifles, and a few Marlin lever guns.
The Model 62 is what we call a “takedown” rifle. A single thumb screw secures the stock and trigger group to the rest of the gun. It’s a cool approach.
The Model 62 taken down. The stock and the trigger group detach from the barreled action with a single thumbscrew on the left side of the receiver.I rotated the photo 90 degrees clockwise to provide a better look at the rifle after take down.A macro view of the aft portion of the Model 62 after it has been taken down. The large thumbscrew in the center of this photo allows disassembly.The Model 62’s barreled action after take down.
The sights on the Model 62 are old school. They’re Lyman front and rear. Nothing fancy, but they work well. A simple gold bead up front, and a drift adjustable rear with a stepped ramp for adjusting elevation. But I’ve never had to adjust them. Either they came zeroed from the factory, or the guy who owned the rifle before Dad adjusted the sights, or Dad adjusted them.
Winchester used Lyman sights front and rear back in the 1930s. This front sight has a brass bead. It tarnished enough so that it looks black when I align the sights, and that works for me. Bright brass beads reflect light and pull the shots to one side.The Model 62 rear sight. Simple, elegant, and traditional.
I think my Nikon 810 and the Sigma 50mm 2.8 macro lens do a good job in bringing out the rifle’s vintage beauty. You can see it in the next few photos.
The Model 62’s bolt lifts up and slides to the rear when the pump is actuated. The spent brass ejects upward.Another shot of the retracted bolt, showing the mechanism that ejects the spent brass case.Rollmarks on the right side of the barrel: “Made in U.S.A. Winchester Repeating Arms Co. New Haven, Conn. Patents Pending.” Cool stuff.The receiver from the left side. Patina, they call it. I could have it reblued, but then it wouldn’t be original, and like they say, it’s only original once.The pump action forearm with its distinctive pre-war oval shape. Post-war forearms were straight. This one is much classier.
When I was a kid and my parents weren’t home, I sometimes snuck out of the house with the Model 62 and a box of .22 ammo. We had a couple of acres in New Jersey that ran into the woods with a stream behind the house (the stream fed Farrington Lake, which emptied into Raritan Bay on the Atlantic Ocean). You might think having a couple of acres in central Jersey with property bordered by a stream was a sign of wealth, but it wasn’t. It’s what people did in the 1950s: You bought a couple of acres and built a house, and that’s what my Dad did. He didn’t pay somebody else to build a house; he actually built our house. Today you’d have to be rich to own those two acres. Back then it was the path you took if you didn’t have money.
Those were good days and good times. One time a kid from my junior high came home with me (Bob Dixon, if you’re reading this, drop us a line). Mom and Dad weren’t home yet, so Bob and I grabbed the Model 62 and headed into the woods. There was an old cellar door laying in the mud next to the stream and Bob thought it would be a good idea to flip it over. “You know, there might be a snake or something under there…”
A New Jersey water snake. This one was about five feet long. We used to think these were water moccasins.
We did, and what we saw shocked the hell out of both of us: A monstrous, scaly, and scary reptile. Being kids, we were convinced it was a water moccasin. Today, I realize it was probably a water snake. But it was huge and we did the only thing any kid would have done in similar circumstances, and that was to put the Model 62 to good use. Call me Bwana. (On a recent trip back to New Jersey’s Farrington Lake, I saw another one of those frighteningly large snakes and I wrote about it here.)
Loading the Model 62 is pretty straightforward. The rifle has a tubular magazine that holds a ton of ammo. As you see from the rollmarks above, it will shoot .22 Long Rifle, .22 Long, and .22 Short. I don’t know how many rounds of each it will hold, but it is a lot. I only load five rounds at a time, so it’s kind of a moot point to me. Come to think of it, I can’t remember the last time I saw .22 Long or .22 Short ammo anywhere. It’s all .22 Long Rifle these days.
The tubular magazine below the barrel. The arrow points to the knurled knob that opens the magazine.A macro shot of the tubular magazine’s knurled knob and its bayonet lock. Twist the knob and the plunger can be pulled forward for loading.When the magazine’s inner plunger is pulled forward, the loading port can receive ammo.A Federal .22 Long Rifle being loaded into the Model 62.
So how accurate is this nearly 80-year-old pump action .22? I’m glad you asked. I had not shot it in three or four years, so I grabbed three different kinds of .22 ammunition I had in my ammo locker: Older Federal copper washed high velocity ammo, CCI standard velocity ammo good buddy Greg gave me a few years ago, and Aguila standard velocity target ammo I bought from a local sporting goods chain when it was on sale.
I’m just about to the end of this box of .22 Long Rifle Federal ammo. Look at the price!The accuracy load: CCI standard velocity .22 Long Rifle ammo. This is good stuff.Aguila .22 Long Rifle target loads. Previous testing at 50 yards showed this worked best in my Ruger 10/22 (a Rimfire Series blog on that rifle will follow in the near future).
My U-boat Subie and I braved the Meyers Canyon water crossing to get to the West End Gun Club, I went to the .22 range and set up a table, and I tested the Model 62’s accuracy at 50 feet from a bench rest. I fired three 5-shot groups at an old 50-foot rimfire target I found in my stash. Here’s how it went:
Test results at 50 feet. The top right target was the first target of the day, and it was predicably the largest group (the bore was unfouled, and I was not yet in form). The Model 62 did best with CCI standard velocity ammo. This is not too shabby with open sights on an 85-year-old rifle.
A bit more info on the Model 62 Winchester: This Model 62 carries the serial number 94XXX, which puts its date of manufacture at 1939. My father bought the rifle when he was a kid; he would have been 13 years old in 1939. Winchester manufactured 409,000 Model 62 rifles from 1932 to 1958, with a two-year break during World War II. In 1939, production switched over to the Model 62A. The Model 62A incorporated engineering changes to reduce production cost (mine is the original Model 62, not the 62A). When Winchester introduced the Model 62 in 1932, the rifle’s suggested retail price was $17.85. Presumably, the price had climbed a bit by 1939. Family lore has it that Dad paid $8 for the rifle. Sales of recently completed auctions on Gunbroker.com show the price for a Model 62 today ranges from $300 to $3000. That’s quite a spread, but to me it’s irrelevant. This rifle is not for sale at any price; one day it will go to one of my grandsons.
Model 62 Winchesters show up for sale on Gunbroker.com pretty much all the time, so if you want one they are available. More good news is that the Model 62 is legal here in the Peoples Republik of Kalifornia.
The Rossi Model 62.
More good news is that Rossi, a Brazilian firearms manufacturer, offered their Model 62 (a fairly faithful reproduction of the Winchester Model 62) from 1970 to 1998 and the Rossi rifles can still be found. Rossi discontinued the Model 62 when they were acquired by Taurus, but the Rossi rifles still show up on the auction site gunboards. Sometimes you see one in a pawnshop or a gunstore’s used gun rack. I’ve never handled or fired the Rossi so I can’t say anything about them, but if I came across one at a reasonable price I would jump on it. You might consider doing the same.
A few years ago I was in a local Turner’s sporting goods store (Turner’s is a big sporting goods chain in the southwestern US) and they had a sale on GSG .22 LR 1911s. I think I paid $229 for it and I’ll admit it: The GSG was an impulse buy. I didn’t need it, but for $229 I thought any kind of 1911 would not be a mistake (I just checked the Turner’s website and they are now $379.99; that’s still not bad). I put the gun in the safe when I bought it and pretty much forgot about it.
The GSG .22 1911. All the controls are the same as a real 1911. Note the competition/target-style hammer, the extended beavertail grip safety, the target-style trigger, and the Patridge-style front sight.
I had owned the GSG .22 for several years and I hadn’t fired it. Then, one fine recent morning when I was putting my 9mm 1911 in the range bag, I realized it was dumb not to shoot the little .22. It’s not like it’s ever going to be a collectible, so I thought I might have some fun and enjoy it. The GSG went into the bag, too, for its first firing session.
To my surprise, the GSG is surprisingly accurate and it is fun to shoot. The feel is just like a real 1911 except it’s a bit lighter (as near as I can tell, the exterior dimensions are identical to a full-sized 1911). The trigger is a little on the heavy side (especially after shooting my TJ-modified 9mm Springfield Armory 1911 with its 2 1/2-pound trigger), but the GSG trigger is creep free.
As you can see on the target above (at the top of this blog), the GSG shot slightly to the left. I could see on the slide that the rear sight it was not centered. I fixed that. The rear sight is drift adjustable (it’s held in place with a setscrew), so I moved it a scosh to the right.
The GSG has decent whitish/yellowish (almost aged ivory in color) dot sights front and rear. About that target above: It’s a box of 50 Aguila .22 target loads at 10 yards, with a two-hand hold, firing offhand. I have no excuse for the two outside the 10-ring.
The front sight. I’m sure it’s plastic, but the dot has the appearance of aged ivory. It’s dovetail mounted, and it appears to have a set screw retainer.The rear sight, with the same faux ivory dots. The sights are good. As delivered (and as you can see in this photo) the rear sight is biased slightly to the left. The GSG shot a little to the left for me. I may move the sight over to the right a little bit.The business end. I haven’t taken the gun apart to clean it yet. There appears to be zero bore leading after firing that first box of 50 rounds.The boiler room after 50 rounds. There were no extraction failures. I had one stovepipe, but the gun is brand new. I hadn’t even oiled it before taking the little GSG to the range.The grips appear to be some kind of plastic. That’s okay; I have a brand new set of diamond-checkered Springfield Armory 1911 Cocobolo grips I’ll use as replacements.
There’s a fair amount of plastic on this gun and I think the finish is some kind of paint, but the gun looks and feels good. The GSG is not a Wilson or a Les Baer 1911, but it doesn’t cost $3500, either.
I don’t know how the GSG takes down or what it looks like inside. I suppose it’s time to read the instructions, and I need to do that so I can clean it. Watch for more on this fun little 1911. You’ll see it right here on our Rimfire Series of blogs. Don’t forget to check out our other gun and reloading articles, which are indexed for your convenience on our Tales of the Gun page.
A quick edit: I took the grips that split on my Springfield Armory 9mm 1911, superglued them back together, and installed them on the GSG .22 (I had to relieve the safety cutout on the right grip to get them to fit). The Springfield grips look good, and they feel better than the injection molded plastic grips than came on the GSG. I had the GSG on the range a couple of days ago and I sent a quick 100 rounds downrange.
The GSG now shoots very slightly to the right, but I’m going to leave it alone until I try the next batch of ammo (I ran out of the Federal ammo you see above). The GSG is 100% reliable with high velocity .22 ammo; it experiences an occasional failure to fully cycle with standard velocity ammo.
This is an update on my 9mm 1911 sudden unintended disassembly saga. I will address four topics:
Zeroing in on the cause.
Rework of the ammo I had loaded on my Lee turret press.
My reconstituted 9mm 1911.
Preventing a recurrence.
Let’s get into it.
Zeroing In On The Cause
I’m down to thinking the 1911 event was due to either of two causes: A double propellant charge, or bullet setback (i.e., the bullet slid deeply into the case as the round was being chambered, thereby raising the chamber pressure).
My burst 9mm cartridge case. It was a Remington case, not that it makes any difference. Any case would likely have burst. Photo by TJ of TJ’s Custom Gunworks. Compare this to the photo of the double-charged case at the end of the video below.
A Double Charge
I did a Google search on double-charged cartridges, and what do you know, there’s actually someone out there who did the same thing I did. He caught it on video and posted it with a photo of the case. His burst cartridge case sure looks a lot like mine.
If you compare the photo at the end of the above video to the case stuck in my chamber, they are identical. I’ve convinced myself that this is the most likely of the two scenarios, but I’ll describe the other scenario (bullet setback) as well.
Bullet Setback
What has me thinking deep thoughts about the second failure mode (pushing the bullet deeper into the case during chambering) is that I think it is relatively easy to screw up while reloading and induce this failure, and from what I’ve read, 1911s are more prone to do this than are other semi-autos.
This is what bullet setback would look like. The bullet is seated much deeper in the case than it is supposed to be, which would raise chamber pressure. This example did not occur in the gun; I loaded dummy case and pushed the bullet in much deeper using my reloading press. Theoretically, it can be induced by the gun if the bullet is not crimped sufficiently.
Let’s discuss screwing up the reloading process in a manner that could induce bullet setback. On my Lee Classic turret press, bullet seating and crimping occur in two separate operations (seating refers to pushing the bullet into the case; crimping refers to locking the bullet in place by crimping the cartridge case mouth). The third (of the four) dies seats (but does not crimp) the bullet; the fourth die applies a taper crimp to the bullet. Here’s the screwup: I’ve had at least a couple of instances where I took the cartridge out of the press after seating the bullet (but before crimping it). I know; you’re thinking that’s stupid, and I can’t argue with that conclusion. I don’t know why I did it (too eager to see the completed round, maybe?). I caught myself, returned the cartridge the press, and crimped it. But it’s possible I missed the crimping step on a cartridge.
I think setback is the less likely of the two failure modes discussed here. I tested the crimp by tapping on the bullet with a rubber mallet and it didn’t move. Failure to crimp or a weak crimp may have caused setback, but on properly crimped bullet, I don’t think setback will occur. Also, when I made the cartridge shown in the photo above on my RCBS Rockchucker press, it took more effort than I thought it would to seat the bullet as deeply as you see in the photo (and the case had not been crimped). I doubt that simply chambering the round would drive the bullet in that deeply (even without a crimp). If you think otherwise, please leave a comment below.
Gun Design and Bullet Setback
As mentioned above, bullet setback is more likely to occur on a 1911 than it is on other semi-auto handguns. It has to do with cartridge location in the magazine, and how it feeds into the chamber. On more modern handguns, the top round in the magazine sits higher in the gun than it does on older design guns. When the slide shoves the round forward, cartridges in more modern handguns have a straighter path into the chamber. On a 1911, the top round in the magazine sits lower in the gun. When the slide pushed it forward, the bullet impacts the ramp, it has to stay situated in the cartridge case without experiencing setback, and the cartridge has to rotate up and then into the chamber. Because of this, a 1911 is more likely to experience bullet setback than is, say, a gun like the S&W Shield.
A 9mm cartridge waiting to be chambered in a 1911. It’s a little hard to see in this photo (I did the best I could), but the bullet nose will hit the ramp head on and then slide up the ramp and into the chamber. The potential for bullet setback is a little higher here than on most other modern 9mm semi-auto handguns.A 9mm cartridge waiting to be chambered in the S&W Shield. Notice how the round is nearly aligned with the chamber as it sits in the magazine.
That’s not to say the Smith and Wesson Shield is a better design or that it’s all sunshine and rainbows. There’s a tradeoff the engineers made on the Shield. Yep, the Shield’s higher cartridge position makes for a straighter path into the chamber. It also allows for higher capacity in a smaller gun (my little Shield holds 8 in the magazine and one in the chamber). But the higher cartridge position can induce another issue: Failure to extract and eject.
A cartridge case in the S&W Shield caught during extraction on the mouth of the case immediately below it.
During extraction, the round being extracted has to drive the magazine’s top cartridge down into the magazine as it is being extracted. it does so by using the next cartridge’s bullet as a cam surface. The rear edge of the cartridge being extracted bumps into the mag’s top cartridge, and then it has to drive it down so the case can exit the gun after firing. As it uses the bullet of the mag’s top round for that cam surface, the rear of the cartridge case rim encounters the case mouth of the mag’s top cartridge, and that can cause a failure to extract and eject. It’s happened to me. I’ve found the Shield is sensitive to ammo brand, bullet configuration, and crimp. Too much crimp, and the cartridge goes too deep into the Shield’s chamber and the firing pin won’t light the round off. Too little crimp and it jams in the manner described above. Too little crimp and it might experience bullet setback. Like most things in life, the design is a tradeoff.
Again, I don’t think bullet setback is what happened in my 9mm 1911. I’m including it here simply because it is interesting and relevant to this discussion.
Ammo Rework
One of the personally dismaying and embarrassing things about blowing up my 9mm 1911 is that it immediately threw into question the approximately 1500 rounds of 9mm and .45 ACP ammo I had reloaded on the Lee turret press.
I thought I could use weighing the rounds as a way to screen for double loads, but on both the 9mm and the .45 cartridges, the weight variation exceeds the weight of the powder charge. That means I could have a double charge and if it was in a lighter round, it would be within the variability for the loaded cartridge. So weight was not a way to screen. I know there will be keyboard commandos with advice to stick to one case manufacturer (or to segregate cases by brand), but the same variability problem exists even when cases are segregated (I’ve checked). I wish the self-styled “experts” on Facebook would slither back under their rocks (or at least refrain from commenting when they just don’t know what they are talking about, which is most of the time).
The RCBS collet bullet puller. You put your cartridge into the press shell holder, raise it into the collet (the gizmo on the right, which fits inside the gizmo on the left), tighten the crank, and lower the press ram. Voila, the bullet is pulled. Most of the time. Sometimes it doesn’t work.An impact bullet pullerr. You put a loaded cartridge into the cap on the hammer head, whack the opposite end against a hard surface a few times, and inertia drives the bullet out of the case. It is a lot of work.The Grip-N-Pull. It works occasionally. I tried a few cartridges and gave up on it.
I’ve disassembled and reassembled the 800 9mm rounds I loaded on the Lee turret press. I did not find a single one with a double charge. I used my buddy Greg’s RCBS collet bullet puller for this on my 9mm ammo and it worked like a champ with minimal or no bullet damage. Surprisingly, with all brands of brass, after pulling the 9mm bullets from crimped cartridges I did not have to expand the case mouths again to reseat the bullets. They slid right in. I just seated them to the right depth and crimped them again. Reusing the bullets didn’t seem to affect accuracy, either.
The RCBS collet bullet puller did not work on my .45 ACP ammo. The .45 collet couldn’t get a good enough grip on powder coated 230-grain roundnose bullets or on my 185-grain cast semi wadcutters. I tried one of those Grip-N-Pull devices and that didn’t work, either. The bullets slid right out of it. To disassemble the .45 cartridges, I had to use an impact bullet puller, and that was tough sledding. It takes forever. I don’t like impact bullet pullers, but hey, it is what it is. And what it is, well, is a lot of labor. I’m working it a little at time, at a rate of about a box per week. Three or four months and the rework will be in the rearview mirror.
That double charge sure turned out be one expensive mistake, both in terms of damage to the 1911 and the need to rework a lot of ammo. Live and learn, I guess.
The Reconstituted 1911
TJ (of TJ’s Custom Gunworks) worked his magic on my 9mm 1911. As mentioned in a previous blog, in addition to addressing the damage from the burst cartridge, he polished the barrel and ramp, refit an extractor that actually works (shame on you, Springfield Armory, for letting this one get out of the factory with an extractor that didn’t even contact the cartridge case), he recontoured the slide release and the slide release pin (shame on you again, Springfield Armory, for a slide release that was extremely difficult to install), he fit a one-piece guide rod (which is what I asked him to do), and he did one of his magnificent trigger jobs (this 1911 has a “breaking glass” 2 1/2 pound trigger now, with zero creep and no discernible takeup). This 1911 is a pure joy to shoot. I loved it before and I love it even more now. That target at the top of this blog? It’s a full box of my reloaded 9mm ammo (50 rounds) fired without resting the gun on anything. No failures to feed, no failures to eject, no misfires, and every bullet hit in the 10 ring.
50 rounds shooting offhand with the 9mm Springfield Armory 1911. Custom work by TJ’s Custom Gunworks.
Preventing a Recurrence
Wow. Where to begin.
I am implementing a number of changes in my reloading to prevent this from occurring again:
I’m slowing down and paying more attention. Duh. I’m no longer complacent. Duh again.
I’m installing better lighting on my press.
I’m standing up so I can see into the cartridge case.
I’m switching to a bulkier powder so that a double charge, if it ever occurs again, will spill over the case mouth and make a big, impossible-to-ignore mess.
I don’t mind sharing with you that when this first occurred, my thought was to abandon the Lee Classic turret press and return to loading on my single stage RCBS Rockchucker press. Double charging a case using a single stage press is (in my opinion) a much less likely thing to happen, and in 50 years of reloading on the Rockchucker, I’ve never had it happen.
When you load on a single stage press, it’s easier to view all of the charged cartridge cases. If any have been double charged, they will stand out.
I have a friend who works for Colt in their customer service department, and he tells me that when he sees a blown up gun sent in, there’s usually a progressive or a turret press somewhere in the story. But good buddy Paul told me to think about it a while longer and I did. I’m back to using the Lee turret press, but I’m a little older and a lot wiser now. The older part wasn’t really necessary, but the wiser part is and hopefully, readers can benefit from my screwup.
Slowing Down and Paying Attention
You know, when I worked in the munitions industry I participated in two fatality investigations where inadvertent detonations were involved. Multiple human errors caused those inadvertent detonations, and one of the key human errors was complacency. That’s what I had become using the Lee Classic turret press: Complacent. I’d been reloading for so long I became entranced with the turret press’s speed, and I started reveling in the thousands of rounds I was cranking out (and it was, literally, thousands of rounds). I always knew that double charges or skipped steps (like crimping) were really, really bad, but I just never thought I’d be the guy making either mistake. I wasn’t taking the time I needed to and I became complacent. That’s changed. I’ve slowed the pace, and you can bet I’m looking into every case immediately before I place a bullet on top to make sure I haven’t double charged it. You can also bet that I’m making sure I hit the crimping step on every round. I’ve actually posted a sign on my reloading bench with the best advice I’ve ever given myself: Slow down.
Better Lighting
Good buddy Duane (who is both smarter and better looking than me) also reloads with the Lee Classic turret press. Duane mounted a light above his press to allow better visibility into the charged case. I’m going to do the same.
Standing Up
I used to sit at the reloading station. My bench, though, is higher than a standard work table (it’s how I had it built 50+ years ago). When I’m seated, it’s not as easy to see into the case. I reload standing up now, and that allows seeing directy into the case.
Bulkier Propellant
My last change concerns the propellant. One of the things I investigated shortly after my 9mm hand grenade episode was if it was possible to get a double charge into a 9mm case. With the load I was using (5.4 grains of Accurate No. 5), the answer was yeah, you could. It even had a little room left over. My thinking at the time was that I needed to go to a propellant that would overflow the case if I double charged it. In the past, I’ve found 4.8 to 5.0 grains of Unique with the 125 grain bullet is a marvelous 9mm load. Doubling that (i.e., 9.6 grains of Unique will overflow a 9mm case) and if that happens when loading, that’s a good visual indicator that something’s wrong. So, from here on out when using the Lee turret press, my load will be 4.8 grains of Unique. That only works for 9mm, though. Other cartridges (the .45 ACP, for example) will handily swallow a double charge. There, it’s back to paying serious attention (which we need to do on everything when we reload; it’s just using a propellant that will spill over with a double charge adds an additional indicator if things aren’t done correctly).
A double charge in the case on the left. My load was 5.4 grains of Accurate No. 5. I loaded both cases with this charge, and then took the propellant from the case on the right and poured it into the case on the left. A 9mm can easily swallow a double charge of Accurate No. 5.A single (correct) charge: 5.0 grains of Unique in a 9mm case.The most Unique I could load into a 9mm case was 7.9 grains. A double charge would spill over the top of the case and be immediately noticeable (at least in 9mm; the .45 ACP case will take a double charge of Unique without a spillover).
Incidentally, when this happened, I wrote to Lee and asked them if they offered any accessories to prevent a double charge (my Star reloader has a mechanical feature that prevents this from occurring). The answer was no, but Lee advised using a propellant that, well, read the above again and you’ll know. I checked the literature that came with the Lee Classic turret press kit, and sure enough, Lee has a recommendation in there to do exactly what I describe here.
Hornady’s Powder Cop
When I posted earlier blogs on Facebook, a few people mentioned a reloading cop. In 50 years of reloading, I’d never heard of such a thing, but I found it on Amazon. Hornady’s Powder Cop die is a die with a pushrod indicator. You add it to a vacant station on the reloading turret after the propellant charging station and when the charged round goes into it, if the case is double charged the rod will go higher than it normally does.
Hornady’s Powder Cop. The idea is that a double-charged case will lift the rod another 3/16 of an inch or so.
I don’t think the Powder Cop is the answer for several reasons. The Lee Classic turret press doesn’t have an empty station in its turret (all four stations are taken by the Lee 4-die set), you would have to notice that the pushrod indicator rose marginally higher than it was supposed to, and I believe that if a double charge was present, the pushrod might just push into the powder and not rise enough to indicate the double-charge condition. The Powder Cop might be right for some people, but my equipment can’t use it and I don’t think it’s an effective check. If you missed the double charge, you would probably miss the rod extending upward a bit further, too.
The RCBS Lockout Die
RCBS offers their lockout die which is, in my opinion, the best option for preventing a double charge on a reloading press, if the press that has an open station. If the case has an overcharge or an undercharge (or no charge), the lockout die locks the press, which positively lets you know that something isn’t right. It’s a clever mechanical device that detects either and overcharge or an undercharge and then stops the process.
The RCBS lockout die. If the case has an undercharge or an overcharge, this device stops the reloading process.
Unlike Hornady’s powder cop die, the RCBS lockout die isn’t just a rod moving up and down. The lockout die stops the show and forces you to check the cartridge that has locked up press movement. I think it’s a much better approach. The problem, though, is that you need that extra station on either a turret or a progressive press, and I don’t have that on the Lee Classic turret press (so for me it’s a nonstarter). What it says to me is that if I were to buy a new press, I would want one that has an extra station. I think the lockout die is a stellar idea; I just don’t have the real estate for it on my press.
The Bottom Line
I’m convinced that I had a double charge in the round that burst in my 1911. I’m also convinced that it’s on my to prevent it from happening again. As explained above, here’s what I’m doing:
I’m slowing down and paying attention to what I do. There is no place for complacency in the reloading world.
I will continue to use my Lee Classic turret press, but I’m installing better lighting and standing up so I can see into the cartridge case.
I’m switching to a bulkier powder so that a double charge, if it ever occurs again, will spill over the case mouth and make a big, impossible-to-ignore mess.
So there you have it. If you have any thoughts on any of the above, I’d sure like to hear them.
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As mentioned in recent blogs on my 9mm Springfield Armory 1911, I took the gun to TJ’s Custom Gunworks to have it repaired and customized. I have the gun back now and I am very satisfied with the work.
When I took the 1911 to TJ, I asked him to repair the damage I did to my 1911 and to add several custom touches. That’s what he did, and I’ll describe them below. Most of the photos in this blog are from TJ. I took a few, too.
Fortunately, the 1911’s barrel was not damaged (the cartridge blew apart; the barrel and chamber survived). TJ polished the barrel, the chamber, and the ramp. The reinvigorated barrel looks great and it adds to the 1911’s appearance.
The polished 1911 barrel.It looks great, doesn’t it?
TJ polished the 1911’s ramp and chamber. This helps to prevent feed failures and assists in extraction. The polished ramp also helps to prevent bullet pushback into the case as the ramp is pushed from the magazine into the chamber.
The feed ramp before polishing.The feed ramp after polishing.
The trigger was in bad shape after the 9mm cartridge went into its sudden unintended disassembly mode. TJ cleaned it up, but I’m going to have him fit a new target trigger at some point in the future.
The rigger before TJ cleaned and finished it.The trigger and its bracket after brushing and polishing.
While TJ was in the gun, he removed and replaced the Springfield Armory firing pin and firing pin spring (which he does on all the Springfield Armory 1911s that come into his shop). Springfield uses a titanium firing pin and a heavier firing pin spring, which is a bad combination. I’ve had occasional misfires with my Springfield, and the primers have previously always shown light firing pin strikes. With the new Wilson firing pin and firing pin spring TJ installed, that problem is in the rear-view mirror (where it belongs).
TJ found that the extractor on my Springfield Armory 1911 was terrible. I thought that might be due the base of the cartridge bursting, but it was not. It was just a factory goof up. The photo TJ included shows the extractor about as I remembered it before the event that set all this in motion. The extractor had been extremely difficult to remove from the slide when I disassembled it for cleaning, but I never thought to check if it was engaging the cartridge (the gun had been ejecting). You would think an outfit like Springfield would know what they are doing in this area, but apparently they did not. TJ fit a new extractor to fix that problem.
This photo shows the original extractor not touching the cartridge case at all. It appears that the claw is just too short.The new extractor TJ installed; note that it now has a firm grip on the case rim.Another shot of the extractor on the case rim. It’s amazing the cartridges were extracting and ejecting before this fix. They were flying everywhere.The old extractor is on top; the new one is on the bottom. Note that the old extractor was not reaching in to engage the case.
Ejection is way better now. The gun drops all the cases in the same spot just to my right (they don’t go flying all over creation like they used to). It makes scooping up my brass a lot easier.
Reinstalling the slide release on my Springfield was difficult. The slide release plunger was too long and the camming surfaces on the underside of the slide release were not cut at the correct angles. TJ reconfigured both. The slide release snaps into place in a very slick manner now. There’s no more worry about scratching the receiver (the so-called idiot scratch) when the gun is reassembled.
The slide release plunger, as delivered by Springfield Armory, was originally too long. It made installing the slide release problematic. TJ shortened and recontoured it.The slide release has a contoured bevel to push the slide release plunger in when the slide release is installed. As delivered by Springfield Armory, the angles were incorrect. TJ recontoured this area to make installing the slide release much easier.
TJ polished and fit a new hammer, which looks better than the original. He also lightened the trigger pull. The new trigger is light and I like it.
A polished hammer and sear.The new hammer. It looks good.
The Springfield Armory 9mm 1911 came from the factory with a two-piece guide rod, which I hated. It would constantly unscrew, even after applying blue Loctite after each cleaning. The stock Springfield guide rod needed an Allen wrench to unscrew and remove it (Springfield provided one with the gun). The gun required doing this to be able to rotate the barrel bushing after depressing the guide rod plug. In my opinion, two-piece guide rods are a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. I don’t know why manufacturers fit them to new guns and I don’t why anybody would want one. I asked TJ to fit a polished one-piece guide rod to my 1911, and to make it short enough so that I could rotate the barrel bushing for disassembly without having to unscrew the guide rod. I like the new set up a lot better.
TJ installed a one-piece guide rod. I like it. The original two-piece guide rod was always unscrewing.The new guide rod in its bushing. TJ modified it so I could disassemble the 1911 without having to unscrew the guide rod. Not the polished end of the new guide rod, and the polished barrel end.
Finally, TJ polished the slide-to-receiver interface points. You can see this work in the photos below.
The 1911 slide underside.The 9mm 1911 receiver.
While TJ had the gun, I ordered new grips and a replacement magazine from the Springfield Armory website. The original crossed-cannon cocobolo Springfield grips were damaged when the cartridge burst, so I bought another set (they were reasonably priced at $32.95). The Springfield site also advertised a set of double-diamond checkered cocobolo grips (without the Springfield logo) for $15, so I checked that box, too (I like having an extra set of 1911 grips on hand). The grips and the new magazine arrived a few days after I ordered them.
I picked up the repaired and reinvigorated 1911 from TJ this week. I’ve already been to the range with it and it works well. Watch the blog; I’ll post a range report in the near term. I’ve also had a few more thoughts on what might have caused the burst round that started this adventure, and we’ll have another blog on that as well. Here are links to our prior blogs on this topic:
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Seeing double? Nope. I liked my 9mm 1911 so much that when I saw the same gun in .45 ACP, I bought it, too. Watch for a report on it in an upcoming ExNotes blog.
The stream crossing to the West End Gun Club has been too deep to cross in my Subie Outback since early January. I tried it once back then and I wasn’t going to make that mistake again.
My January Meyer Canyon Road mishap. The Subie is not a submarine and I am not a U-boat commander, although we both came close that morning.
I’ve been going to the Magnum Range in Ontario (an indoor pistol range), watching the West End website for updates and occasionally driving out to check the stream. The Magnum Range is a good place to shoot, but I missed shooting my rifles. Then a good thing happened earlier this week: Good buddy Duane offered to pick me up and attempt a stream crossing in his Toyota 4×4. I was in.
Duane’s Toyota 4×4. It’s an impressive vehicle.
I’ve known Duane for years, going back to my work with CSC Motorcycles in their early days of the replica Mustangs and the RX3 250cc adventure bike. Duane and I both owned the CSC bikes and we traveled extensively on them.
Duane in the commander’s cupola.
The Meyer Canyon Road stream crossing was still deep and the water was moving swiftly, but Duane’s Toyota had no problem crossing it.
Entering the fray…
I knew which rifle I wanted to shoot when I received Duane’s email invitation: My Mosin-Nagant 91/30. It’s the one you see at the top of this blog. The Mosin is a favorite. It’s accurate, I reload 7.62x54R ammo, and it is fun to shoot.
My Mosin-Nagant 91/30. The Russians built 17 million of these rifles. They are becoming hard to get and prices have risen substantially. These rifles are surprisingly accurate.
I’ve owned this Mosin rifle for maybe 10 years now. It came about almost as an afterthought. To me, the Mosins appeared to be cheap pieces of junk. Then one day after a class about engineering creativity, a student asked about the cover photo on a book I wrote. He told me he and his father owned a Mosin and enjoyed shooting the rifle. I saw a Mosin on the rack at a sporting goods store a short while later for $139. It looked crude, but for $139, I thought I’d take a chance. The guy who sold it to me did not know there was a bayonet in the Mosin’s cardboard box, and when he put the rifle back in its box, the bayonet scratched the stock. Neither of us knew this until 10 days later (after California’s silly waiting period). The store offered to sell me a different Mosin, but that meant starting the 10-day waiting period all over again. I viewed the scratch as an opportunity, and indeed it was. I refinished the stock (10 coats of TruOil worked nicely). Then I glass bedded the action, reworked the trigger, polished the bolt, and worked up a load. It was fun and I learned much about the rifle. Mine has matching numbers on the receiver, the butt plate, and the bolt. I know it’s weird: I own some really nice rifles, but the Mosin is one of the ones I love the most.
Serial Number 2339, built in 1940. Production rates ramped up sharply in 1940, but this rifle was built before that occurred. Fit and finish nosedived that year; mine is one of the good ones.The Mosin’s buttplate.The serialized (and polished) bolt.
When Duane and I arrived at the range, I set up a target at 50 yards. Like always, shooting the Mosin felt good. It had been too long.
Duane is a milsurp rifle enthusiast, too. He has a beautiful 8mm Mauser K98 that his uncle took home from Germany after World War II. I keep trying to buy it from him. He keeps saying no.
A World War II K98 Mauser.Left view of the K98 Mauser.Nazi markings on the Mauser’s barrel and receiver.
Like me, Duane is a reloader. He had reloaded reduced loads for our outing. A reduced load is one loaded for lower velocity, which means the rifle has significantly less recoil. One of Duane’s loads had cast bullets. The other had jacketed 150-grain bullets. Both were loaded with Trail Boss powder, and both shot well.
8mm Mauser reloaded ammunition. The upper rounds have 150-grain jacketed soft point bullets, the lower rounds have 150-grain cast bullets.
As soon as Duane fired his first shots, I knew he had reduced-load ammo. Check it out in the video below.
Duane and I both brought handguns, and to my surprise, we both decided to bring our Smith and Wesson 9mm Shields. I’ve written about the Shield before, as well as the custom work TJ (of TJs Custom Gunworks) did on my Shield. I shot my Shield at 50 yards. Using a short-barreled 9mm concealed carry handgun at 50 yards is not a formula for accuracy, but I managed to keep all of my shots on the target. The group was large, but at least they were on the paper.
My Shield in flat dark earth. I shot my reloaded ammo with Gardner powder-coated bullets.My Sheild and Duane’s. Duane’s has a Crimson Trace laser just forward of the trigger guard. The laser is actuated by a pushbutton below the trigger.
One of the things I like about my Shield is its bright sights. Duane’s Shield has white dot sights and a green Crimson Trace laser mounted beneath the slide. The laser is a cool touch for close in work. My Shield has high visibility fiber optic sights (they catch light from the side and light up green and red dots). They’re good if there’s any light at all. If there’s no light, the sights don’t light, but if there’s no light, it’s not likely you’d be shooting.
A comparison of the sights on both Shields. My pistol’s Hi Viz sights are the best I’ve ever used on a handgun.
Before we called it a day, Duane let me try a couple of shots with his Mauser. I shot at the same 50-yard target I’d been using with my Shield and the Mosin-Nagant.
The proof is on the paper. The upper red circle surrounds the shots I fired with my Mosin-Nagant (with one exception, all are in the 10 ring…that one exception was the first shot I fired). The circle around the two shots below were mine, fired with Duane’s 8mm Mauser and his reduced-load ammo. All the other shots were with the Smith and Wesson 9mm Shield.
After the West End Gun Club visit, we stopped at our local Mexican restaurant. I had albondigas soup and a chile relleno. As always, both were outstanding.
A toasted chile relleno. It was excellent.
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A few days ago I blew up my 9mm Springfield Armory 1911. It was hellaciously frightening. I wrote a blog about it and I’ll provide a link at the end of this post. My initial conclusion was that I had committed the cardinal reloading sin: I double charged a case. Instead of the intended 5.4 grains of Accurate No. 5 propellant, I cycled the round twice at the charging station and I inadvertently loaded 10.8 grains. I know what you are thinking and that’s okay. If I read about somebody doing this, I’d think they were a dumbass, too. I’ll get back to that later.
5.4 grains of Accurate No. 5 behind a 125-grain powder coated bullet is good. 10,8 grains is not.
Thinking about the double charge issue more, several additional thoughts emerged. Were there other possibilities?
One other possibility is that instead of the failure being due to a double charge, it might have been a squib charge (which would lodge a bullet in the bore) followed by another round. This was dismissed for several reasons:
I knew it wasn’t preceded by a squib charge because the prior round felt normal.
If it was a squib charge, the following round probably would not have chambered. Squib charges resulting from no powder and pressure being provided by the primer only (in a handgun) tend to push the bullet into the barrel a very short distance (the bullet doesn’t go into the barrel far enough to allow another round to chamber).
The were 5 holes on the target, which is the number of rounds I had fired.
The barrel was not bulged (TJ inspected it and pronounced it good).
Count them: 5 holes on the target. The fifth hole is the one at the bottom. This bullet was tumbling due to its low velocity. When the case blew out, the pressure vented elsewhere.
A friend asked if I could have seated two bullets in the case. I set bullets (one on top of the other) next to a cartridge case. I think you can see that seating two bullet in the case is not possible. The bottom bullet would set higher in the case than you see in the photo below (the web near the case base and the thickness of the case “floor” would cause it to seat much higher in the case). I would not have been able to seat the second bullet even if there was no powder in the case.
A photo showing that two bullets in a single case is not possible.
I pulled the bullets in the photo above from two cartridges using an inertia bullet puller. Both had exactly 5.4 grains of Accurate No. 5 propellant, which is what I intended. These are the pulled bullets on top of their cartridge cases:
125-grain powder coated bullets pulled from their cases and then placed back on top of their cases.
After I pulled the bullets and put the powder back in each case, you can see the level at which the right amount of propellent (5.4 grains) sets in the case.
5.4 grains of Accurate No. 5 in 9mm cartridge cases.
I wondered: Would a double charge (i.e., 10.8 grains of Accurate No. 5) fit in a cartridge case without it spilling out of the case? The answer is yes. I took the powder from one case and poured it in the other. The case can easily hold 10.8 grains of Accurate No. 5. Take a look:
10.8 grains of Accurate No. 5 in a 9mm cartridge case.
It would be better if the powder was bulky enough that it would spill over the case rim if I double charged it. I know that my 9mm Unique load sits higher in the case (my Unique load for the 125-grain bullet is 5.0 grains).
Trickling 5.0 grains of Unique onto the powder scale.
Here’s what 5.0 grains of Unique looks like in a 9mm case:
5.0 grains of Unique in a 9mm cartridge case.
The question then was how much Unique can a cartridge case hold? I was specifically interested in determining if a double charge of Unique would overflow the case. To answer this, I completely filled a 9mm case with Unique and weighed that amount of propellant:
A 9mm cartridge case completely filled with Unique.
I weighed the amount of Unique held by a completely-filled 9mm cartridge case. The filled 9mm case held 7.9 grains of Unique.
Weighing the Unique held by a completely-filled 9mm case.A completely-filled 9mm cartridge case can hold a hair over 7.9 grains of Unique propellant.
A double charge of Unique would be 10.0 grains. I concluded that a double charge of Unique would overflow the 9mm case, and this would provide an additional safeguard against an inadvertent double charge. I was careless enough to not notice a case double-charged with Accurate No. 5. I’d like to think I wouldn’t be careless enough to miss powder spilling out of the case, as would occur with Unique. The next time I load 9mm ammo, it will be with Unique.
You might be wondering about the numbers here. Bear in mind that Unique is a less dense propellant than Accurate No. 5. 10.0 grains of Unique occupies more volume than does 10.8 grains of Accurate No. 5.
The challenge now is what to do about the approximately 1400 rounds of 9mm and .45 ACP I already have loaded on the Lee Turret press. I thought I might be able to quickly screen the rounds by weight, but that’s not going to work. The weights of the powder, the brass case, and the bullet all vary, with the bullet (as the heaviest item) having the greatest variation. On the 9mm cartridges, I found that the weight variation of the completed 9mm cartridges varies from 192 grains up to 198 grains. The powder charge is 5.4 grains. If a cartridge weighs 198 grains, would it just be at the upper edge of the weight distribution with the correct single charge, or would it be a 192-grain cartridge with a double charge? It’s even worse on the .45 ACP rounds, because the weight variability of the completed cartridge is more than the 9mm, and those powder charges are in the range of 5.0 grains or 5.4 grains (they are lost in the case compared to 9mm ammo). I can’t take the chance that there’s another double charge in there. I’m breaking down and checking every cartridge. It’s a lot of work, but it’s better than blowing up a gun.
This is the .45 ammo I loaded on the Lee turret press. It’s 700 rounds. I have another 700 rounds of 9mm ammo similarly loaded.
You might be wondering what it’s like to get back on the range after blowing up a gun. I was afraid I might return with a very serious flinch (you know, when you jerk the gun in anticipation of it firing). I’m happy to report (and maybe brag a little bit) that I’m just fine. I had my 9mm S&W Shield out with ammo that I tore down, checked, and reloaded, and I also had my Colt Python (in which I shot .38 Special wadcutters).
An S&W 9mm Shield target shooting the 5.4 grain Accurate No. 5, 125-grain powder coated bullet load described in this blog.A Colt Python target shot with 148-grain powder-coated wadcutters. I’ve done better and I’ve done worse.
At this point, I’m convinced that I screwed up and double-charged the 9mm round I wrote about last week. TJ (of TJ’s Custom Gunworks) disassembled the gun and pulled out the case you see in the photo at the top of this blog. There was a lot of pressure in there (about 10.8 grains of Accurate No. 5’s worth, actually). Like I said in the earlier blog, it’s an opportunity. More good news is the barrel wasn’t damaged. Even more good news is that TJ is doing an action and reliability job on my 1911. TJ is replacing the two piece guide rod (two-piece guide rods are a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist) and doing a few more good things to this pistol. I’ve already purchased and received replacement grips and a new 9mm magazine. I’ll provide an update in a couple of weeks after I get the 1911 back, and I’ll do another blog on what it’s like disassembling and reassembling 1400 rounds of reloaded ammo.
