American Handgunner May/June 1977

More documents

Recommendations

Info

These examples of feed ramp bulgeare usually severe. Such cases areweakened and should be discarded.better, so why deburr? I haven't deburreda case for an autoloader in years.POWDER CHARGE: Autoloadercases have all been developed for smokelesspowder, thus have (generally) far lessvolume for their caliber than revolvercases dating from the black-powder era.Thus, the auto cases are loaded to higherdensity and make more efficient use ofless powder. Compare typical 9mm Parabellumand .38 Special loads: The .38uses 7.1 grains of Hercules Unique todrive a 115-grain bullet at 1140 fps; the9mm uses 6.0 grains of the same powderto drive the same bullet at 1140 fps at considerablyhigher pressures (CUP). The .38was designed for black powder, the 9mmfor smokeless; the latter uses powdermore efficiently at higher pressures. As apractical matter, one needs only a singlepowder for all autoloader cartridges, exceptthe bottom and top numbers-the.25 ACP and .44 Auto-Mag. The .32 ACP,.380 ACP, 9mm Parabellurn, .38 SuperAuto, and .45 ACP may be loaded to bothhieh and low velocity levels auite effici&tlywith Unique. ~kllse~e is a bit morePowder charges may be easily economical-by 15-25%-but generallychecked by the eye when they are produces higher pressures for a given velinedup in 50-round loading blocks. locity level, and is not entirely satisfactoryfor top loads in the 9mm and larger cases.Little can be said about charging caseswith powder. It must be done carefullyand accurately. I prefer to work with 50-hole loading blocks, using an old Pacific"Pistol Measure" with its interchangeable,fixed-charge drum, which cannot vary andnever needs adjustment. Just install thedrum for the charge desired and go towork. Charges should be inspected visuallywith great care. The short length ofautoloader cases makes this easy, evenwith small charges. Take care to avoidpowder spillage during handling. This isespecially true of light-bulletlhigh-velocityloads where the charge fills the caseand is then compressed in seating the bullet.Care and attention are essential watchwords.Of course, there are numerous otherpowders quite suitable for autoloader cartridges.Though Unique is my favorite andpredominates in most loading data tables,they do list others. Probably the most extensivedata for other powders is found inthe current Speer handbook.SEATING BULLETS: The final operationis assembling a first-class handloadfor any autoloading pistol-and onewhich can be exceedingly important to the
functioning of any such gun.Selection of the bullet comes first. A revolverwill work with almost anythingstuffed into the case-but length andshape decide whether an auto will feed reliably.And a single-shot .45 or 9mm is apoor gun to have in hand when the balloongoes up and the blue whistlers comeyour way. Without an extensive engineeringanalysis of the dynamics involved, ithas always seemed to me that good feedingresulted if the bullet nose struck thefeed ramp so as to be deflected upwardthe same as the standard ball round, regardlessof specific bullet shape or overallcartridge length. Therefore, if a particularbullet of reasonable shape and weightgives feeding trouble, a slight variation inseating depth may well cure the problem.Anyway, we don3 recommend any shapesother than round-nose, truncated-cone,and the moderate semi-wadcutter withplenty of taper to the nose. Almost anygood gun will feed those shapes so long asthe bullet is not so light and short as tomake the loaded cartridge more than10-15% under standard length.As already mentioned, tightness andstability of bullet/case assembly is very important.Toward thisend, bullets shouldbe seated rather deeply into the case, formaximum contact area. With long, heavybullets, this presents no problem. Withlighter bullets (especially the 90-grain inthe .38 Super) it does. Bullets should beone caliber deep in the case, with the possibleexception of the .45 Auto; its largediameter produces lots of contact area,with relatively shallow seating depth. By"one caliber", we mean the bullet shouldenter the case a distance equal to its owndiameter.As a practical matter, I believe the followingare the minimum weights (thereforelengths) which may be dependedupon for reliable functioning in differentcalibers: .32,60-grains; .380,80-gr; 9mmP, 90-gr; .38 Super, 1 log; .45, 185-gr.Bullets any lighter would have too littlebearing surface for either good accuracyor proper assembly-unless provided withlarge nose and/or base cavities whichwould increase their lengths. Bullets longerthan normal present no problems exceptin that seating them to proper cartridgelength reduces powder capacitywithin the case and so considerably limitsthe velocities to which they may be driven.Long bullets may also bulge the casewhere its base runs into the thicker portionof the tapered case walls.In any event, our choices of bullets fordifferent uses are shown in the load datatables.As soon as cases have been charged andinspected, bullets should be hand-startedin them. This eliminated possiblespillage or contamination. When startingbullets, align them as nearly as possiblewith the case. The shorter the bullet, themore important this becomes; dies don'tstraighten short bullets during seatingnearly as well as long ones. A cocked bulletsimply cannot shoot to the normal centerof impact.Except in .25 and .32 caliber, seat-.crimp dies should be of the taper-crimptype. Bullets~especially jacketed onescanbe seated and crimped in a single operation,but I much prefer doing the twoseparately, with separate dies.To do this, screw the die into the pressand lock it so the shell holder lacks about'/16-inch touching the die when fully up.Then, adjust the seating screw or plungerso that the bullet is forced into the case tothe proper depth. There should be noshaving or gouging of the bullet by thecase mouth if it has been sufficientlyflared in preparation. While hard cast bulletsare rather tolerant of seating-stem fit,modern, high-performance, jacketed bul-lets-especially hollow-points-are not.Unless the cavity in the end of the stemfits the bullet nose perfectly, it may be deformedby seating pressure. I've seen hollow-pointsalmost completely closed byimproperly-shaped seating stems.If your stem doesn't fit, degrease thecavity in the tip, place a small dab of fiveminuteepoxy therein; then press the oilednose of the bullet into the epoxy until itsets up. When cured, trim off any excessepoxy and you'll have a perfect fit-even ateat entering the hollow point to keep itfrom collapsing. Remember, though, thiswon't work with the pear-shaped cavity inSierra JHC bullets. If altering a stem forthem, fill the nose cavity with modelingclay first, or the job will be ruined.You should be able to feel the changingresistance as the bullet is first forced pastthe mouth flare, then through the expandedportion, and finally, as its basemeets that internal shoulder and imbedsitself therein.Once this is done, crimping comes up.Actually, we aren't talking aboutthe typeof heavy, roll crimp used on revolver ammunition.All we need do here is removethe mouth flare and close the case in tightlyon the bullet. Whether using a separatetaper-crimp die or a seat-crimp combination,adjust it so that the mouth issqueezed in upon the bullet about.010-.015-inch. To establish this, measurethe diameter of the case (with bulletseated, but no crimp) about '1s-inch backfrom the mouth. Then adjust the die toproduce a case diameter right at themouth of about .010-,015-inch less. Thisleaves the case mouth nice and square, soit will seat solidly on the headspacingshoulder at the front of the chamber (ex-(Continued on page 69)Bullet nose distortion and excessivecase bulge cause many malfunctions.Slide face impressions on the casehead are quite common occurence.Properly seated primer shows nodistortion at all and is seated well.AMERICAN HANDGUNNER MAY/JUNE <strong>1977</strong>
Page 1 and 2: E 1'THE HECKLER & KOCHDOUBLE ACTION
Page 3 and 4: The newest and only magazine just f
Page 5 and 6: n old favorite and a new snake from
Page 7 and 8: original thumbpiece down, flush wit
Page 9 and 10: SKILL AND THE FIELDhere has been a
Page 11 and 12: when dropped, for example, or struc
Page 13 and 14: By EVAN P. MARSHALLCOMBAT SHOOTING
Page 15 and 16: ine with the bulk of the gun to cau
Page 17 and 18: your efforts. He's got visions of g
Page 19 and 20: By GEORGE C. MONTEwen I first saw a
Page 21 and 22: Here barrel is full forward, fired
Page 23 and 24: ecome national and international ch
Page 25: after I came out of rookie school,
Page 28 and 29: only about two per cent of the land
Page 30 and 31: ight kidney, passed just over the h
Page 32 and 33: colts M-1911 .45 Auto has proven it
Page 34: tive magazines seem to be floating
Page 37: 5.Â¥ \p'-' At0Advanced Features a
Page 40 and 41: Above, the PQS barrel and recoil sp
Page 42 and 43: HECKLER & KOCH'S4 CALIBER VERSATILI
Page 44 and 45: Interchangeable barrels, recoil spr
Page 46 and 47: The VP-70 is caught'in stop-action
Page 48 and 49: By GEORGE C. NONTEIcan recall when
Page 50 and 51: tana) seems to do the best job. Aft
Page 54 and 55: Can the Much-Demeaned.38 Spl. Measu
Page 56 and 57: Jroup fired offhand from 25 yards u
Page 59 and 60: making the improvements that our cl
Page 61 and 62: Set can un top of steel rod, draw.
Page 63 and 64: tion in improving accuracy over the
Page 65 and 66: of striking the firing pin. Because
Page 67 and 68: decided on the Colt Diamondback as
Page 69: BULLET# 252435# 252435#311252#31125
Page 72: MODEL17 -2"THE -vMODEL 17 ~i-~ide S

American Handgunner May/June 1977

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?