karl wrote:My normal range trip follows this outline:
1. Arrive at range and unholster CC gun for range use.
2. Empty one of my SD mags and remove round from chamber.
3. Load and shoot FMJ.
4. Reload SD mag and chamber a round, adding the initial ejected round back in the mag and reholster.
I've been doing this for almost 8 months now but recently noticed my first round of JHP has been forced into the neck of the brass casing. I keep up with my gear so this has happened progressively over the last two trips. Cleaned my gun today and decided to put the round in question in and out of the chamber a few times and, sure enough, it pushed it down even further.
Here's a pic...
Now I
know that this isn't the only round that is repeatedly chambered, it usually rotates with the top two, just interesting to see. I think this round will be retiring.
Easy to see is size of the offending round compared to the regular JHP (which happens to be number 2). Not so easy to see is the ridge along the edge, feels pretty pronounced when in my hand. I've never reloaded, but I'm guessing since there are fewer grains there is an empty space that the bullet crept back into. Thoughts?
For reference:
-S&W 1911PD
-Hornady 185 gr XTP in
.45 ACP
-Wilson Combat Mag
The condition you describe is potentially dangerous, since firing that round with the projectile seated that deeply reduces the space for the powder, may compress the charge, and increases the pressure needed to move the bullet into the bore. Any one of these may produce an undetermined amount of overpressure which may wreck the gun and injure you.
Here are some methods I've used to avoid this situation:
1. Make a practice of firing the SD magazine contents first in every 4th or 5th range session (best - you'll never experience bullet set back with high quality ammo, and you maintain familiarity with the firing and point of impact characteristics of your SD loads).
2. Unload only the SD rounds in the magazine, replace them with FMJ, and fire off the chambered round first in every range session. (Next best - you'll never see bullet set back, and you maintain some familiarity with firing your SD rounds)
3. Last but not least: Put the chambered round and SD rounds aside in order when you follow your normal range procedure, and load the previously top magazine round into the magazine first, and chamber that round. Remove the magazine and then load the previously chambered round first (which now puts it at the bottom of the magazine stack), the previously bottom round next, the second to bottom round next, etc. This always puts the previously chambered round at the bottom and the top round from the magazine in the chamber. It gives you evenly distributed wear on all the SD rounds. If you're consistent, you could do this 24 or 32 times before each round in an 8 round system would have 3 or 4 chamberings on it, depending on the cutoff point you choose. Most high quality cartridges will tolerate this without bullet setback. At that point fire the entire magazine at your next range session and start over with fresh ammo. If you don't reach this point in six months, it would be a good idea to fire off the entire load and do a total ammo refresh anyway.
You could come up with more similar variations of these practices, but the idea is to prevent one round from being repeatedly chambered and ejected. Not only will it eventually loosen the crimp and result in the bullet setback issue you've seen, but the action of the extractor will chew up the cartridge rim. If it goes far enough, this may interfere with the extractor's grip on the round and may result in a failure to extract at an inopportune time. (If you examine the rim of the cartridge with the set back projectile in your photo, you'll find the rim has small gouges and nicks all around.)
