GarandNewby
Member
I've been reloading for about 10 years now. While I can't say I know everything, I've made a lot of mistakes and I think I've learned from them. Maybe not enough, maybe not the right thing, but I try to learn _something_.
Today I get a chance to learn something, and I want opinions on what the lesson should be.
At the range this morning with my Father-in-Law (henceforth "FiL"), supposedly teaching him about pistols while I test a new load in a pistol that traditionally doesn't cycle properly with RNL bullets. Since I reload, I scrounge brass whenever not actually shooting. I don't get all of mine back, I get some of someone else's, it all evens out.
Others also scrounge, and several people noticed that some of my cases are split. Not "See this black line? It's a crack; you can't reload this case." split, but "M-F you could drive a truck through that crack!" split. Please refer to exhibit A, the attached photo. While the true nature of those vertical black lines in the front row may not be clear, I turned the back row so you can clearly see the wood table through the cases.
Now, when I first started reloading, I segregated all the cases and made one run with Win, another run with Speer, etc while I was working out what I wanted. After awhile I had pretty well determined which brands worked and which didn't, and just loaded "mixed" cases with the loads I liked. Some of those experimental lots I never used, and they just sit around gathering dust.
Since FiL says he knows nothing about pistols, I'm giving him a lot of my old stuff to burn thru as he learns his way around the pistol I let him use. (He did spend some time carrying a 1911 for Uncle Sam's Misguided Children's club but that was well over a half-century ago, so he may not remember anything. I lost track of how many times I screamed at him to keep his finger off the trigger when not actually shooting, but when actually shooting he did well enough to piss off some of the youngsters at the range.) One of the sets I gave him was my load #9B, done on 3/31/2001: 50 rounds of 9mm made with GFL cases, WSP primers, 4.0 grains of Red Dot, and a 124 grain FMJ bullet.
I usually reject 5 or 10 per hundred cases I come home with, and I came back home with only 197 total cases (I counted when I decided to submit this post). When I got home and sorted through it all, I found THIRTY FIVE cases split like that, with a perfect record: Every single one was stamped "GFL" on the bottom. Yeah, I also rejected a couple others for damage, but those 35 splits bother me. So, what are the possible causes?
Could it be the gun? Yeah, but wouldn't I see these splits when shooting other lots, too?
Could it be my Dillon 550B? Perhaps the sizing die was scratched and scored every case in that lot, but again wouldn't that also have happened with lot #9C, loaded later the same day with only 3.8 grains of Red Dot, otherwise the same except for Speer cases? I've never polished any of my dies.
Could it be overcharging? Perhaps, but then wouldn't I have seen this happen when firing my lot #9A loaded the weekend before, which had the same primer and bullet but 4.2 grains of Red Dot and PMC cases?
Is it age? After all, we're talking about lots I loaded back in 2001. Perhaps, but again why this particular lot and none of the others I loaded back then?
I'm thinking that I'm going to add "GFL" to my list of cases to not reload. What have I missed, here?
Today I get a chance to learn something, and I want opinions on what the lesson should be.
At the range this morning with my Father-in-Law (henceforth "FiL"), supposedly teaching him about pistols while I test a new load in a pistol that traditionally doesn't cycle properly with RNL bullets. Since I reload, I scrounge brass whenever not actually shooting. I don't get all of mine back, I get some of someone else's, it all evens out.
Others also scrounge, and several people noticed that some of my cases are split. Not "See this black line? It's a crack; you can't reload this case." split, but "M-F you could drive a truck through that crack!" split. Please refer to exhibit A, the attached photo. While the true nature of those vertical black lines in the front row may not be clear, I turned the back row so you can clearly see the wood table through the cases.
Now, when I first started reloading, I segregated all the cases and made one run with Win, another run with Speer, etc while I was working out what I wanted. After awhile I had pretty well determined which brands worked and which didn't, and just loaded "mixed" cases with the loads I liked. Some of those experimental lots I never used, and they just sit around gathering dust.
Since FiL says he knows nothing about pistols, I'm giving him a lot of my old stuff to burn thru as he learns his way around the pistol I let him use. (He did spend some time carrying a 1911 for Uncle Sam's Misguided Children's club but that was well over a half-century ago, so he may not remember anything. I lost track of how many times I screamed at him to keep his finger off the trigger when not actually shooting, but when actually shooting he did well enough to piss off some of the youngsters at the range.) One of the sets I gave him was my load #9B, done on 3/31/2001: 50 rounds of 9mm made with GFL cases, WSP primers, 4.0 grains of Red Dot, and a 124 grain FMJ bullet.
I usually reject 5 or 10 per hundred cases I come home with, and I came back home with only 197 total cases (I counted when I decided to submit this post). When I got home and sorted through it all, I found THIRTY FIVE cases split like that, with a perfect record: Every single one was stamped "GFL" on the bottom. Yeah, I also rejected a couple others for damage, but those 35 splits bother me. So, what are the possible causes?
Could it be the gun? Yeah, but wouldn't I see these splits when shooting other lots, too?
Could it be my Dillon 550B? Perhaps the sizing die was scratched and scored every case in that lot, but again wouldn't that also have happened with lot #9C, loaded later the same day with only 3.8 grains of Red Dot, otherwise the same except for Speer cases? I've never polished any of my dies.
Could it be overcharging? Perhaps, but then wouldn't I have seen this happen when firing my lot #9A loaded the weekend before, which had the same primer and bullet but 4.2 grains of Red Dot and PMC cases?
Is it age? After all, we're talking about lots I loaded back in 2001. Perhaps, but again why this particular lot and none of the others I loaded back then?
I'm thinking that I'm going to add "GFL" to my list of cases to not reload. What have I missed, here?
Oh, and good luck with any product liability claims for any of these offshore companies, too...
