I picked up some Berry's .45 185 grain flat point bullets awhile back and have had nothing but problems with them.
The current problem is they will work in one pistol but not others.
• OAL is purely a function of fit between the
your bullet and
your barrel. Nothing else.
• OAL has nothing to do with what any manual said, or what you heard on the internet, or what your best buddy told you.
Yes, common OALs are published for some common pistols, but not every single one.
They won't go into the chamber far enough to go into battery on most of my .45 ACP guns.
I've tried them in my Kimber Custom II, Kimber Ultra Carry II and Shield so far and the Ultra Carry is the only one that will go into battery.
• Some of your pistols are telling you that your OAL (for that specific bullet/barrel combination) are
too long, but you're not listening.
► If I told you that your left pants leg was on fire, would you call the Fire Dept
or believe the observations which are plainly evident before your very eyes ? I mean after all, the 'pants leg on fire thing' is published by an authoritative source on an well-established web site. What do you mean you're
not going to Google, "Is my pants leg on fire?"
• So why is it that you believe your 5 senses in one situation, but not the other ? That is the real question here.
Here's the Solution Method
1) First you'll need to make 1 or more
Test Cartridge(s) (no primer; no powder) with these bullets. Start at the suggested OAL.
2) Since you have multiple 45's, you'll need to remove the barrels from ALL of your 45 cal pistols for this test.
3) Try the
Test Cartridge in each barrel's chamber for "plunk & spin". Take notes on the results with each barrel.
4) If the Test Cartridges(s) won't
Spin, then seat the
Test Cartridge bullet 0.010" deeper and start the process over again.
Here's the Conclusions
• If you have 3 different barrels, then you will most likely find
3 different OALs that allow
Spin. This should serve as adequate evidence that
YOU are now the OAL authority for your guns when using this Berry bullet. Not a book... Not Berry...
YOU !
• Once you find the "tightest chamber", then I suggest you subtract a further 0.015" to allow for "manufacturing variations", just to be safe.
• You will
absolutely not want to build these cartridges in 3 different lengths for the 3 different guns. Therefore, you will want to build all subsequent cartridges to the OAL that will fit in
ALL your 45's (e.g. the shortest recorded OAL, minus 0.015").
• You will also find that this process,
which must be done with every new-to-you bullet, is a royal PIA !! Which is a great reason to find a "good" bullet and stick with it.
• Start believing more in what your own senses are telling you.
Welcome to REAL pistol reloading !
