Loading for a Lone Wolf barrel - Glock 19

[Merad]

I bought a LW barrel for my G19 to shoot more lead with it. I knew about their reputation for tight chambers going in, but I'm running into a slightly different problem...

I have some 115gr plated and 124gr lead rounds loaded up. The plated drop into the chamber and cycle fine. The lead though stops probably 1mm short of dropping all the way into the chamber. Cycling them through the gun it goes into battery fine, but is slightly harder than normal to open the slide and eject the round. On inspecting the round after it's ejected, you can see light marks on the bullet where it was forced into the start of the rifling. All of these rounds are already seated to the min COL and have gone through a Lee FCD.

So my questions are:
1. Is this a problem? I'm slightly worried about either bullet setback or the slim possibility of an out of battery discharge.
2. What can I do to fix it?

 

[jepp2]

All of these rounds are already seated to the min COL and have gone through a Lee FCD.

What is your OAL? For 9mm I see as short as 1.010". If your bullet is in contact with the lands, you need to reduce your COL. But as you increase bullet seating depth (reduce OAL) you should reduce your powder charge as the pressure will increase due to the reduced case capacity.

I find some cast bullets require significantly shorter OAL than plated or jacketed bullets do. I record the length for each pistol where the bullet contacts the lands, and load shorter so my loads work in all.

 

[WESHOOT2]

wolf 'em down

Suggest shorter OAL.
First.....

 

[David Bachelder]

I had the same problem. The Lone Wolf Barrel is tighter than the Glock barrel.

You have two choices.
Send the barrel back to Lone Wolf. Call them first, they will need more info and probably some dummy reloads.

or

Wrap Emory cloth around a dowel rod and polish the LW barrel out. All you have to do is remove a couple thousandths. Start with 220, then 600 and polish with 1200 or so.

Sand then fit, sand then fit, sand then fit. It wont take long and you will have it just where you want it. I did it, it was easy didn't take long and the reloads fit fine.

 

[Merad]

What is your OAL? For 9mm I see as short as 1.010".

1.12". I don't have my reloading stuff handy but I believe the Lee manual listed that as the min COL for the 124gr lead load with Titegroup that I used. If my eyeballed measurement of 1mm is correct then I would have to take the COL down to about 1.08".

 

[Wreck-n-Crew]

Suggest shorter OAL.
First.....

Me too, and depending on the load you may have to back off on the powder.

Shorten the OAL and do a "Plunk Test", if the round passes the plunk test make sure your starting charge is not to high, start on the low end and work up your load from there.

I have had to shorten some 9mm loads to 1.08 to pass the plunk test in a 9mm I have. I worked up a load without any pressure problems and all was well using 125 Gr. RNFP.

 

[WESHOOT2]

KKM's Glock barrels are superb.

Just sayin'.....

 

[lee n. field]

The lead though stops probably 1mm short of dropping all the way into the chamber. Cycling them through the gun it goes into battery fine, but is slightly harder than normal to open the slide and eject the round. On inspecting the round after it's ejected, you can see light marks on the bullet where it was forced into the start of the rifling. All of these rounds are already seated to the min COL and have gone through a Lee FCD.

I've done this with .45, before I knew better.

Adjust your seating depth until your bullets no longer bite the rifling. It's just one of the details experience teaches you to watch out for.

 

[chris in va]

My CZ leade is really short too. When I was loading the Lee 358-125-rf, it wouldn't plunk until 1.02, so I backed off the charge to minimum. Worked fine.

I've since moved on to the 356-125-2r.