Odd happening, bullet separation

[DrLaw]

I had something happen tonight that never happened to me before.

.38 Special, Bull-X hollow-base 148 grain wadcutters. 2.7 grains of Red Dot.

The skirt of the wadcutter was separating from the front of the bullet, hitting the rubber dust guard and flying back at me. It looked as if I had two hits per shot. One a .38, one about a .45 caliber hit.

I load on a progressive loader, and check the powder charge on the scale from time to time to make sure it is staying the same.

Normally, shooting this load, I have very mild recoil and a not too loud bang. Some of the loads were sounding like full-power loads though.

Yes, I do crimp the bullet in, but it is not excessive.

I have used that load for several years without a problem. Any ideas?

The Doc is out and perplexed now.

 

[griz]

Do you crimp it with about half of the bullet seated out of the case?

 

[DrLaw]

No, the bullet has a lip just behind the front, I crimped it there. Just to aid faster reloading by having a smaller circumference profile than the case edge.

Others at the club last night thought it might be too hard a crimp, causing the pressure to rise too much, or that even seating it out to that lip might have been the cause, but I have loaded that way with the same load for years without problems.

The Doc is still out and pondering.

 

[SL1]

It sounds like a double charge problem.

Another possibility: I have heard of HBWCs that were loaded too hot losing their skirts in the bore. If that happened once, then the following rounds that were loaded OK might expell the lodged skirt as a second projectile. I don't know if it could also leave a second skirt, so that the process could repeat itself, but that seems plausible. So, I suggest that you take a good look down your bore to see if there is a lead ring left somewhere in it, or if there is a ring (slight internal bulge) in the barrel from an obstruction being shot-out.

A third possibility is cylinder misalignment. I have seen that tear apart jacketed bullets, so I expect it could break soft HBWCs into pieces.

SL1

 

[DrLaw]

My first thought, too, was double charge, but I have a problem believing that when I am using a progressive reloader (Hornady).

The skirts that came back did not have a deformed bottom (as if they were struck from another bullet) nor was there a ring in the barrel (Yeah, that was one of my thoughts, too, so I checked).

When I pull these bullets and weigh the charges I will come back and let you know what the charge weight was.

The Doc is out now.

 

[brickeyee]

A HBWC can come apart if driven to fast, sometime in the barrel, sometimes as soon as they exit the barrel, and sometimes when they hit something.

They are normally pure lead bullets and are very soft (swaged, not cast).

 

[griz]

Just another guess, but is anything different about the bullet itself? Different brand maybe? I'm thinking possibly the load was borderline and a weaker bullet might have failed, but then again 2.7 gr of Red Dot doesn't sound too hot either. Please let us know if you figure it out.

 

[DrLaw]

I will. I have been busy and have not been able to pop the bullets out yet.

Maybe this weekend.

The Doc is out now.

 

[DrLaw]

Report on the odd happenings

As with a lot of things in life, when many contributing factors come into play, there can be consequences.

After pulling several of the bullets, the problem appears to be several things,

1st. Too tight a crimp. I see that now. Built up more pressure than there should have been with just the very light Red Dot load I was using. The weight of the powder is consistent and there have been no double loads that I have found thus far. (I also do not know why I did this too tight a crimp other than to get it over the front ring of the bullet)

2nd. Cases. This might relate to too tight a crimp, as I found several cases with the case starting to tear on the mouth in several places. These have been tossed and will not be reused (once in a while, okay, more than once in a while, I have still used a case with one tear that was not toooo big).

3rd. Lead was too soft to do that tight crimp. I had bullets deforming on the bottom of the bullet puller (RCBS - with four ribs on the bottom of the tube). Bullet noses came out of the puller deformed to a square, and I was not doing powerhouse the blows to the bullet puller.

Well, lesson learned. You can teach an old dog new tricks. You'd also think that after 30 years of reloading, I might figure this stuff out BEFORE it happens!

The Doc is out now.

 

[rclark]

For that light a load I doubt you even need a crimp. The crimp applied should just 'straighten' the case, I would think.

Don't feel bad, after 30 years here, I am still learning too! Never ends. Well ... there is an ending of course....

 

[brickeyee]

Bullet noses came out of the puller deformed to a square, and I was not doing powerhouse the blows to the bullet puller.

Put a used foam ear plug in the bottom of the puller to protect the bullet nose.

 

[DrLaw]

Hey, that is a great idea. I hope I can remember to take the foam earplug out of my ear first!

The Doc is out now.