[J Miller]

(Hope this is the right place to put this, the choices on the handloading section just didn't seem to match up.)

I had my Rossie to the range last week and fired quite a few rounds through it. But the last six were from a bunch of reloads I bought at the last gunshow.
(I checked them by pulling the bullets and checking the powder charges, to make sure of no excessive loads or double charges, but what I didn't take into consideration is under charges.)
The last six were some brand of 230gr JHP, and they were loaded so light the cases didn't expand to seal the chamber. This caused a lot of blowby and if it were not for my glasses I'd be in trouble now. They did make it out of the barrel, I counted the holes in the target as I shot the stuff.

My question is: How much pressure does it take to expand a straight walled case such as the .45 Colt to seal the chamber in a rifle?

 

[J Miller]

I personally steer clear of 'garage brand' reloads myself....

Normally so do I. For some reason this batch of 35 rounds, was bought for the brass and just got shot. Usually I would have pulled the bullets dumped the powder and put in a known ammount of new powder.
But it brought up the question of just how much pressure does it take to expand the case to seal the chamber.

I suppose I could have thought all month and not asked a question with more variables.

As for the brass, they were W-W and looked to be once fired then loaded.

 

[J Miller]

Good advice to steer clear of any relaod that you didn't pull the handle on.

Absolutly true, and I usually do this. Normally I don't even buy commercial reloads, let alone those of unknown herritage. But I guess this was a case of lazyness. I did check some of them and not all of them.
You are right, I should have pulled 'em all and then put a known powder charge in. But I didn't.
I won't do it again though.

 

[J Miller]

Gunnut45/454,

I don't remember what charge was in it. I checked to be sure it wasn't an over charge, didn't think about an under charge.
I doubt they were cowboy loads, the bullets were jacketed.

Wierd thing to me is that I have loaded the .45 Colt for almost 30 years now.
Loaded mostly 250-270 grain bullets. Sometimes 200gr SWCs, and lately some 300grn bullets.

I've loaded, light, standard, and +P loads.
I've loaded black and smokeless powder.

I've done this in 4 different rifles and numerous revolvers and up till the six rounds that started this thread I have never had a case of such light pressure that it would blow unburned powder and crap back through the action of a rifle.

(OH, one exception. I loaded some Pyrodex that just didn't have the pressure to expand the case and it filled the action of my Win 94 Trapper with **** so fast that the gun was useless in about 20 rounds.)

I have learned my lesson. Next time I buy unknown reloads for the components, I'm pulling ALL of them down and then replacing the powder with a known charge.

 

[J Miller]

Gunnut45/454,

Cases: W-W, apeared once fired then reloaded.


Won't argue about the primers. Had 35 rounds. Fired 29 in my Ruger, all went bang nicely, but these 6 I chose to fire from the Rossie.

Bad powder, could be?

Last night when I was counting clicks and centering my rear sight I decided to see if there was any unburned powder left in the barrel. Yep there was.

I recovered it and it looked like very fine granuals. Couldn't tell what the original color was, but they were hard and gritty little granuals.
Actually they looked like flea dirt.

My suspicions are that this was a light load of a slow burning powder.
By the looks of that misc batch of ammo I'm thinking they were leftovers from test loads.