Other fun facts:
I was loading
-Precision Delta 180 round nose bullets
- This particular batch was 4.1 to 4.2 grain Titegroup powder. I say 4.1 to 4.2 because the Lee Turret press with the disk loader throws the charge off a bit usually a little less than expected. I guess from what I understand now is that TG is a flakey powder and drops inconsistently sometimes. Well..actually, most of the time in my case.. Upon further reading I found people saying to tap the powder mechanism while charging the case. AND pull the lever slower to let the powder empty into the case. This does help get the powder to be more consistent. It makes it fill the disk cavity fully before moving it to the hole in the die.. I tested this about 50 times or so and it's much more accurate now. (Learning after the fact.... %^%E^%$%$^^&^%@@!!!)
- OAL of 1.125
- Stock barrel.
So the order of things were:
1. I made 10 of these 4.1 to 4.1 grain bullets. while doing these I was playing around with the crimp setting. The book said put a loaded round in the crimper die. Then screw down the screw thing on top till it touches the bullet. Then lower the handle and turn 1/4 turn for a light crimp and a full turn for a heavy crimp. It never does tell you how much of a crimp it is. I've read all over the place where people state the dimensions of their crimp. How do I figure that out?? Any how, the point was I think one of those bullets may have had a really hard crimp. Would love to know how to tell what the crimp was. I'm not a fan of Oh. 1/4 turn is a light crimp and a full turn is a heavy crimp..
2. Then decided to increase the disk cavity the next one up. .37 to .40 cavity on the disk. This made the powder drop 4.4-4.5gn
3. I made 2 boxes (100rnds) straight. after i was done with each i weighed each and every bullet to make sure they were about the same weight. I double charged a round and with the projectile it came to 261.9grains. so i made sure non of my rounds came near that. 257.6, 258.1, 256.3, .....around there. and I wrote on a piece of paper the receipe and stuck them in the box. oh and each round I measured the OAL to 1.125.
I went to the range on Saturday and took both boxes of 4.4-4.5 grain bullets and thought hmmm. why not take the box of 4.1s . Lets see how light they are compared to the 4.4-.5s. So I threw those into the goodie box as well.
Got to the range and shot one box of the 4.4-4.5 rounds. A bit snappier than factory rounds. definitely can tell there was a difference from the usual box I buy at the range. Atlanta Arms reloads.
Things were going good. Then I decided hmm.... I wonder how those 4.1s shoot. I loaded up 5 rounds. Bang....Bang...KABOOM!!! Definately was not expecting that. Mag flew out the bottom, Could tell the frame exploded in my hand The barrel is down range about 5 feet. plastic trigger is in 10 pieces, Slide was jammed up with the frame. Most of the internals were broken. Pins in 2 pieces, there was not much salvageable. The slide had a bow in it outward near the extraction point.
We retrived the barrel and investigated the site. The block on the barrel split in two down the middle. Now have a top half and a bottom half. Blew up and forward ripping completely off the barrel at the point where it started to go round. shot straight up hit the track above me and shot forward down range about 10-15 yards. the rest of the barrel was about 5 feet away.
Hands ok, no scars just tingly..
Dave the range owner said it looks like a double charge. But like I said after putting in a double charge to see what it looks like, there's a lot of powder in there. How could I miss that? Remember when I said I weighed each and every bullet. I said that when making those 2 boxes.. Never did weigh the first 15 or so before those boxes. Bringing them was an after thought. I wonder could it be one of those that I crimped to hard while messing with the crimp die? What about if one of those was smaller than the minimum OAL of 1.125. I guess it said MINIMUM for a reason. What if the crimp was not enough and there was set back? ARGHHHHHHH!!!!!!! And to top it all off I bought 1000 pieces of used brass from precision delta. roll sized, cleaned bla bla bla. Some people say they never use used brass. Oh and the brass was nickel plated. Don't know if that makes a difference.. Would love to figure out what happened so I don't do it again..
Ok the point is I was lucky. A. Luck to have hands and a face still........And B. better yet my new STI Edge Custom 5inch came in Monday!! So not without a gun for too long.. So back in the saddle. For tuesdays club match....
But what about bullets???? I didn' buy all this stuff to keep buying retail bullets. So I search out every post I could find on peoples sti edge .40 load data and came up with the following.
Using my precision delta 180 FMJ + 4.2-4.3grains of TG and an OAL of 1.190. Seemed reasonable. Less powder, longer bullet.. Watching each bullet like a hawk. Took me and hour and a half to make 50. so 3 hours to make 100. Measuring the charge every 2-3 maybe 4 or so. Checking the OAL just as often. Does this sound like a reasonable load for this gun? Still a bit gun shy at the making bullets game.. I have a box of factory loads too. Figured I would start with those. When I get to the range have some one who shoots an STI and makes their bullets check over my work. Discuss what I did. Or do I play it safe and buy another box or two factory loads and thow the whole lot way.. HELP!!!!!! I will post pics of the barrel tomorrow. I was so confident going to the range on Saturday. Now not so much... Oh and to top it all of a friend at the club compared my lee press to cheap gasoline vs a dillon which is racing fuel. and asked me what kind of gas would I put in a race car? Cheap gas or racing fuel? Could it be the lee turret press is that cheap that I can't make good bullets? Is the dillon that much more precise? .. Too many questions.. @#$#$%#$%#$#@#%@#@$%#$%#%!!!!!!!!!!!!! If i've confused you with all this babble, now you know what is floating around in my head.. Definately don't want to blow up my $2700 STI..
Edited by Rocky Patel, 30 January 2012 - 10:20 PM.
