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Old November 30, 1999, 08:08 PM   #1
Ankeny
Senior Member
 
Join Date: December 14, 1998
Location: Shoshoni, WY USA
Posts: 556
Sorry about the terrible French.

I thought I knew how to reload, until today. I have a G35 (Glock .40 S&W) that I am trying to work up a load for. I spent all summer shooting up a couple of cases of factory ammo and now it is time to crank up the press and replenish my supply of ammo. I have read a lot of bad stuff about unsupported chambers and the .40 Smith, but it seemed like bad ammo contributes to the KaBooms and I know I can load quality ammo.

Anyhow, I loaded a 180 grain Hornady XTP bullet in front of 4.5 grains of Tite Group powder. I seated the bullet to the overall length as indicated in the manual. The powder charges were weighed individually on an electronic scale. Since I wanted to test my Glock for accuracy, I was very careful about consistency. Oh yeah, the brass is once fired brass that I bought as new factory loads.

Anyhow, I charged the magazine with five rounds of ammo and started shooting. Instead of picking up the first round (lazy and dumb) to inspect it, I just kept shooting. The first four went fine, and then the fifth round was fired. The case head was ejected and it landed on the bill of my cap, the remainder of the case stayed in the chamber but was easily pushed out with a cleaning rod. No damage at all to the pistol or shooter.

So what the heck is up with this crap? Once fired brass, electronically weighed charge below published maximum, overall length within a couple of thousandths of published length, and the head totally separates from the case.

After the horse was out of the barn, I picked up the empty brass and sure as heck a nice bright ring where the chamber stops supporting the case. So, do I just shoot factory ammo? Get a supported tube, only load squib loads?
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