Shoot 'em, or not?

[Peaceful Henry]

I just finished reloading 200 .45 ACP on my Lee 1000 progressive. About 160 rounds through while seating a bullet I noticed the case was empty (no powder). Powder was on, so I threw a couple charges and everything measured fine. I recharged the empty case and continued only to notive another empty case less than to rounds later. Now, it's never done this to me before and therefore I've gotten kinda complacent about checking each case for powder. Bottom line is, I wouldn't be surprised to find one in ten of this batch of 200 to be powder-free. I'll worry about why the reloader is skipping charges later. Right now I'm trying to decide whether I want to carefully shoot these 200 and ram out stuck bullets every 10 shots or pull all 200 and start from scratch.

[CaptainRazor]

If it where me, I'd set those aside and start over. But that's just me.
You can always pull them later and re-use the cases, bullets and primers.

A squib in the barrel would be a real PITA and might ruin a good day at the range. (or at least make it not very enjoyable)

[Mal H]

I'd weigh each round. You should find that they average a fairly constant amount (+ or - a grain or two), but there will be some that are significantly below that average. Pull any that you have any doubts about. Personally, I'd shoot the remainder being very careful not to fire into a squib.

You might even purposely load an empty cartridge (case, primer, no powder and with the bullet barely in the case for easy removal later) and see what it weighs. That would give you a good benchmark for what an empty should weigh.

[Russ5924]

If you think there is that many I WOULDN'T use them.Most times you can tell if you have a bad round but you get into rapid fire Put them aside and when you have nothing better to do take them apart.Better safe than sorry??

[BigSlick]

In my experience, using mixed 45 ACP brass, one headstamp will often weigh more or less than another headstamp. Sometimes weights with the same headstamp will vary as much as 8-10 grains.

I use Titegroup and PowerPistol in 45 ACP. Both (based upon published data) utilize a smaller powder weight than common/probable case weight variation.

Pull the bullets and start over, or, shoot slowly being very careful of a squib..

Just my .02 cents

BigSlick

[mandark]

Peaceful Henry

Not knowing the particulars of what you loaded, bullet weight, weight of powder, mixed head stamps? Manny of margins of errors that can cancel each other out. If all brass is same head stamp it could be a reasonable assumption that all cases will be the same weight if they were the same length.

In order for any weight approach to work more reliably try first to weigh 50-100 bullets, and cases separately to see if the cumulative variations of both could mask one another.

Take the heaviest bullet and case weight add them together let this =A, now take the lightest of each add them together let this =B

If A-B meets or exceeds the weight of the powder shot in question this method is not going to work 100% pull them.

[Edward429451]

Yep start over. 45acp charges are so small to begin with and mixed headstamp (?) brass is all over the place in weight (I've tried that) that you could not be sure.

Jacketed bullets are the devil to remove from the bore. Lead is easier. You didn't mention what you loaded.

[mandark]

unintentional post

[Peaceful Henry]

The load for these is a 230 grain round nose FMJ on 4.5-.6 grains of Titegroup, mixed brass. I'm afraid trying to find the empties by weight is going to be really iffy. I don't want to pull 200 bullets but I really don't want to risk damaging the gun ramming out half-fired jacketed slugs. Oh well, I've got nobody to blame but myself for not watching as closely as I should. Thankfully it's only 200 and not 2,000!

Thanks for the suggestions.

[cheygriz]

Pull 'em!

The three most important things in handloading are:
1.safety
2.safety
3.safety

[Desert Dog]

Shake them. You should be able to hear and feel the powder inside the case. If you can't, pull them...

[Russ5924]

You think you have it bad,was at the range yesterday and walked down to talk to a guy on the 25 yard line.Said to him why he was down here all alone told me didn't want to bother anyone when he beat out the squibs.He had a guy load 1000 .45 for him and he figured out of 10 was a dud. Some how they had no powder and he was shooting them???

[Dogjaw]

You've got a 2nd issue that started this mess. A powder measure on a progressive press that is faulty. Did you figure out why your powder measure is failing? I've got a Dillon press, and I'm not familiar with the Lee 1000. Did something loosen up that activates/operates the powder measure?

Dillon has an arm that is held to the side of the measure with a socket head (allen) cap screw and wave spring washer. The cap screw will loosen up over time, allowing this activating arm (with a white nylon block) to slip out of the notch in the charge bar. This causes a partial charge, or no charge at all. Fortunately for me, I have a habit of checking every 10th case for powder charge, and only had to pull 10. This cap screw is in your face while reloading, and now gets checked before starting, and at regular intervals.

I would have serious doubts about any powder charge until I found out what was wrong.

[G56]

Shake them, if you have good hearing and are in a quiet environment you can often hear the powder in the case moving.