My first 5 reloaded 45ACP Rounds

[John Ciccarelli]

I just got back from shooting my first 5 rounds through my Glock21. I have not been this nervous about anything in a long time. All fired fine and the recoil was just as I expected.

The Richard Lee book and the Alliant web site did not have the powder amount when using 230 grain lead bullets and bullseye powder. I found my answer here. I used 4.6 and it worked great.

Thanks for the info

John

[Brian Pfleuger]

Congratulations and welcome to the addiction!

Just so you know, Alliant's website is weird. They very often don't have all the data listed if you go straight to the reloading guide. If you use the "Products" link and then choose the powder you want, there's a link for "View All Recipes for XYZ", you'll sometimes find much more data there than in the "Guide". I don't know why they do that, but they do.

(It doesn't appear to help in this instance, but there's a lot more 45acp Bullseye data than the Guide shows.)

[mxjunky78]

Great feeling isn't it? Welcome to the addiction. You'll be spending copious amounts of time in the reloading room now. It's interesting trying all the different combinations.

[Mal H]

Congrats John! It is a good feeling when something you made that can be dangerous actually works as planned.

I gotta ask though, does Glock no longer recommend not using lead in their barrels? Or perhaps your 21 doesn't have a polygonal rifled barrel which seemed to be the reason for not using lead. If it were me, I'd still shoot lead (I do in everything else), but check for excessive leading every once in a while.

[Added]
Here is a thread discussing the subject of lead in Glocks: http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=499025
Post 14 is especially interesting.

[John Ciccarelli]

I actually have a Wilson Combat Barrel in the Glock 21. I bought the Glock used and it came with this barrel.

I hope the nerves get better.

[John Ciccarelli]

I forgot to mention this, but I also have a 10mm conversion barrel and I plan to shoot a lot of 10mm. I have heard that there are a lot of options if you load your own.

[Mal H]

I actually have a Wilson Combat Barrel in the Glock 21. I bought the Glock used and it came with this barrel.

Ah! Good.

I hope the nerves get better.

They will, trust me. After a while, shooting reloads will feel normal.

[mxjunky78]

I shoot lead in my glock all the time. Until you find a combo that works I would pull the barrel every 50 or so rounds to check for leading.

[NWPilgrim]

Thanks for the Link to the other posts. I am one who has shot thousands of rounds of lead bullets through my 9mm and .40 Glocks with no discernible pressure problem. I do have aftermarket barrels and sometimes use them, sometimes use the OEM bbl with either lead or jacketed or plated bullets. I have never seen any evidence of undue leading.

However, after reading those posts by John I will not be shooting lead through my OEM bbl anymore. I think one factor may be the hardness of the cast lead bullet, but I have never seen any testing to prove that or not. I suspect softer lead would smear off more easily. I do see a variability in accuracy and suspect it has to do with the lead hardness. Some OEM bbls and some lead bullets are as accurate as plated and some shoot shotgun patterns.

Since there is some documented risk even when thousands of rounds have given no problem I think it prudent to just use plated with my Glock bbl and switch to the aftermarket bbl for lead. Just have to remember to take both to the range. Learn something new every day, even if it hurts.

[John Ciccarelli]

I loaded 2 clips (26) new reloads and went to see how they shoot. I had a few problems. 4 of the bullets did not fire. There is a dent in the primer that looks normal, but it did not fire. I can't believe that I forgot to add the powder. I am using a lee Classic Turret Press. I guess that it is possible, but I was very careful. Is there a safe way to see why they did not fire? I don't have a bullet puller. I weighed them, but again the overall weight does seem to vary a bit. They do not seam to be lighter then other rounds.

I am at as loss.

Any ideas, John

[Brian Pfleuger]

I'd bet that the primer wasn't fully seated. Odds are excellent that they will fire if you try them again. The first time, the firing pin basically pushed the primer the rest of the way into the pocket. Second time, they'll go bang.

If the primer ignited without powder it would blow the bullet out of the case. You should be able to hear powder if you shake a loaded round, unless your loads are compressed (highly unlikely).

When you're seating the primers, make sure to use a fair bit of force. The seated primer should be slightly BELOW flush with the case. If it takes undue force, you may have to much build up in the primer pocket, but that's pretty unlikely.

[Mal H]

Odds are excellent that they will fire if you try them again.

Yep, I'd bet on the same outcome myself.

And, as Brian said, a primer that goes off without any powder is still very strong and will push the bullet out of the case and often lodge it in the rear of the barrel. Your primers did not go off - guaranteed.

[John Ciccarelli]

I will try to fire them again. Thanks for the advice.

[John Ciccarelli]

I tried them 2 more times to fire these and nothing. All I can think of is the primers were already dented in the same place and it isn't getting hit hard enough. I can't believe that the primers could be bad. I give up.

Any idea how to safely dispose of these?

[Brian Pfleuger]

That seems very odd.

You might as well get a kinetic bullet puller and unload them. You'll be wanting one eventually anyway. They're about $20.

[Steviewonder1]

My G-21 had 20,000 rounds or more thru it with 200GR LSWC with no issues after I changed from Winchester Primers to Federal. I had 2-4 FTF per 100 rounds when reloading them. Switched to Federal and all was 100%. Federal primers are softer than Winchester and CCI. I now have an aftermarket barrel in it and all is still well. I never did believe all the leading issues folks had, cause I inspected and did not have them. YMMV.

[Mal H]

John, until you get a bullet puller, just sacrifice one of the bullets by pulling it out of the case with a pair of pliers. Insert the case into the shell holder on the loader ram and wiggle the bullet until it comes out.

You can then see if the powder is at fault by simply burning it outside. It won't explode - light it with a long match or a long barbecue type lighter. If it fizzles, it got wet or contaminated. If it burns fairly fast, it was fine.

Check the inside of the case with a flashlight for any soot. If you find any, the primer might have gone off, but very weakly. To test the primer, try seating it again with your favorite method of inserting a primer and try to fire it in your pistol, again.

If you don't find something obvious, then I dunno. Sorry.

Four failures to ignite out of 26 is a huge ratio of failures. One out of many thousands is high, but might be acceptable to some.

[g.willikers]

Any chance those dud primers are just previously fired ones?
Maybe the old primers weren't removed during reloading.
Sometimes, the primer doesn't get fully removed at the first die, and gets reinserted at the priming station.

[jimbob86]

I'd bet that the primer wasn't fully seated.

Or seated too deeply.

Lil' bro worked up some handloads for his daughter's first deer hunt.

Primers were pushed in too deep. More than one click when there should have been a BOOM!....... it worked out in the end, though.


Flush and no more.

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Did you put an aftermarket spring kit in your Glock?? If so, one of those springs will be the firing pin spring and it lightens the trigger pull substantially...but it also may fail to ignite a primer. I have had a few that failed in my G29, but always went bang on the second try.

I replaced it with the stock spring promptly...

[John Ciccarelli]

I pulled the bullets. I could not do this on the press. They were too tight. I needed to use a vice and pliers. The powder in all 4 burned just fine. When I look down into the cartridges the priers all look nice and shiny. I do not think that any of them went off. Would it be safe to remove them for further investigation? My thought is that they could go off.

At this point I am thinking that I may never know why they did not fire. Any thoughts?

On a side note I do not see a quote option on this forum. I looked in the FAQ and it shows a symbol that you can click on for this. I do not see this symbol anywhere. What am I missing?

[John Ciccarelli]

I also wanted to mention that I have since fired about 20 more rounds and they all fired fine. This is really puzzling.

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Ask the guy you bought it from if he put a spring kit in it. Chances are if the trigger pull is very light then he did, and that is most likely your problem. There is a chance that the one primer had a slightly thicker cup on it than the others???

[John Ciccarelli]

I don't know about the springs. I bought the Glock 21 from a Gun/Pawn Store. I have shot about 300 rounds of both 45ACP and 10mm and all have shot fine until these 2 clips of reloads. I just think that it is odd that I had 4 bad out of 26.

All I can think is that I may not have seated these 4 primers correctly. The indentation by the firing pin on the second and third try does not seem to change much.

At this point I am glad that they are apart and I don't need to worry about them anymore even though they may still have active primers in them.

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Not trying to nitpick, but I do know that it does bug some people on the board (who I guess have nothing better to do but nitpick). The proper term for the "clip" you are referring to is actually a "magazine". Clips are used to load magazines (ie, stripper clips for ARs, AKs etc). The clip is the little metal thing the rounds are stored on. Then you take the clip, put an adapter on your magazine, and push the rounds from the clip into the magazine. It essentially allows you to load the magazines much faster.

Let us know if you have any more FTFs in your G21.

Here is a video to show you what I am talking about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hgeiu...eature=related