A small problem

I have reloaded for years. And just ran into a problem I have never had before. I used mixed mostly military brass for reloading. I used hornady 90 gr jacketed bullets and 2400 powder smr primers. Itook out a few to try. This is in 30 carbine and my load is 14.0 gr of 2400. When I got my pistol out it had 6 factory loads in it so I carried them out with the reloads to compare them to. I shot the six factory loads first and the cases extracted easily they were the remington factory full metal case round nosed bullets. when I put my reloads in they fit fine and slid right into the cylinder just like normal. I shot the 6 reloads and noticed less recoil and less noise but they shot to poa so no big deal. A good plinking load I thought. When I went to remove the cases there were 2 out of the six that were hard to eject taking a lot of force on the ejector to remove. There was no sign's of over pressure by looking at the primers. The other 4 cases removed as normal with very little pressure on the ejector. I am a very careful loader and trickle every powder charge to 0 and look into every case after charging to veiw the powder level on every load. this is in a new blackhawk that has only shot maybe 150 factory loads with no problem whatsoever and these military cases were cleaned before loading. I have shot reloads in this gun before with no problem but all were commercial brass no military cases until now. The hornady bullets were specifyed for 30 carbine loading but were 309dia. I also loaded some different hornady bullets that were 80 grain jacketed bullets that were 30 mauser bullets but were 308 dia. I didn't try them to see if they were better. I loaded them with the same load 14.0 gr 2400. What do you think my problem might be.

Different brass as well as brass of unknown number of loadings will expand differently. Situations like this are why I sort all my brass and avoid brass that I don't know the history of. The load you list is about max depending on who's data you look at, one book says 13.7 for max. Combine that with unknown cases you are going to get sticky extraction. I would not be worried about it myself it is a ruger after all. I would still shoot the loads but I would be inclined to only reload the cases that extract ok and reduce the load a bit the next time around. The sticky cases are surely headed for splitsville real soon maybe even the next loading. In a revolver I would not be concerned about bullet diameter and pressure problems. It is not like a closed action were pressure effects the case after firing. The case is subjected only to pressure til the bullet leaves the cylinder. One other possibility is in addition to the brass expanding more than other cases could be the cylinder. It is possible that you might have a couple holes that are a little tighter. See if the spent cases will chamber any easier in different cylinder holes. If that is the case I would definitely not worry about it and I would continue to use all the brass. Still might want to back things down just a bit.

I have no experience with .30 Carbine ammunition, but will make a guess. Military brass is often thicker than commercial brass. This has two effects. One, the thicker brass reduces the internal volume of the case, which can result in higher pressures with the same powder charge. Two, the thicker brass having expanded from the internal pressure of firing may not spring back as nearly to its original size as the thinner commercial brass.

Hi,

Just a quick question on the side: how do the insides of your chambers look?

Out of the box, my Bisley had chambers that looked like they were machined w/ a rock. It would stick every .357 Mag and even a few .38 Spls I fed it until I managed to get it smoothed out a bit. Now, any "normal" load ejects fine...

I was warned about this "potential problem" by the salesman at the LGS (a retired pistolsmith and former co-worker.) He suggested I take a "Ruger extraction tool" w/ me when shooting that gun: a length of dowel rod and a small hammer.

My brother in law laughed... until he got a case stuck in his then newest BH. "Hey, Rick, did you put that Ruger tool in your range box?" "Yup... ya need it?"

Just thinking out loud, you know?

Rick C

You can't just assume the cases are thicker and have less volume unless you measure it. You can do that with water leaving the fired primer intact.

I would make sure to tumble your cases and lighten that charge up a bit. The bullet diameter is okay, don't worry about the .001".