Help! GP100 shaving rounds!

C

CritRxDoc

New member
I was at the range yesterday with my shooting partner. We both have Ruger GP100 .357mag. We were shooting some .38sp lead semi-wadcutters with no issue. We switched to some hand loaded (by me) .357mag JHP winchester bullets. The guy in the lane next to us pointed out that there were bits of the what appeared to be the jacket all around the floor where we were shooting. We tried to figure out whether it was my gun or my partner's to no avail. We soon ran out of my reloads and went back to the .38sp without seeing any lead shavings. Why would we see it with the reloaded JHPs but not the .38sp lead semi's? Could it just be the reloaded bullets or do you think one of our cylinder's is not lining up exactly with the barrel? Any suggestions on how we can figure this out would greatly appreciated :)
- Neil
 
Did you check to see if that material was bullet jacket or lead being spat out because of the higher pressures of 357 loads. josh
 
Depending on your load and powder used it could have been unburnt powder. If there was no partition between shooters the man next to you should have been getting peppered if one of the revolvers were spitting.
 
Had 1 just like that, something withgap between cylinder/crane. I've owned 5 gp100's great guns. sent it back to ruger. they ifixed it up sent back within 3 weeks .no charge .and fed ex back to me. Good luck . great guns though.(foot note** the one I had that did it was after they made some design change.) JB:rolleyes:
 
Oh BTW, to those of you that said it could be unburned powder, I was using Alliant 2400. The "shavings" on the floor were goldish/copper colored that reminded me of the jackets. Would unburned powder look like that gold/copper color? Thanks
 
Never shoot jacketed bullets after lead...unless you clean your gun first. The lead bullets leave lead in the barrel...thus making it harder for the jacketed bullets to travel through the barrel. I'm not sure if this is the problem, but in general, I know that you shouldn't shoot jacketed bullets after lead. (It is OK to do it vice versa though ;) .)
 
I'm wondering if you're crimping them so hard that the jackets are coming apart at the crimp.

If they're shaving, it should be much worse with the lead rounds than the jacketed ones.
 
Thank you John! I wondered why no one mentioned this. I had some trouble with the cases being expanded too much before I reloaded them and I was trying to make them smaller again so they would fit the chamber easily again, so I wonder if what you say could be true. Food for thought.
 
I've seen unburnt powder flakes range from black to almost white in color. One almost sure way to tell if it was unburnt powder is the flakes would still be the same size.
 
I believe you just answered your own question. If the brass was not in spec and you reused it and attempted to resize it in crimping, the jackets were most likely damaged. I have seen this before.
 
Id think powder could be some of it too, atleast in my experience with my 454 Casull 2400 was gritty, it got in under the ejector and made it hard to push out the fired cases, I'll definately never use it again. Now I dont know what powder is used for 357 Mags but I love 296 in my gun.
 
Thanks guys, I think I will try some factory .357mags and see if the problem persists before running to the smith. Thanks for all the advice! I will keep you posted.
- regards, Doc
 
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