Blazing_Oaks
New member
Hello-
Needing some help figuring out what I am doing wrong with my .355 90 grain Xtreme Defense Bullets. I am relatively new to reloading having only done it for about a year and a half so any advice would be appreciated.
Some context:
Made my first small test batch with them, using 5.5 grains of CFE Pistol, CCI Small Pistol Primer 500, and the 90 grain XD bullets with a COL of 1.100. Worked great so I went on and made another batch 60 rounds, which also worked great - 100% success with both batches.
Fast forward 1 month and I got to make another batch of 100, using the same recipe, shooting the same gun (M&P Shield). Nothing but problems - had some primers that wouldn't ignite, the rounds that did ignite wouldn't properly cycle the gun, and had constant jams.
So I went and disassembled the bullets and re-did everything. Double checked the primers were seated correctly, double checked the powder load was correct, double checked the COL, etc. The Re-done batch preformed even worse than the first- even ended up with several squib roads in the barrel. Yet everything appears to be in spec when I triple checked everything.
So set that project aside and made a bunch of 124 grain JHPs using the same primers, the same cases, the same powder, shot out of the same gun. All worked perfectly, no problems. So it does not appear to be a case of bad powder, bad primers, or the firearm.
Decided instead of redoing the failed 90 grain XD batch for the 3rd time, I would start new to see if I could pinpoint what was going on. Made more brand new ones today and still had issues - most wouldn't cycle properly and they burned super dirty. Even tried messing with the load from 5.5-5.9 grains and the COL from 1.100 to 1.125 with no success.
At this point I'm stumped. All my reloads using the SAME components, minus the 90 gr XD bullets work fine. My MP Shield seems to be working fine too with no issues. Plus I don't get why the first two batches using the recipe worked fine but now I get nothing but failures.
Any ideas what I am doing wrong?
Needing some help figuring out what I am doing wrong with my .355 90 grain Xtreme Defense Bullets. I am relatively new to reloading having only done it for about a year and a half so any advice would be appreciated.
Some context:
Made my first small test batch with them, using 5.5 grains of CFE Pistol, CCI Small Pistol Primer 500, and the 90 grain XD bullets with a COL of 1.100. Worked great so I went on and made another batch 60 rounds, which also worked great - 100% success with both batches.
Fast forward 1 month and I got to make another batch of 100, using the same recipe, shooting the same gun (M&P Shield). Nothing but problems - had some primers that wouldn't ignite, the rounds that did ignite wouldn't properly cycle the gun, and had constant jams.
So I went and disassembled the bullets and re-did everything. Double checked the primers were seated correctly, double checked the powder load was correct, double checked the COL, etc. The Re-done batch preformed even worse than the first- even ended up with several squib roads in the barrel. Yet everything appears to be in spec when I triple checked everything.
So set that project aside and made a bunch of 124 grain JHPs using the same primers, the same cases, the same powder, shot out of the same gun. All worked perfectly, no problems. So it does not appear to be a case of bad powder, bad primers, or the firearm.
Decided instead of redoing the failed 90 grain XD batch for the 3rd time, I would start new to see if I could pinpoint what was going on. Made more brand new ones today and still had issues - most wouldn't cycle properly and they burned super dirty. Even tried messing with the load from 5.5-5.9 grains and the COL from 1.100 to 1.125 with no success.
At this point I'm stumped. All my reloads using the SAME components, minus the 90 gr XD bullets work fine. My MP Shield seems to be working fine too with no issues. Plus I don't get why the first two batches using the recipe worked fine but now I get nothing but failures.
Any ideas what I am doing wrong?