reloading primers

Obviously the dryer sheet has put an oily film on the bushing
Click to expand...

Not quite - a dryer sheet is nothing more than a cheap woven polyester piece of fabric with a light coating of wax that dissipates in the dryer when heat is applied - if anything, it would make it slicker.

Maybe you have more of a humidity problem than you think, but I can tell you that using the red plastic PC powder baffle on all of my MECs made all the difference - the powder drops are consistent every single drop
 
The dryer sheets shouldn't make it worse ...they should cut the static down ..maybe try and wipe the bottle down again / but you're still getting too much variation to suit me. So something is still going on ....

Look at the Hodgdon website - they have a lot more loads using Clays and 1oz loads / but I gave you the load specs right off the website - about 12 responses up for 1125 fps - 1290 fps.

" As an example Hodgdon Clays ( 1 oz loads, REM STS hulls, WAA12SL wad, and WIN 209 primers - has a load at 15.7gr for 1125 fps ...the recipe I use: for my target loads at 18.4gr for 1235 fps and a 19.8 gr for 1290 fps ....so I'm well within the high and low tolerance for the powder I choose to use. "

The hulls you're using are fine - they use the same recipe as Rem STS hulls - low brass is common on target shells ( its all I use ). The only thing you'll find on those hulls - is they're thin - so they will start cracking after 5 or 6 reloads vs STS or Nitro hulls will go 20+ reloads.../ but there is no reason not to use the hulls you have.

As long as you are using a substitute for the WAA12SL wad you're fine - a lot of guys use claybuster wads ...and they're fine / you just need the one that matches the ounces of shot you've picked.

yes, you can substitue the chedite primers for Win 209 primers.

Talk to a local buddy / maybe they can give you a hand --- loan you 1/2 lb of Hodgdon Clays or something for you to test.../ but don't give up.
 
oletymer,
Just because you've not experienced something doesn't mean it can't happen. My primary skeet gun's breech face has erosion rings, the same size as primers, around the firing pins and the firing pin holes are enlarged. I'd tried to get some pics for you, but they come out too dark without the flash or overly bright with the flash -- my camera isn't happy making close-ups.

Big Jim questioned me about the same thing right I posted my remark. Here's an extract of my reply: When I had my Mirage last serviced, the Perazzi factory tech took one look at my gun and said, "You've been shooting reloads, haven't you?"

Haven't you had old hulls that have black around the primer pockets? It's from blow-by. I load with Double-A hulls in four gauges (the gun is tubed) and some Fed papers in 12-ga. If your BT-99, with all those rounds, shows no signs of breech face erosion, I'd like to know what hulls you load with.

Perhaps Browning (Big Jim shoots B-guns, too) uses a more robust alloy than Perazzi. The problem is common enough that Perazzi has a method of renewing the breech face. If the problem doesn't exist, perhaps I can send you the bill when I eventually get mine renewed. ;)
 
Any idea how many shells you had thru that gun Zippy - when you found the problem / or how many yrs you had it at that point ??

As a note ... a few yrs ago, when a lot of guys were shifting to Chedite primers because we had trouble getting Remington and Winchester 209's ...there were some eroded and pitted firing pins showing up in a lot of Brownings. There was a lot of discussion about it on some of the more dedicated to clay target shooting forums ...and I don't know that there was ever a consensus, but it seemed to be related to Chedie primers ( corrosive, temperature, etc ...who knows)....

I currently shoot several Brownng O/U's ( and have shot the same 8 or 9 guns for the last 13 yrs or so ) and have not used a lot of Chedite primers -- and many of my primary guns are well over 100,000 shells with no firing pin corrosion issues ( primarily Win and Rem 209 primers ) in 12ga, 20ga and 28ga ( I shoot a .410 Browning O/U as well -- but despite the fact that the gun is probably 10 yrs old I don't have over 5,000 shells thru it probably )...
 
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Ok,

I guess I'm not confident a Browning or a Beretta wouldn't show the same issues you found at 250,000 shells.....on your Perazzi .../maybe worse...I don't know ??

But I'm still having a hard time quantifying how much of that wear on the breech face would be from reloads vs factory shells. I guess the only way we'd ever know would be to have two guns ...one fired exclusively with factory shells and one exclusively with reloads ...so we probably just have to take the word of your Perazzi service center rep / on what he says caused the issue.

I wonder if the breech faces on some guns are hardened to a different level than others ...or machined to tighter tolerances ...and how all that fits into the equation / if it even does. I think I may have napped during some of those strength of materials classes ...but if its "too hard" ---that's bad too, I would think ...maybe causing it to pit more ...but I'm out of my league now !!
 
Jim, I slept through some of those materials classes; but, if I recall correctly, isn't there a tradeoff between hardness and brittleness? I still remember feeling like a kid who'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar when the factory tech announced that I'd been shooting reloads.
 
Yes, that's what I think as well...so harder - may pit more ...than a breech face that is a hair softer ...but not too soft ...( if that makes any sense ) ...

You should feel bad ....:rolleyes: ....no, not really !!

Just imagine how much worse it would look if you'd fired a bunch of junk shells in it like Estate's ...( anything Estate puts in a box has to be way worse than any of my reloads...) :D

Of course it begs the question ...what if your reloads had been using Chedite primers instead of Remington or Winchester 209's .../ and what if you had been shooting hotter loads ...say at 1250 fps ...would it have been ever worse ??
 
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