Need some help with my first reloads.

[Schuster]

I am getting new sights put on it this week, but sometime next week I will try to get out and chrono those rounds and see if I can get a handle on what is going on with it.

 

[penman53]

You are comparing apples to oranges. Comparing to a hollowpoint jacketed bullet to a lead truncated cone is like comparing a bicycle to a motorcycle. Yes, they both have two wheels and can be ridden, but that's about all they have in common.

The OAL between the two loads is different. The length of the hollowpoint will be shorter than a traditional bullet. The difference between jacketed and lead is HUGE.

I have shot THOUSANDS of this same load through my Glock 22 limited gun. I've never seen a primer like that. Flattened or pierced primers would be more of what I expect as a sign of over pressure.

ETA: Does the primer look the same when you shoot factory ammo?

If you are using SWC bullets, the OAL isn't as important as how much the bullet is inside the case. With the 45 acp bullets I load from J and K I leave about a thumbnail thickness of the ridge exposed when the OAL is set with my dies. When check on a case gauge, the OAL is still perfect. Also make sure that you are not over crimping your bullets. Someone should be able to tell you what the ideal crimp is. If you don't know, take the barrel out of the gun, drop the loaded round into the breach and check the flush fit of the bullet in the breach, tap it two times lightly and then turn the barrel over, the bullet should fall freely out of the barrel, that is an easy way to check your crimp without using a micrometer.

 

[jdgabbard]

If you were seeing over pressure the edges of the primer would in fact be more "squared off." Yet they are still rounded. I had a problem similar to this with my first .38spl loads when i first started. Was using a 158g SWC loaded over 4g of unique. I noticed I was getting a lot of soot and unburned powder in the cases, cylinders and barrel. I upped the load to 4.2g of unique and the problem resolved itself, and I started putting groups of 0.78" on paper at 25 meters.

Now with the Data stated abover that 3.5g was max, I'd seriously look at a different powder. Unique, bullseye, etc. There are too many other powders out there that work in multiple calibers. For example I use unique in plinker loads with rifles...and some mid range loads as well...just about any standard caliber with a 100-130g cast lead projectile... And its my go to in EVERY pistol caliber I load for with the exception of magnums...