I'm movin' on with conquering problems in my shooting.
My current nut to crack is why in my 625 individual cartridges all seem to seat just fine in the chambers but when I load in a moon clip it doesn't seat all the way in and the cylinder won't close? I can push the cartridges a little and they will seat, but how do the guys in competition do it. They seem to just throw the moon clip at the cylinder, slap the gun shut and continue shooting.
Do they have slightly over-sized chambers?
Is their reloading die slightly undersized?
Are those special moon clips? I'm using some from S&W and some from Cylinder and Slide so they should work.
What's their secret?
WELL. Since I now have a brass chamber checker from EQW, I dropped a complete round in the checker and lo and behold it didn't seat all the way. BUT I had checked the brass after resizing and it slid easily in and out. What's different?
D U H The bullet.
The Cartridge Over All Length to be specific. I've been seating as recommend in the reloading manual to a 1.2" COAL. But just a little of the bullet is hanging up the cartridge. I'm using Berry copper plated 200Gr hollow points, btw. SO: I seated one until it fits fully into the chamber checker without assistance. I did 6 that way and put them in a moon clip. What a dream to load now.
So how far did I have to seat? 1.13" I KNOW that the smaller capacity inside the case will cause the pressure to be higher, but I'm on the light side of .45ACP loads anyway (the joys of revolver is you only have to have a load that gets the bullet out the barrel, not also operate the slide). So I don't think it will be a problem. I'll need to fire a few to check the MV and see how they feel. Also research other reloading manuals to see what if anyone reloads this short, before I re-seat my entire inventory.
Okay, on to the next problem