My wife bought a S&W M&P EZ-PC .380. It's a nice gun, but I still don't understand why it needs a ported barrel--- on a .380. It's a good shooting little gun, and the slide is VERY easy to rack. It eats Winchester white-box all day, but it does NOT like my .380 reloads.
I tend to load on the light side, just enough to get the job done. I have a Springfield 9-1-1, and I can shoot my reloads all day with no problems. I'm loading PMC brass, HP-38 powder, with 100 gn FMJ-RNFP from X-treme Bullets. I started out with 2.9 grains (Hornady load book calls for max 3.3gn load for 100 gn FMJ-RN) & everything ran fine in my 9-1-1. My wife asked me to run a few rounds through her EZ. They ran perfectly, so I loaded 100 rds with 2.9 grains of HP-38.
When we went to the range, they ran perfectly in my 9-1-1, but every round SHE tried to fire in her EZ malfunctioned. Every single round fired, but the gun either failed to eject, failed to load, or stovepiped. SHE could shoot Winchester white-box with no problem. My reloads, not so much. But *I* could pick up her EZ and empty the magazine with no problem. I accused her of limp-wristing. (bad move on my part!)
Back home, I loaded about 20 rounds bumped up to 3.0 grains of HP-38. Same situation. Ran perfectly in my 9-1-1, and *I* could shoot it fine in her EZ, but she still had malfunctions. She ran 50 rounds of white-box through her EZ at the range last week without a single problem. It just doesn't like my reloads in HER hands.
Today I loaded 16 rounds bumped up to 3.1 grains of HP-38, and here's where I made my SECOND mistake (The first, accusing my wife of limp-wristing.. ) I counted out 16 brass shells, 16 bullets, and 16 primers, and put them ALL IN A SINGLE, LARGE PLASTIC TRAY! I'm loading on a Dillon RL550B, and I didn't want to load only 16 primers in the primer system, so I just used tweezers to put one primer at a time into the primer cup before inserting the empty shell. All my brass is always deprimed before I tumble, so for this short run, my sequence was, put a primer into the primer cup, but an empty shell in the press, and resize the brass, then prime. Advance the shell plate, put another primer into the primer cup, resize and prime. Repeat the sequence... Everything was coming out of the tray, and everything should be accounted for...
I suddenly realized that I only had 1 primer left in the tray, but still had 4 empty shells. I immediately figured out that at least one of my completed rounds must have a primer or two in and among the powder! So, I started pulling every bullet, and sure enough, I found 3 rounds that also had a primer mixed in with the powder! I failed to look inside every empty shell as I put it into the shell plate...to make sure it was empty...
I don't know how serious that could have been if I had not caught it, and I wonder if anyone else has made that same mistake. It is so important to be alert to what you are doing! Lesson learned. I'll never mix all of the components together in the same bin again...
So what do you guys think? Big mistake, small mistake, dangerous, or what? What might have happened if those rounds were fired with a primer buried in the powder charge?
Oh, BTW, these 16 rounds fired PERFECTLY in HER EZ, in HER hands! She said they "felt great!" So, I loaded another 100 rounds at 3.1 grains, and we'll see how they run at the range...
Harold...
I tend to load on the light side, just enough to get the job done. I have a Springfield 9-1-1, and I can shoot my reloads all day with no problems. I'm loading PMC brass, HP-38 powder, with 100 gn FMJ-RNFP from X-treme Bullets. I started out with 2.9 grains (Hornady load book calls for max 3.3gn load for 100 gn FMJ-RN) & everything ran fine in my 9-1-1. My wife asked me to run a few rounds through her EZ. They ran perfectly, so I loaded 100 rds with 2.9 grains of HP-38.
When we went to the range, they ran perfectly in my 9-1-1, but every round SHE tried to fire in her EZ malfunctioned. Every single round fired, but the gun either failed to eject, failed to load, or stovepiped. SHE could shoot Winchester white-box with no problem. My reloads, not so much. But *I* could pick up her EZ and empty the magazine with no problem. I accused her of limp-wristing. (bad move on my part!)
Back home, I loaded about 20 rounds bumped up to 3.0 grains of HP-38. Same situation. Ran perfectly in my 9-1-1, and *I* could shoot it fine in her EZ, but she still had malfunctions. She ran 50 rounds of white-box through her EZ at the range last week without a single problem. It just doesn't like my reloads in HER hands.
Today I loaded 16 rounds bumped up to 3.1 grains of HP-38, and here's where I made my SECOND mistake (The first, accusing my wife of limp-wristing.. ) I counted out 16 brass shells, 16 bullets, and 16 primers, and put them ALL IN A SINGLE, LARGE PLASTIC TRAY! I'm loading on a Dillon RL550B, and I didn't want to load only 16 primers in the primer system, so I just used tweezers to put one primer at a time into the primer cup before inserting the empty shell. All my brass is always deprimed before I tumble, so for this short run, my sequence was, put a primer into the primer cup, but an empty shell in the press, and resize the brass, then prime. Advance the shell plate, put another primer into the primer cup, resize and prime. Repeat the sequence... Everything was coming out of the tray, and everything should be accounted for...
I suddenly realized that I only had 1 primer left in the tray, but still had 4 empty shells. I immediately figured out that at least one of my completed rounds must have a primer or two in and among the powder! So, I started pulling every bullet, and sure enough, I found 3 rounds that also had a primer mixed in with the powder! I failed to look inside every empty shell as I put it into the shell plate...to make sure it was empty...
I don't know how serious that could have been if I had not caught it, and I wonder if anyone else has made that same mistake. It is so important to be alert to what you are doing! Lesson learned. I'll never mix all of the components together in the same bin again...
So what do you guys think? Big mistake, small mistake, dangerous, or what? What might have happened if those rounds were fired with a primer buried in the powder charge?
Oh, BTW, these 16 rounds fired PERFECTLY in HER EZ, in HER hands! She said they "felt great!" So, I loaded another 100 rounds at 3.1 grains, and we'll see how they run at the range...
Harold...