W231 question

[diginit]

A crimp has NOTHING with jamming. All increasing the crimp will do is increase internal pressure with possibly hazardous results. If you are going tighter than 470 on a 45 acp, it's too tight. Your OAL, Bad magazine, dirty extractor, or lack of proper lubrication are the most likely the causes. Load some dummy rounds at different OAL's and see what your gun will digest.

[forsaken]

got it, will bump up the crimp to 470 then. thanks!

A crimp has NOTHING with jamming. All increasing the crimp will do is increase internal pressure with possibly hazardous results. If you are going tighter than 470 on a 45 acp, it's too tight. Your OAL, Bad magazine, dirty extractor, or lack of proper lubrication are the most likely the causes. Load some dummy rounds at different OAL's and see what your gun will digest.

[J-cat]

A crimp has NOTHING with jamming.

It does.

Too much crimp will buckle the case behind the casemouth. The round will grow in diameter in that spot. The round will cause a FTF malfunction.

[Snapping Twig]

Known it for years, but I called Hogdon a few months back on another issue and asked the tech there and his answer was...

W296/H110 EXACTLY the same powder - different label.

W231/HP38 EXACTLY the same powder, different label.

Both these powders are made on a single line, one for HP38/W231, and the other for H110/W296 and at the end of the line they get bulk packaged for distribution and are shipped. One gets labeled for Winchester and the other for Hogdon.

W296 is magnum powder, slow burning.

W231 is target powder, fast burning.

Been using both for over 20 years as go-to powders.

W296 must have a heavy crimp for complete ignition and consistent burn. Crimp it light and you get unburned particles and poor acuracy with fluctuating velocity. I learned this the hard way.

Magnum primers are NOT necessary to ignite W296. Skeeter Skelton wrote about this. Many loads suggest with or without magnum primers for this powder. I do not use magnum primers for this powder in .44 or .357, but I do use them for .454 Casull as per the factory suggested load. No unburned powder in either case - excellent accuracy.

I use a taper crimp for the ACP with 5.3g W231 under a 230g TC set back almost completely to the shoulder. The powder burns completely in this case. It feels like Magtec 230 ball and hits to same POA, but it's TC with a big metplat, so I'm sure I could take a pig with it if I ever had it in the field.

[diginit]

I want to try Clay's too -- heard it's real clean and you don't need to use as much. Wish I didn't have 3lbs of 231 to kill.

If you want to trade the 231 for some once fired Winchester 45 ACP brass, Let me know.

[xrMike]

Well, I've got a ton of WWB once-fired, probably 2-3K, which is enough to last me for years at the rate I shoot my pistol...

But I could use some Remington or CCI small rifle primers if you have any of those you don't need.