Frangible bullet reload question

[alphie]

I purchased 1000 frangible bullets recently. I'm fairly new to pistol reloading, but had reloaded 200 Ranier bullets (155 gr.) prior and they all shot with no jams. All the factory loads I have shot have cycled perfectly. My gun is a SR40 Ruger and I have shot about 300 rounds through it since I purchased it. I'm using 5 gr. of Winchester 231 powder with Winchester primers and the frangible bullets are 125 gr. Out of 50 rounds of frangibles, I had 2 jams and the rest worked fine. I have the newest Lee reloading book which has data for frangible bullets, so that's where I decided 5 gr. of 231 powder would be fine. The only thing I've seen where maybe I went wrong was with the crimp die. Maybe I crimped it a bit much? The Lee book mentions using a light crimp. Any ideas would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

 

[BigSlick]

Stop before you hurt yourself. You need to get rid of those ASAP. Send them to me and I will see that they are safely disposed of. Seriously, Lee data is correct about the crimp. It has to be very light otherwise you could damage the bullet. I think 5gr is a little weak for a lightly crimped 125 gr bullet. The frangibles I loaded were only 95 gr but the bullet length was the same as a 180 gr FMJ. I used a light crimp and after several try's settled with 6.5 gr in my loads using Win231/HB-38. They all worked great. Just wish I could find some more at a good price. MV across the chrono averaged 1500 FPS from a Glock 22. I would work up some more reloads using a heavier charge, say 5.5/5.7 and pay close attention to the crimp and OAL and see how those do. Good luck and play safe.

 

[FrangibleBullets.Com]

A Copper/Tin frangible is 30% lighter than a lead or jacketed projectile. The conversion is X 1.3 your powder data from a traditional load book. Example, if you are loading a 100gr. 9mm FP, 100 X 1.3 = 130. Use the load data closest to that #. Remember that load data is is calculated on case capacity. A 100gr. 9mm frangible is as long as a 130gr. lead/jacketed projectile and if you use 100gr. powder data for it you will be over pressure and in the 9mm case that would not be good at all.
You will find a PDF load data chart on FrangibleBullets.Com. Please print it for your own use.
DO NOT CRIMP Frangibles. NO CRIMP AT ALL, no matter what Lee says. Lee is a great company. Almost all my dies and loaders are Lee. Richard Lee is at the top of the heap in his industry. Lee factory crimp dies have no place when loading frangibles.
If you crimp a frangible you will pop the top off the bullet or worse stress fracture it and it will fail on the feed ramp and jam your pistol. If this occurs in a revolver, the bullet may jam in the barrel and you will NOT pound it out like you can with a lead bullet. You will tempted to not use christian words if this happens.
To set the third die of a 3 die set, use a new or a sized case. You may flare as you normally do. With the new or properly re-sized case, unscrew the third die two full turns. Raise the case into the third die. Slowly turn the die in until you feel the die touch the case mouth. Repeat this several times especially if you are using cases with different head stamps. Cases are not all the same length even if they meet SAMMI specs. Brass grows or shrinks when it is processed.
Copper/Tin frangibles are quite different that the traditional lead based bullets. You will have to unlearn some of you loading procedure.
The polymer/copper frangible can take a GENTLE taper crimp. I still advise NO CRIMP. Frangible need not run at magnum velocities/pressures. They will perform best at standard case pressures and are way more fun to shoot.
Never carry home made ammunition in traditional or frangible projectiles. The cost difference isn't worth what might happen.
Thanks for letting me enter a long post. Captain @ FrangibleBullets.Com. 11 years in the Frangible business.

 

[FrangibleBullets.Com]

If these bullets came from Midway, they are projectiles that Winchester rejected. Please be advised that they may be OK, they may cause problems as Winchester found out, thus the price. The 357 SIG are straight walled bullets and not suitable for 9mm, They work great in SIG and 38 Super.
Captain

 

[Stevtrains]

I put 145gr bullets over 5gr of Win234 and was quite surprised when my Glock 22 cycled. Where your jams the action not cycling? 5 seems really low for 125gr bullets.

 

[eagleeyes]

my son recently expressed and interest in reloading ammo and wants to check about the tools needed to do so
does anyone have links to such reloading equipment ?
thanks in advance