Springfield Trophy Match tight chamber

I took the above mentioned pistol to the range to lend to a friend who’s going to Perry this year and my reloads wouldn’t allow the gun to go into battery. I took the gun apart at home and tried dropping several rounds into the chamber, but they get hung up the last 1/8” or so. If you’ve ever run into Glock fired brass that your sizing die can’t quite get that last little bit of the case, it’s like that. All my rounds drop effortlessly into an LE Wilson 45 acp case gauge, and work flawlessly in my two hardball guns (Series 70 guns built in the 80’s) and my more recently built Series 70 wad gun with an Ed Brown barrel. Just curious if Springfield intentionally cuts their chambers that tight or if I need to get it recut at one of the team trailers next week...I was very surprised that they didn’t fit the chamber after dropping into the case gauge. 230 grain Winchester white box rounds drop right in. So I think it’s very close, but just a little to tight. My reloads do have a slight bulge at the base of 0.474, whereas the diameter of the brass above the base is 0.470.

Mike.

I had a similar issue once and noticed that I just needed to seat my bullet a little deeper in the casing. You might check and see if that helps. It may not be part of the problem at all but I too noticed factory Ammo shot fine and my reloads would stick. The edge of the semi waddcutter was out too far and seating it ever so slightly more than what I was cleared up my issues. Not saying this is your fix, but it was my experience with similar symptoms to yours and perhaps it can help. Good luck!

Might not be a chamber diameter issue. Might be a chamber length issue. Just food for thought.

Do resized cases drop in.

After reading about the factory ammo, Tim's idea is correct.

I had the same problem going from my Series 70 Clark .45 to the Range Officer.  I could seat lead semi-wadcutters further out with the Series 70, but they would not chamber in the RO.  My gunsmith tells me that Springfield's have what he calls a "hardball" chamber; in other words, no leade between the end of the chamber and the rifling. You need to seat semi-wadcutter's so very little of the shoulder shows.  I seat mine with just a smidgen showing and they drop in fine, any more and they will not chamber.  Since I shoot the RO more than the Clark, I just seat everything for the RO.

Run your reloads through a Lee Factory sizing die. Should ? Correct the problem.

AllAces wrote:Run your reloads through a Lee Factory sizing die. Should ?  Correct the problem.

Same problem here and the lee die took care of it.  Called CS and they said yes they knew about this and if I would send them the gun they would fix the problem.  This gun is a good shooter and I didn't want it messed with so all ammo for it goes through the Lee Bulge Buster.  I have a cheap Lee press with that die mounted in it.  Don

The chamber could be short, but more likely it has a less gradual leade angle than some.  This allows the full diameter of a SWC to strike the leade of the rifling before the round is fully chambered. Hence, seating deeper solves the issue.  I suspect it is not a problem with the cases but with the bullet hitting the rifling.  Tapered bullets like the factory round nose don't hit before the cartridge bottoms in the chamber.  A general guideline that is useful is, if it shoots factory ok it probably isn't the gun but the reloads that need work.

In spite of the above, I did encounter a factory Springfield 9mm that had a seriously short chamber as shown by my headspace gage.  It required a touchup with a chambering reamer.

Mine is not a short chamber as I can take the same loads that will not chamber and run them through the Glock Buster and they chamber just fine.  It also does not matter what shape the bullet.  This can be seen by doing a plunk test in it's barrel with a resized piece of brass that and no bullet at all.  Don

Hmmmm...I hadn’t considered it being length. The issue isn’t with SWC’s though. The reloads in question are 185 JHP Zeros. They aren’t seated long, but I’ll check it tomorrow.

PS...if you’re not already at Perry...bring spider killer. My hut was infested when I opened it up today.

An update for those who commented. I took my pistol to the AMU trailer today and explained the situation. I also brought along one of my reloads and my Wilson case gauge. He took one look at the bullet and said it’s to long for the Springfield chamber. He was kind enough to take my gun apart and measure it to verify his theory. He Said Springfield uses a shorter throat than that on my ball guns. He also gave me an approximate OAL for my load (he said I use the same bullet as they do) with respect to my Springfield. My Springfield should be about 1.210”, but I load 1.260” for my ball guns.

Thanks to those who posted,
Mike

I’ve always had th same issue but seating a touch deeper solved th problem..now I know why!

I had the same problem with a very early SA Trophy Match that I purchased new when they 1st came out. Maybe mid '90's? Although I could normally seat my bullets to a about 1.260 OAL for a H&G#66 & 1.160 for a H&G#130 in all of my other guns (5 different manufacturers) I was limited to about 1.145 & 1.245 respectively. My new SA CS TGO1 also seems to have the same issue with the same problem resolution.
The leade seems to be the issue and not a true short chamber. All as noted above.