38 super & LEE bullet 356-125

I recently bought this Colt 1911 & stuff to cast bullets including LEE 6-cavity mould for 356-125 gr RN bullets. I also bought some Berry 130gr RN bullets. I've loaded about 100 rds of the .356" sized hard lead bullets to run thru the Colt as well as 100 Berrys. The Berrys plated bullets fed thru the gun just fine but the cast bullets are giving me GRIEF! When feeding them from the magazine, the slide does not completely move to battery - about 1/10" to go and the slide stops. When dropping a round into the chamber and releasing the slide, no problem. The sizing set is a LEE carbide 38 Super with Lee taper crimper on both rounds. Using new Starline brass and 4gr of Unique, I set the bullet to COL of 1.280" with a tapered crimp in a 4th station of my RL-550 loader. These first rounds had the feed problem. I shortened the COL to 1.250 and the feed problem continued. The slide still stops about 1/10" from battery.
I compared the problem cast bullet with the good Berry bullet and noticed the different ogives on them. The cast one is a little shorter & fatter than the more pointed Berry.
Should I shorten the COL some more?
How can I fix this problem without re-tooling and re-casting & sizing 1500 lead bullets?
Any good ideas???

make Sure your seating die is backed out far enough to not be minutely crimping during bullet seating is one idea.

If I read this right you  put the bullet in the chamber & release the slide??
I believe that is going to eventually damage the extractor, the rim of the case is supposed to slip into the extractor groove from below...so if you are doing that.....stop.
Did you try the "plunk test" when you started this adventure.  I think that the difference between the ogives would be my first clue.  Field strip the gun & be sure that the troublesome rounds do actually fit thee chamber by just falling in with no added effort and be flush with the hood.  The lead bullets may be engaging the leade before the case is fully chambered.

Don't know what a "plunk test" is. If I drop a round into the chamber, it does drop in to battery position.
My troublesome rounds fit & fire from my friend's Kimber and his Rock Island with NO PROBLEM.
Is the chamber area in a Colt significantly different from a Kimber or RIA?
My first thought was the 'fat shape' of the cast bullet that was the problem. I wonder if seating the bullet even deeper will fix this.
What do you think?

To me "in battery" means the assembled gun is fully closing on the round.
My question is does the the problem round fit the chamber with the barrel out of the gun?

Some 38 supers were chambered so that they indexed off the rim & some were chambered to index off the case mouth.

There might be chance that you are dealing with combination or bullet shape, feeding ramp and recoil spring not being able to overcome friction from bullet hitting top of the chamber.  For experiment sake try putting oil on cast bullet, and see if it makes any difference.  Clean chamber prior to that.

AP

Ok, I'll try that.

Yes, the assembled gun is fully closed & ready to fire with the problem round. I think that means the round does fit the chamber. I think the round is having a problem getting into the chamber when picked up off the top of the magazine.
Remember, the Berry bullet round is physically the same as the cast bullet round except the shape/size of the bullet.
And, both fire with no problem in friend's 2 autos.

goody290a wrote:Don't know what a "plunk test" is. If I drop a round into the chamber, it does drop in to battery position.
My troublesome rounds fit & fire from my friend's Kimber and his Rock Island with NO PROBLEM.
Is the chamber area in a Colt significantly different from a Kimber or RIA?
My first thought was the 'fat shape' of the cast bullet that was the problem. I wonder if seating the bullet even deeper will fix this.
What do you think?

The plunk test is described at the link below. Remove the barrel and drop the loaded round into the chamber. It should fall all the way in and fall out when the barrel is inverted, and you should be able to rotate the round when it is all the way in to ensure the bullet is not hitting the riflings.

https://www.shootingtimes.com/editorial/reloading-tips-the-plunk-test/99389

Well, if I understand you correctly, oil did help, right?  If affirmative, then there are two thing you can do.  Both are relatively simple, although one require being careful.  Simplest would be to replace recoil spring with 1-2 pounds heavier.  I think, Colt 38S comes with 14 or 15 pounds spring.  Installing heavier spring will help pushing slide that last tenth of an inch.  Second is taking Dremel with polishing wheel and Simichrome or similar compound and polishing ceiling of the chamber and feeding ramp of the barrel.  This is where you need to be careful not to run metal over metal!  

BTW - plunk test is what you were doing by putting round in the chamber and dropping slide.  Except it is normally done with naked barrel out of the gun held vertically chamber up, and dropping round in it to see how it fits.

AP

you’re going to get disagreements there!
A plunk test uses only the weight of the cartridge to seat fully in the chamber not using the tremendous force generated by a closing slide.

I may be wrong again...but I was taught that putting a round in the chamber and dropping the slide on top of it would earn me a title of bad kitty, and if I did it enough I would be a sad kitty with a broken extractor.

This is assuming a 1911 with internal extractor.

After loading a lubed round from a magazine, it chambered fine. I then cleaned the chamber (dry), added Marks-A-Lot in black all over the bullet and carefully dropped it into the naked barrel. It did not completely chamber so I hand-pressed it the last .020-.025" then pulled it out. There was a little scuffing on the bullet just forward of the case mouth. So, I'll seat the bullets deeper, enough to cover that scuffing, and load another 20 rds and try them. The Colt 1911 is new and I trust the double recoil spring is up to Colt's spec but may be a little on the light side.
Hope that will clear up this problem.

Think happy thoughts, I think you're on the right path.

goody290a wrote:After loading a lubed round from a magazine, it chambered fine. I then cleaned the chamber (dry), added Marks-A-Lot in black all over the bullet and carefully dropped it into the naked barrel. It did not completely chamber so I hand-pressed it the last .020-.025" then pulled it out. There was a little scuffing on the bullet just forward of the case mouth. So, I'll seat the bullets deeper, enough to cover that scuffing, and load another 20 rds and try them. The Colt 1911 is new and I trust the double recoil spring is up to Colt's spec but may be a little on the light side.
Hope that will clear up this problem.

The best approach is to determine the maximum length the bullet must be seated to pass the plunk test, then seat the bullet .010 to .020" deeper to ensure that all loaded rounds will fit the chamber. 

Procedure: Remove the barrel from the gun, and load ONE round with the bullet seated .005" deeper than the ones that failed the plunk test.  Test it via the plunk test. If it does not pass, seat the bullet .005" deeper and test that. Repeat this procedure with ONE round until it passes the plunk test.  Then, you can load a few more round with the bullet seated .010 to .020" deeper. Try them to make sure they pass the plunk test. Only then should you start to load ammo in quantities greater than 10.

So much for trusting the numbers in reloading manuals. I started by seating these rounds at manual-recommended length (COL) and when that didn't work, I seated .030" deeper. Now I'm destined to seat them another .050" deeper for the lead bullets. Oh, well . . .

That's not really the "recommended length", just the length they used as a reference.

As a side note: I usually start by making sure I'm sizing correctly by sizing & testing a case before proceeding.
Step 2 is to check my manuals (i have several for reference & added confusion) for APPROXIMATE over all length and seat an UNPRIMED-UNCHARGED CASE to do my plunk test.  I try to never charge any cases until I KNOW they will fit the chamber AND MAGAZINE.

goody290a wrote:So much for trusting the numbers in reloading manuals. I started by seating these rounds at manual-recommended length (COL) and when that didn't work, I seated .030" deeper. Now I'm destined to seat them another .050" deeper for the lead bullets. Oh, well . . .

Their OAL only works if you are using the EXACT same barrel and chamber that they are.  You aren't, and never will be. Handloaders have to learn that they need to check the OAL of all the different bullets they load to ensure they fit in their particular gun(s). No exceptions. Welcome to the world of reloading.

with lead bullets semi-wad cutters are your friend...most of the time

When you look up the length in your reloading manual, it's usually for a specific manufacturer of that weight.