BorisJBoris
03-12-2013, 04:03 PM
This may well belong over in "Reloading" but I'm going to try here first. About a week ago I wrote up a gleeful report on my new CM9, which by the way remains flawless and absurdly accurate. I was so impressed with its overall goodness that when I spied a well priced CW45 in my local gun shop just a few days later, I jumped on it. The very next range trip involved two Kahrs. The two Kahr trip, sad to say, fell significantly short of expectations.
About one in five shots with the 45 required that I tap the slide forward perhaps a sixteenth of an inch to lock it into position. I know some of you are thinking, "Wait until you're fired 200 rounds through it before you come around complaining." This, however, is a somewhat different story. First of all, given the current ammo insanity I was shooting my standard cast bullet reload load using a Lyman 225 gr round nose bullet that duplicates old GI hardball. This load has worked flawlessly for me for decades in seven different pistols ranging from a Jim Clark Custom 1911 bullseye gun built in the 60's to a brand new S&W M&P 45c.
To see what was going on I pulled the CW45's barrel and started dropping rounds into it. A lot of them didn't make it all the way in. The ones that hung up seemed to have a ridge around the case at the base of the seated bullet. Ugly I'll admit, but they were well within SAAMI specks. Hmmm. So I got out my pin gage set and set to measuring my Kahr's chamber. It turns out to be about .002 inches undersized in diameter.
My sized cast bullets are .452 inches in diameter. The majority of my cases have a neck thickness of .010 inches. So if you stick a .452 bullet in a case like that the outside of the case should measure .472 inches. Most of my loads do. Unfortunately brass thickness varies and a significant minority of my rounds are bigger than .472 in. Loads measuring .473 in are a problem in my Kahr. While I was doing all this measuring, I also slugged the barrel and happily discovered it was .450 in across the groves. That meant a .451 cast bullet should work just fine. A quick call to Midway started a new sizing die my way.
It arrived today and a brief test (15 hurried but faultless rounds fired in my back yard) suggests that my problem may be solved. I'll know with a bit more certainty in a couple of days. My .451 sizing die was accompanied by a new Lee 200 grain round nose flat point bullet mold. I quickly ran off a small test batch oh those and loaded up a few. I'm pleased to report that another brief back yard blitz indicates they'll do just fine.
A visit to the factory may still be indicated for this pistol but since (I think) most jacketed 45 bullets are .451 in in diameter, it may not be. Things are looking up.
Ed
About one in five shots with the 45 required that I tap the slide forward perhaps a sixteenth of an inch to lock it into position. I know some of you are thinking, "Wait until you're fired 200 rounds through it before you come around complaining." This, however, is a somewhat different story. First of all, given the current ammo insanity I was shooting my standard cast bullet reload load using a Lyman 225 gr round nose bullet that duplicates old GI hardball. This load has worked flawlessly for me for decades in seven different pistols ranging from a Jim Clark Custom 1911 bullseye gun built in the 60's to a brand new S&W M&P 45c.
To see what was going on I pulled the CW45's barrel and started dropping rounds into it. A lot of them didn't make it all the way in. The ones that hung up seemed to have a ridge around the case at the base of the seated bullet. Ugly I'll admit, but they were well within SAAMI specks. Hmmm. So I got out my pin gage set and set to measuring my Kahr's chamber. It turns out to be about .002 inches undersized in diameter.
My sized cast bullets are .452 inches in diameter. The majority of my cases have a neck thickness of .010 inches. So if you stick a .452 bullet in a case like that the outside of the case should measure .472 inches. Most of my loads do. Unfortunately brass thickness varies and a significant minority of my rounds are bigger than .472 in. Loads measuring .473 in are a problem in my Kahr. While I was doing all this measuring, I also slugged the barrel and happily discovered it was .450 in across the groves. That meant a .451 cast bullet should work just fine. A quick call to Midway started a new sizing die my way.
It arrived today and a brief test (15 hurried but faultless rounds fired in my back yard) suggests that my problem may be solved. I'll know with a bit more certainty in a couple of days. My .451 sizing die was accompanied by a new Lee 200 grain round nose flat point bullet mold. I quickly ran off a small test batch oh those and loaded up a few. I'm pleased to report that another brief back yard blitz indicates they'll do just fine.
A visit to the factory may still be indicated for this pistol but since (I think) most jacketed 45 bullets are .451 in in diameter, it may not be. Things are looking up.
Ed