Home Forums Reloading Handgun Reloading Copper rings left in chamber, failure to return to battery

I’m reloading for a Sig P365XL that I just purchased. I’ve reloaded 9mm before for several CZ pistols and have never had this issue.

I’m having a failure to feed to full battery. The action is just barely not closing. The bullet will chamber, but no bang with trigger pull.

After removing the live round, there is a very small ring of metal where the top of the case would sit in the barrel. I can pass a bore brush from the muzzle and push the tiny ring out toward the action.

Image below in link.

This happened four times today. I’m shooting Berry’s 124gr plated bullets over about 4.2gr of Red Dot. These were loaded on a Dillon 450, 4 stage press.

I’m wondering if it’s a crimp issue shaving a piece off as the bullet is exiting the case. I actually pulled about 12 bullets last night and there’s no evidence of damage that would have resulted from inadequate bell. The bullets all looked perfect.

One more thing: Saturday, I had a case head separation. It sheared off due to crappy stepped brass. It broke right at the step. It was a nightmare to remove. This also happened to my buddy’s brand new 365XL. (First outing with the new guns for us both).
I’m blaming that on stepped brass which we have now weeded out.

This is all weird. I’ve got a couple thousand rounds of 9mm down range in my CZs and never experienced anything like this.

Thanks for your input.

[img][img]https://i.imgur.com/CFUIa21.jpg[/img][/img]

Looks to me like too much crimp. Those rings are probably from the plating scraping off and building up on the case mouth. Must be getting left in the chamber. So then your rounds are not able to go into full battery since there is a ring of copper wedged between the case head and where it headspace in the chamber. On a plated bullet try crimping just enough to close the bell and pass your case gauge or plunk in your barrel.