cases sticking

27 December 2007, 06:44

dick broussard

cases sticking

The wife gave me a used (lnib shape) S&W 640SS for Christmas. This is a 357 scandium frame with a stainless cylinder.

Took it to the range today. My hand loads of 8.0 grs of 231 with a 125 jhp in rem nickel cases stuck in the cylinder. I had to push on the gun with the ejector rod on the bench to get the cases out. These are my plinking loads for a Ruger Speed Six and have never had any over pressure signs. Primers are real flat but the cases didn't split.

Next I loaded it up with some pmc 125 jhp in brass cases. It shot fine and ejected all the spent rounds without the need of the bench. The pmc stuff was way hotter (felt recoil) than my plinking loads. I took along some nickel cased Golden Saber to try but I chickened out.

I know this is a pressure problem, but why?
Ok, I thought that I might have got the only 5 double charged loads out of that bag of 200. NO way.

Then, it is a S&W that should be tighter (specs) than a 25 year old Ruger. Maybe.

My last thought is this stainless cylinder and nickel cases don't like each other. What?

Have any of yall had this happen?
A little help please.

27 December 2007, 17:28

mete

What do the chambers look like , smooth or rough ? Different makes of brass have different hardness. Combine soft brass and rough chambers and the cases may stick.

27 December 2007, 18:08

testhop

quote:
Originally posted by dick broussard:
The wife gave me a used (lnib shape) S&W 640SS for Christmas. This is a 357 scandium frame with a stainless cylinder.

Took it to the range today. My hand loads of 8.0 grs of 231 with a 125 jhp in rem nickel cases stuck in the cylinder. I had to push on the gun with the ejector rod on the bench to get the cases out. These are my plinking loads for a Ruger Speed Six and have never had any over pressure signs. Primers are real flat but the cases didn't split.

Next I loaded it up with some pmc 125 jhp in brass cases. It shot fine and ejected all the spent rounds without the need of the bench. The pmc stuff was way hotter (felt recoil) than my plinking loads. I took along some nickel cased Golden Saber to try but I chickened out.

I know this is a pressure problem, but why?
Ok, I thought that I might have got the only 5 double charged loads out of that bag of 200. NO way.

Then, it is a S&W that should be tighter (specs) than a 25 year old Ruger. Maybe.

My last thought is this stainless cylinder and nickel cases don't like each other. What?

Have any of yall had this happen?
A little help please.

ten years ago i bought a S.W new mod 17 22cal took it to the range shot 6 rounds thay would not ejectthe cases not even pushing on the bench sent it back to S.W.saying to check for a burr in cilender it came back shot 6 roundssame problum sent it back 2 times more the last time i wrote a letter saying fix it or give me my money back than worked
so send it back to S.W.

27 December 2007, 18:25

butchloc

just a thought. stainless has nickel in the alloy to make it stainless, i wonder if under heat and pressure if the nickel would sort of weld to the cylinders? don't know, just a thought

28 December 2007, 01:07

fredj338

Your "plinking" load is warm one & along w/ slightly undersized chamber mouths/bbl. could be the problem (Ruger rev. typically have oversized chambers/mouths). You said the PMC loads were "hotter", but felt recoil & blast do not mean they are higher pressure, just slower/more powder. Try backing your "plinking" load down 0.2-0.3gr & see if that helps. Chamber smoothness can also cause case sticking, but it sounds ike you are pushing things w/ that load in that revolver.

28 December 2007, 14:51

Lloyd Smale

its never a good ideal to push self defense loads to the max for the same reason african guides dont. Reliability in gun you have to depend on for your life is the first priority.

30 December 2007, 08:30

dick broussard

Thanks for the feed back folks.

mete, I did ck the chambers while doing its first cleaning but noyhing stuck out as unusual.

butchloc, tallked to my local smith and he has never seen anything like that happed.

fred and Llody, these loads are on the high side of center of the hotest load I have found witch is about 9.2grs. When I have some time I will mic the cylinder id and bc gap between the S&W and Ruger. My guess is the S&W is much tighter.

I never carry handloads in my ccw guns.

I wil let yall know.

30 December 2007, 18:12

Luckyducker

DB, my son has a titanium framed Taurus 357mag and I shot some of my loads that I consider a moderate load in my Taurus M66 and they had to be ejected courtesy of the wooden bench as you described. Kyle (my son) later tried the very same load again in his Taurus and they shot and ejected perfectly. I don't know but maybe his revolver had to break-in and maybe smooth the contact surfaces or what. Seems kind of strange to me and as someone else suggested try backing off a little as this may help.

30 December 2007, 21:57

Akhutr

Titanium cylinders will expand slightly more than stainless or steel cylinders. Therefore with loads even approaching high pressure stick brass quicker when the cylinder springs back and the brass does not. I had ran into the same issue developing loads for both my 329's and a gunsmith explained it to me.