I've been trying all day to get into the post
about "What to do when/if your gun blows up".
Reckons it's not available.
I reckon Deans post was so - Um, lets say amazing. . . The moderator, some lawyers,
and Dean are going to be argueing for a while
yet. Can't wait.

I've been wondering the same thing. I contacted Jeffe and he had no solution. I can't imagine what could be so controversial about that thread? Maybe Dean could put his post here instead?

 

It took me awhile, but this was so inexplicable after two tries with the same post, and then a simple "beats the bejabbers outta me" post, that I decided that it had to have something to do with my "sig."

Just went into my "Profile," deleted my existing "sig," et voila! Here we are.

I think some putatively common "UBB" coding from the old Forum, didn't migrate well to the new Forum set-up… but what do I know?!?

O, and, um, thanks for your confidence, JAL.

 

Dean,

I didn't explain how I came to that determination in this post. Do a search on 50AE in the big bore forum and you'll read all about it.

A Speer product is a Speer product, if they're not interested in hearing about my problem, I'm not interested in buying any more of their products.

 

Okay, tracked it down and found Range Report Tromix 50AE AR-15 Speer Ammo Trouble in which you opine:

quote:

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Me thinks those Speer loads are probably dangerously overloaded.

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Elsewhere in that thread you twice mention that the factory rounds exhibited flattened primers (plus non-specific "extraction issues"), and on this basis you have determined, according to What should you do if your gun blows up?, that:

quote:

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some 50AE factory loads that there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that are overloaded.

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One of your fellow Hoosiers, Frank W. James, who knows a thing or three about such stuff, once wrote that "anyone who would rely on handgun primers for indications of over-pressure, would also cut open a chicken in the hope of predicting the weather."

While I feel that you may be precipitous in your condemnation of all things Speer (note: no relation, different spelling), did you follow up on their request to return the remaining ammunition?

quote:

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…if they're not interested in hearing about my problem, I'm not interested in buying any more of their products.

---

It seems to me that in fact they were interested, and you weren't.

But what do I know?

They didn't want the remaining cartridges back....and I offered twice, over email - and during a follow up phone call.

If they would have wanted them, even if they would have thrown them away, at least I would have felt better about the situation. Instead, I'm left with the "we built them, they have to be right" attitude.

That is all fine, I'll spend my money elsewhere. Will they feel the loss of my 700-1000 Speer component rifle bullet purchases per year...nope.

Speer went on to say that their load was "milder" than my 32.0G H110 loads on that particular lot, and that the brass was manufactured by Starline.

So...I'm using the same brass, the same bullet, three different types of primers just for giggles..and their factory loads flatten primers, while my loads, even over the "book" maximum don't.

That's what YOU didn't know.

If you've got direct experience with loading the 50AE, and have something to offer, please enlighten me.

 

My apologies… so focussed was I on the "flattened primers" part, I mis-read your statement about their disinclination to test what remained of your box of ammunition.

My experience with Speer, both as part of the Blount Sporting Goods Division, and later as an arm of Alliant TechSystems, has, going back more than 20 years, been different than yours. Their Customer Service has always been exemplary, even to the extent that an especially anal (we're talking OCD here!) friend complained about how much messier his SIG-Sauers pistols were to clean all of a sudden, after several years of shooting case-loads of the 9 X 19mm CCI 115-grain FMJ (pre-TMJ timeframe). "They're all glopped up with globules of yellowish-green crud!" he griped. "It takes me much longer to clean them."

When I spoke to Speer about it, they immediately offered to send the fellow a full case of the ammo… what had happened was the then Hercules plant in New Jersey had suffered a distructive event and was off-line for a time. Speer/CCI used a proprietary "flake propellant" in their 9 X 19mm rounds, and rather than suspend that part of their business pending Hercules' rebuilding efforts, they went to Olin for a (spherical) propellant with a near identical burn rate.

That was fine as a stop-gap measure for everyone of their customers who noticed no performance changes… except those with SIG-Sauers which require considerably more lube, and the extra lubricant in conjunction with unburned ball propellant did in fact make for additional maintenance efforts. Speer/CCI cheerfully and immediately sent him 2,000 rounds of the by then back on-line Hercules loaded rounds.

However extreme in that instance, that's typical of the Customer Service I've always known from them… others, of course, may have had a different experience, but I don't believe that the name of Speer and/or CCI is known for being taken in vain on Forums such as these.

But the upshot is that your actions actually are an expression of your personal "I'll show them!" pique at Speer… which is your absolute right.

I just wish someone would explain to me how the flattened primers of handgun cartridges is dispositive of over-pressure. I am educable.