and the bullets in the cases were loose. They could be pushed deeper with finger pressure and with some finesse I could actually pull the bullets. Some investigation revealed they mic'd 0.497" and NOT the .500 that I thought they should be. I know it can be a bit of a challenge to mic with precision compared to industry engineers but I'd not be that far off.
The bullets are Hornady 350 gr. XTP and actually spec for the .500 S&W (.500-.501") the same as the typical 300-325 gr. .50 AE. After sizing the Hornady cases the ID of the necks are 0.496" and the bullets only have 0.001" of tension or pull. That is not enough. The "pull" should be at least 0.004-0.005" and it's really needed on the semi-auto slamming the round into the feed ramp.
I'm mindful to contact Hornady and see if anyone else has reported an issue. Roll crimping one into a .500 S&W case I could see a fellow not even noticing. Even doing a heavy crimp with the LEE ties I could work the bullet out of the case. Just goes to show that they can get things out of spec sometimes. I'm quite sure of myself.
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Last night Roman and I were loading up some .50 AE
- WB, 2020-10-20, 06:47
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- don't use the expander ball. Chamfer the case mouth - Gary Reeder, 2020-10-20, 16:20
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I have that problem when I resize a loaded round
- Bob Denning, 2020-10-20, 10:29
- Yeah “resizing” a loaded round squeezes the bullet - WB, 2020-10-20, 12:41
- You could get by with .499" but .497" is waaay off (nm) - Sean Harper, 2020-10-20, 07:07