mrussel: thank you for posting that picture, this is valuable for all of us to know.
The deep seating of bullets under repeated chamberings is a known phenomena. I think it was first found in police situations when high pressure rounds would blow the guns. It is not a good practice to cycle the same round repeatedly. You are more likely to see deep seating with straight walled bullets without a crimp than with those bullets with crimp grooves but none the less it is still not a good practice. Those rounds with deeper seated bullets risk extremely high pressure spikes that can be, shall we say, extreme. If you want to use those rounds you have to use a puller to get the bullet out to oal and then recrimp them. The Lee die recommended is a a excellent choice. In the interim you can run them back through a 45 sizing die (pull the decapping rod first) to get a good tight fit.
I have drop a round into the chamber and just let the slide close and I have never broken a extrator or had any problems. I do not unload the weapon. It is always loaded, chambered and kept at half cock in the drawer or on the counter and then returned to full cock with the slide safety engaged. I do not take the round out of the chamber until or unless I shoot it. Nobody ever told me I couldn't; I also don't think I have ever replaced a extrator. I shoot and carry reloads and make certain each load chambers. I do not cycle them all, just drop them into a upturned barrel and listen to them 'thunk' in - never had a problem, but I don't repeatedly chamber the same round. Thanks again for posting that.
My plan is just to pull the bullet,reseat it and use it for practice ammo along with the hand loaded XTPs that I use for practice.I figured it would be a BAD idea to shoot the damaged ammo.
Ive been told that I shouldn't rechamber the same round,but I never really saw that before. Then again,I never really looked for it,other than just noticing it the other day. Ive also been told,and also read many places that you should not drop a round into the 1911 chamber and let the slide slam home as it forces the ejector to bend to slip around the rim. What I'm doing now is locking the slide open,clipping the round behind the ejector and then moving the slide forward while holding it so it doesn't slam shut. (Its really alot easier and simpler than it sounds) I dont see any problem with that,but I wondered if anyone else knew of a reason not to do it.
One thing I do find interesting/disturbing/alarming is that another round I looked at,after 3 times through shows noticeable overeating of the bullet! I see some rounds actually have a groove crimped into them about the depth that the bullet would seat? Some factory ammo ( Is this to help prevent this? The brass at my favorite reloading/gun store has this. Ive known I shouldnt do it too much,but I never realized it was going to be this much of an issue. Ill try a Golden Sabre and a UMC FMJ when I get a chance,along with another XTP and measure the overall length after each cycle through.
Heres an example of the crimp Im talking about. Ive seen it ranging from this mild type on the federal stuff,to a rather deep grove around the cartridge on some.
Perhaps I should just go to XTP hand loads for carry if this will help.If I did that though. I guess I could just keep a spare mag and top off the magazine each time I cleared the gun and never reuse that one and just use it for target practice. Its not really practical to do that with 25 dollar a box ammo,but hand-loads are pennies and I need ones for practice anyway.
One interesting thing I think people should perhaps take away from this is that XTPs load perfectly in my 1911,without a throated feed ramp (but of course may not load in yours),but the SHORTENED one does NOT feed properly which is how I noticed there was a problem. I wonder how many people who have feed problems with hollow points in their 1911s have one in there,especially ones with the infamous "wont load first round from magazine" issues (which are often blamed on bad/cheap 8 rd magazines). Another thing to think about is that Wilson Combat suggests filling a magazine and all the rounds through as a quick and dirty test of reliability with the combination of magazine,gun and ammo. I did this three or four times with my RIA when I first got it and as I recall it worked perfectly the first or second time and then I had a jam,which I assumed was the gun either not liking them or needing more break in. (Similar things happened with Golden Sabres,but Gold Dots ALLWAYS had trouble so I think my gun just doesnt like them) When I went to the range I fired half the box and had troubles. Later after 100 rounds I fired the other half the box and had a two jams. After another 150 rounds I fired a full box of XTP and it was fine and I fired the half box of Golden Sabres which had a jam. After another 100 rounds and another trip to the range I fired another box of factory XTP. Those fired fine (and so do my hand loaded XTP) so I decided,tentatively,that it was reliable with XTPs and that's what I use. Now I suspect that it was fine with XTP out of the box and the problem was all with me and that I was damaging the ammunition even by cycling each round 3 times.
