SGC 9mm & Henry Big Boy .44 - Bad Morning :(

[phaedra1106]

Great start to the day, managed to get to my gun club to try the SGC 9mm, wouldn't feed copper plated ammo, jaming about half way into the throat at an angle and denting the cases, looked like the mag was 3mm too low. Put a couple of lead rounds through OK then and then it fed most of the copper jacketed until it jammed again, this time turned out to be a bullet stuck at the start of the lands, looks like my Lee adjustable charge bar doesn't throw consistent 4gr loads, has been fine with 5.4gr for the .44 using the same powder though.

Next up my son who had been using the Henry tells me it's not firing, immediately think Lee again? no powder?, not that, took it apart and the firing pin is about 2mm short of the bolt face when pushed forward so looks like the pin has snapped Only had about 300 rounds through it and non of them hot loads.

So, phone call to Viking Arms on Monday morning to see how they handle it, not hopefull as they have already lied to me about getting a replacement brass butt plate as it came marked. It will be interesting to compare them to Edgar Bros. had a problem with my cheap Hatsan Escort semi-auto shotgun (which turned out to be my fault as I'd jammed a bit of cleaning rag behind the trigger mech), phoned them Monday, they arranged collection Wednesday, had it sorted and back by the following Monday, no carriage charges even though it turned out to be operator error!.

So, not a great start to the day.

[Mike357]

Sorry to hear about your woes. I've heard about feed problems with the 9mm. Have you found these threads on other forums?

[Ovenpaa]

Not a good start to the day then.

We have a few SGC 9mm shooters however they may be the earlier model, all the same it will be interesting to hear if they have had any issues.

[bnz41]

Hi.

We have an SGC 9mm this is the updated version after the sec5 issue. When we got it Bob said don't use reloads, I said yes yes bought all the reloading gear FMJ bullets brass die's etc. After weeks of trying different loads different die's even, nothing would work jams like you have had failed extractions, just got the ar-e with it. We even got Bob to check it out, he reworked the mag lips, he said reloads are the cause. Bought factory ammo never missed a beat since. All our reload gear went up for sale, no takers.

[phaedra1106]

Is yours using the Glock mags?, I'll see if I can get a decent photo of it jammed and post it up.

I've never had a problem with any gun loading reloaded ammo in over 30yrs of shooting. Strange thing was, after trying the copper plated I stuck a single lead on top of them in the mag and it loaded that one then loaded the rest of the copper plated after firing it?.

I can probably get a box of 9mm factory ammo somewhere but theoretically it should be exactly the same dimensions as reloaded shouldn't it?.

[bnz41]

No ours uses the Uzi 30 rounder ones. I think Glock mags are a recent addition.

That was my thought as well reloads should mimic the factory ones, but no :cool2: :cool2:

[phaedra1106]

Just tried loading a few rounds of copper plated, most loaded OK but on checking them they have some deformations to the case or bullet. I did get 4 jams, to me it looks like the mag is about 2 to 3mm too low as (I hope) you can see in the first pic the case is at an upwards angle and is sitting low on the bolt face so not fully seated.



Damage to casing on the above round

[John MH]

A new rifle shouldn't do that but it might be a bit fussy, are you using a Taper Crimp die after your bullet seater?

[dodgyrog]

You might need to use a case 'push through' die to remove the bulge at the bottom of the case.
I have to do this with my .308 and .243 cases.

[bnz41]

Yep thats the sort of damage we got on our cases and bullets.

Can I ask what is the overall length of your rounds, could they be a little on the short side, our factory OAL is 1.16"- 29.5mm.