Re: What did you do today in the world of firearms?
Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2018 5:12 pm
Well, most of this was yesterday but I'm gonna jumble it all together.
As I mentioned earlier, I recently bought a Ruger Blackhawk revolver in .30 Carbine. It's a nice gun, but I absolutely despise the black plastic grips that come on the Blackhawks; the textured surfaces just beats up soft, moist palms like mine when the revolver rotates under recoil. So I ordered a set of wood grips earlier in the week, and when they arrived I swapped 'em out:

And then it was off to the range with the ugliest carbine ammo I could find, 'cause you know, you don't want to shoot that shit through an actual M1 Carbine!

I finished sighting in the revolver, and I was just shooting for fun when all of a sudden the cylinder locked up after a shot. I peeked in there, and a primer had cratered, pushing back and preventing the cylinder from rotating. I did some cussing, twisting and turning and finally got the cylinder out, and the offending piece of brass came right out. Here it is leaning up against some of that sexy loaded ammo; see the crater?

I noticed something funky with the flash hole too, so today I figured it out, then went one-by-one through all of my M1 Carbine brass (I've never reloaded that caliber, but I'm getting ready to) to see what kind of junk was hiding in there. Sho nuff, I pulled out seven pieces of Berdan-primed brass, plus eight pieces of this mystery brass to match the five pieces from what I fired yesterday.
The "mystery brass" that had the primer crater is manufactured in the Dominican Republic, and I have a mix of 1961 and 1962 vintage. By some accounts, it's corrosive. Here's the headstamp, which is just "30 M1" on top and then the year (61 or 62) on the bottom:

And here's a shitty pic down inside:

See the flash holes? Each one has a single flash hole, but it is significantly offset from center. These aren't just "crappy brass, not-quite-centered" flash holes . . . these were obviously intended to be way off-center. I dunno why.
One of them has a depression in the side with three pinholes:

Good stuff, huh? Well, I've still got a handful left to shoot up . . . plus all the rest of that ugly ammo.
As I mentioned earlier, I recently bought a Ruger Blackhawk revolver in .30 Carbine. It's a nice gun, but I absolutely despise the black plastic grips that come on the Blackhawks; the textured surfaces just beats up soft, moist palms like mine when the revolver rotates under recoil. So I ordered a set of wood grips earlier in the week, and when they arrived I swapped 'em out:

And then it was off to the range with the ugliest carbine ammo I could find, 'cause you know, you don't want to shoot that shit through an actual M1 Carbine!

I finished sighting in the revolver, and I was just shooting for fun when all of a sudden the cylinder locked up after a shot. I peeked in there, and a primer had cratered, pushing back and preventing the cylinder from rotating. I did some cussing, twisting and turning and finally got the cylinder out, and the offending piece of brass came right out. Here it is leaning up against some of that sexy loaded ammo; see the crater?

I noticed something funky with the flash hole too, so today I figured it out, then went one-by-one through all of my M1 Carbine brass (I've never reloaded that caliber, but I'm getting ready to) to see what kind of junk was hiding in there. Sho nuff, I pulled out seven pieces of Berdan-primed brass, plus eight pieces of this mystery brass to match the five pieces from what I fired yesterday.
The "mystery brass" that had the primer crater is manufactured in the Dominican Republic, and I have a mix of 1961 and 1962 vintage. By some accounts, it's corrosive. Here's the headstamp, which is just "30 M1" on top and then the year (61 or 62) on the bottom:

And here's a shitty pic down inside:

See the flash holes? Each one has a single flash hole, but it is significantly offset from center. These aren't just "crappy brass, not-quite-centered" flash holes . . . these were obviously intended to be way off-center. I dunno why.
One of them has a depression in the side with three pinholes:

Good stuff, huh? Well, I've still got a handful left to shoot up . . . plus all the rest of that ugly ammo.

