Keyholing with Gallant bullets

[GyroF-16]

Just loaded 100 rds from my latest lot of Gallant 147 gr bullets. Same load and COAL as my last… 5000 or more.
But these seem to be tumbling- making oblong holes in the target about 20% of the time. The holes have a black oblong mark on one edge of the hole (the bullets are coated in black polymer).
Any ideas?
Would smaller diameter bullets do this, because they wouldn’t fully engage with the rifling in the barrel?
I don’t think the barrel is shot out, as it only has 15,000 rounds through it, and the other 80% of bullets fired seem to track straight and make round holes.

I’d appreciate any input.

[Spartan1980]

Smaller bullets? If so, that would be my first suspicion.

[WDR]

Yeah, measure a few and see what diameter you have.

This bodes "not well" for the box of those same bullets I have...

ETA: what gun specifically?

[OlongJohnson]

Different bullets, but I've had CCI powdercoated .22LR keyhole at 7 yards from a Sig P250 that shoots other stuff well. Same ammo shot okay from a Buck Mark.

[SecondsCount]

Do you have a set of dial calipers to measure and compare to a known good bullet?

[GyroF-16]

They are Gallant 147 gr, .356”
Shooting them out of a Beretta 92 LTT Elite.

I measured 20 bullets from that lot a little while ago. Every one of them measured .3565” on my caliper.

That’s the same diameter I’ve been using all along. I tried some .357 from them, but they grouped slightly larger in my gun, and had to be special ordered, so it’s been .356 for probably close to 10,000 rds.

Since they’re not smaller than expected, I’m wondering if they’re starting to break up in flight. Some of the holes actually look like doubles, with the black mark on only one edge.

I’m really puzzled by this, and am hoping for someone to chime in that’s seen something similar before.

[edison]

What's the velocity?

[GyroF-16]

What's the velocity?

Velocity is about 900 fps.

[Jim Watson]

What kind of target? A limp paper target can tear in a way that looks like a key holing bullet.

But things can go awry without obvious cause. I had some plated bullets to keyhole, a local guy got them in wholesale from a maker in Florida. They looked the same profile and miked the same diameter as the Xtremes I had been loading but they did not shoot the same.

[dsa]

Have you shot them out of this gun before? It wouldn't be the first time I heard of a Beretta needing a slightly larger bullet (.357 or .358) to obtain better accuracy and prevent leading.

[TOTS]

If you’re sure they are keyholing whereas the same bullets were not, take a picture and send them back to Gallant. They have been great to deal with customer service wise. I’ve exclusively been shooting Gallant for a couple of years.

[GyroF-16]

Have you shot them out of this gun before? It wouldn't be the first time I heard of a Beretta needing a slightly larger bullet (.357 or .358) to obtain better accuracy and prevent leading.

As I mentioned in post #6 above, I’ve shot probably 10,000 of these .356 Gallant bullets through this gun. No keyholes until this lot.
Tried .357 and groups were larger.

[GyroF-16]

If you’re sure they are keyholing whereas the same bullets were not, take a picture and send them back to Gallant. They have been great to deal with customer service wise. I’ve exclusively been shooting Gallant for a couple of years.

Thanks- before I reached out to Gallant, I wanted to make sure there wasn’t some other variable that I hadn’t accounted for.

[GyroF-16]

What kind of target? A limp paper target can tear in a way that looks like a key holing bullet.

But things can go awry without obvious cause. I had some plated bullets to keyhole, a local guy got them in wholesale from a maker in Florida. They looked the same profile and miked the same diameter as the Xtremes I had been loading but they did not shoot the same.

After oblong tears in relatively flimsy targets, I put 10 rds into a B-8 on thick paper. I took pics, and will try to post them in the next 2 days.

[Suvorov]

I’m sure you have thought about this already but are these the the loads you are shooting when you are having stove pipe issues?

[GyroF-16]

I’m sure you have thought about this already but are these the the loads you are shooting when you are having stove pipe issues?

Kinda-sorta. The stovepipe has happened with factory Federal 150 gr Syntech and my 147 gr reloads that were loaded over the last 6 months, but fired in matches in the last 3 months or so.
The keyholing (in about 20% of the rounds fired) showed up in my first batch of 100 rds reloaded with the latest lot of Gallant bullets that arrived last month. Same load recipe (charge, primer, COAL, and bullet type and weight) in both instances - the only variable was the new lot of bullets. I have not noticed keyholing prior to that lot of bullets.

[GyroF-16]

After oblong tears in relatively flimsy targets, I put 10 rds into a B-8 on thick paper. I took pics, and will try to post them in the next 2 days.

Replying own post to show some photos.

Here’s a string of 5 intentionally spread out to avoid “doubles”
Note the 2 obvious keyholes.
77655

Close-up of the top left keyhole, as originally seen, and then held closed from behind to see the marks from the bullet coating.
77656

77657

Same sequence for the bottom keyhole.
77658

77659


And finally, a close-up of one of the 3 “normal” holes from a bullet that wasn’t tumbling.
77660

[UNK]

I wonder if there is a difference in hardness. As in coming apart in flight.
ETA I think I would weigh some projectiles in the known good batch and compare deviations against projectiles in the problem batch.
I can check the hardness if you think its worthwhile.

[Spartan1980]

I seriously doubt they are coming apart in flight at 900 fps. You might check the hardness though. If they got a soft batch of metal it may not be gripping the rifling enough to stabilize. Gripping the rifling seems to be the issue whatever the cause since your gun has shot heavies in the past. Is your barrel leaded? When I've seen keyholing or maybe just on the verge of keyholing the accuracy sucked. How do they group? My bet is worse than before.

[UNK]

I seriously doubt they are coming apart in flight at 900 fps. You might check the hardness though. If they got a soft batch of metal it may not be gripping the rifling enough to stabilize. Gripping the rifling seems to be the issue whatever the cause since your gun has shot heavies in the past. Is your barrel leaded? When I've seen keyholing or maybe just on the verge of keyholing the accuracy sucked. How do they group? My bet is worse than before.

Sorry Im the worst at expressing in words. Not as in coming apart as in pieces but maybe delaminating would be a better description. Im not that familiar with keyholing I know Ive seen it but not more than a very few times. Those holes just look odd to my untrained eye. Whatever it is I hope we find out, if there is an explanation.
The first two pics after the group pic in particular look odd.

[Spartan1980]

Sorry Im the worst at expressing in words. Not as in coming apart as in pieces but maybe delaminating would be a better description. Im not that familiar with keyholing I know Ive seen it but not more than a very few times. Those holes just look odd to my untrained eye. Whatever it is I hope we find out if there is an explanation.

Agreed. They do look like they are keyholing. I suppose they could have a coating adhesion problem also. Shedding the coating while inside the barrel would probably cause leading which will do exactly this, but coated bullets generally are a lot better than plated in my experience in this regard. Maybe plated are better but I quit using them a long time ago. They used to be so thinly plated that shaving it off while loading was very easy to do. Not so with coated, it's still possible but they are a lot better.

O/P do a couple of things:

1) Pull a couple of random bullets from your loads. The kinetic hammers are fine for this. Then check the coating integrity and also check the diameter of the bullets you pull to see if they have been squeezed down by the case or loading process. I've seen that happen with cheap plated as the base metal is dead soft lead and it's very easy to deform.

2) Check to see if the coating will peel, crack or flake from those pulled bullets by smashing them pretty good with a hammer. It shouldn't.

[dmiculek]

Check your crimp. Pull a bullet and measure it to see if your sizing your bullet during the crimping process. Any chance your using a LEE factory crimp die?

[NuJudge]

If your bullets are too small, they may keyhole. If your bullets are too small, you will probably have significant Leading in your bore, with the gases blowing by the bullet stripping Lead off the bullet, and depositing it in the bore. A non-jacketed bullet can be too small before it is loaded, or be sized to too small during loading. If my understanding is correct, your bullets are cast, and then coated.

I like Beretta and Walther 9mm pistols. My measurements are that their barrel groove diameters are about .3575". You need a micrometer to measure, not a caliper. One of the ways to prevent bullet set-back on feeding is to have lots of neck tension holding the bullet in place. Lee even makes a "U Die", which leaves both the ID and OD of the case smaller. If your bullet is soft, it probably will be swaged down some. The bullets I cast, I cast big and really hard, to prevent this.

One can set up a die system of sizer & expander, which leaves the case ID about the diameter of the bullet, down to where the base of the bullet rests, then is smaller below that. I am experimenting with such a system, using it for hollow based swaged wadcutters in .32 S&W Long. These bulets are as soft as can be. Results so far have been excellent. No Leading.

[GyroF-16]

Check your crimp. Pull a bullet and measure it to see if your sizing your bullet during the crimping process. Any chance your using a LEE factory crimp die?

Yes, I am using the Lee factory crimp die. It’s set the same as the last 10,000 rounds I’ve loaded using Gallant bullets.
But if this lot of bullets is softer, or has coating that’s coming off, maybe the crimp is making the diameter smaller than all the previous loads.

I’ll plan to do as suggested and measure some pulled bullets from both this lot and the few remaining from the last lot.
I’ll also try whacking some with a hammer and report the results.

Thanks to all for the ideas!

[GyroF-16]

I seriously doubt they are coming apart in flight at 900 fps. You might check the hardness though. If they got a soft batch of metal it may not be gripping the rifling enough to stabilize. Gripping the rifling seems to be the issue whatever the cause since your gun has shot heavies in the past. Is your barrel leaded? When I've seen keyholing or maybe just on the verge of keyholing the accuracy sucked. How do they group? My bet is worsee than before.

I suppose the barrel could be leaded - almost all of the 15,000 rds fired through it were coated lead.
When I last slow fired for pure accuracy a few months ago, the groups were slightly larger, but not disturbingly so. I just thought that I was out of practice.

What’s the best way to determine leading?
And best method for removing it?

[Sal Picante]

I suppose the barrel could be leaded - almost all of the 15,000 rds fired through it were coated lead.
When I last slow fired for pure accuracy a few months ago, the groups were slightly larger, but not disturbingly so. I just thought that I was out of practice.

What’s the best way to determine leading?
And best method for removing it?

Take the gun apart like you're going to clean it. Look at the muzzle end of the barrel. If the rifling looks silver and you can use a pin to dislodge some of the "residue" in one of the grooves, your barrel is probably leaded.

Beretta's generally like .357 size coated projectiles.
That said, .356 do seem to work. Check that your crimp, seating and powder drop have consistent. All of those can have an effect on keyholing.

[GyroF-16]

Take the gun apart like you're going to clean it. Look at the muzzle end of the barrel. If the rifling looks silver and you can use a pin to dislodge some of the "residue" in one of the grooves, your barrel is probably leaded.

Beretta's generally like .357 size coated projectiles.
That said, .356 do seem to work. Check that your crimp, seating and powder drop have consistent. All of those can have an effect on keyholing.

Thanks, Les.

Here’s my situation:
I tried Gallant .356 and .357 bullets back to back some time ago. In my gun (LTT Elite), with 6, 10 rd groups at 25 yds, alternating between.356 and .357 (three groups with each bullet size), I found that the .356 bullets grouped slightly better. I’ve therefor used .356 bullets for the last 12,000 rds.

The bore of the stainless barrel of the LTT Elite pretty much always looks sliver/grey. But I’ll see if there’s anything that can be scraped out with a dental pick or the like.

The lot of 100 rds where 20% of the bullets keyholed was a pretty proven load.
3.5 gr of HP-38 under a 147 gr Gallant RNFP with COAL of 1.08 generating about 900-920 ft/s.

With this particular lot, I’d switched from Federal brass to Winchester, and had to adjust the bullet seating depth, as the initial setting was giving a COAL of 1.095. So I adjusted the bullet seating die to seat the bullet deeper (than I’d needed to with Fed brass to get the same COAL). This was the only adjustment made since loading several thousand rounds of the same recipe using Fed brass- and not having any keyholing in all of those rounds.

I’m going to check the LTT Elite’s bore for leading, but may also take the 92FS that my son has been using to the range the next time.
If I get keyholing from both guns, I can rule out a barrel issue and concentrate on the cartridge, and especially the bullet.

[GyroF-16]

Agreed. They do look like they are keyholing. I suppose they could have a coating adhesion problem also. Shedding the coating while inside the barrel would probably cause leading which will do exactly this, but coated bullets generally are a lot better than plated in my experience in this regard. Maybe plated are better but I quit using them a long time ago. They used to be so thinly plated that shaving it off while loading was very easy to do. Not so with coated, it's still possible but they are a lot better.

O/P do a couple of things:

1) Pull a couple of random bullets from your loads. The kinetic hammers are fine for this. Then check the coating integrity and also check the diameter of the bullets you pull to see if they have been squeezed down by the case or loading process. I've seen that happen with cheap plated as the base metal is dead soft lead and it's very easy to deform.

2) Check to see if the coating will peel, crack or flake from those pulled bullets by smashing them pretty good with a hammer. It shouldn't.

Ok - I pulled 3 of the loaded bullets from the new lot. They have a BARELY measurable compressed diameter.
To elaborate: my digital calipers measure to .001, and then have a smaller “5” that comes on to indicate (I’d guess) 5/10,000 of an inch. But that 4th decimal digit “5” is either on or off, so doesn’t give much granularity.
When I measured 20 bullets in this lot that have not been loaded, they all measure .3565
When I measured the three bullets I pulled, they all measured.356 - the small “5” at the end was not on.
So, yes - when I measured the diameter of the bullet that had been inside the brass case, it was smaller, but only in the range of .0005” smaller.
Is that enough to make a difference? When I press the “compressed” end of the bullet into the barrel, it’s still so snug a fit that I have to rap the barrel on something hard to dislodge the bullet.

Silly question, before I go all “Hulk SMASH” on these bullets to test the durability of the coating, does it matter whether I smash them nose-on, or lay them on their sides? I guess I’ll try one each way…

[Spartan1980]

Ok - I pulled 3 of the loaded bullets from the new lot. They have a BARELY measurable compressed diameter.
To elaborate: my digital calipers measure to .001, and then have a smaller “5” that comes on to indicate (I’d guess) 5/10,000 of an inch. But that 4th decimal digit “5” is either on or off, so doesn’t give much granularity.
When I measured 20 bullets in this lot that have not been loaded, they all measure .3565
When I measured the three bullets I pulled, they all measured.356 - the small “5” at the end was not on.
So, yes - when I measured the diameter of the bullet that had been inside the brass case, it was smaller, but only in the range of .0005” smaller.
Is that enough to make a difference? When I press the “compressed” end of the bullet into the barrel, it’s still so snug a fit that I have to rap the barrel on something hard to dislodge the bullet.

Silly question, before I go all “Hulk SMASH” on these bullets to test the durability of the coating, does it matter whether I smash them nose-on, or lay them on their sides? I guess I’ll try one each way…

To remove leading I always use a bronze bore brush, and you have to push all they way through the barrel. Never reverse directions while the brush is inside the bore, not even with bronze and I never use a stainless brush either. If it's bad some copper Chore Boy pad wrapped around the bronze brush will remove a lot of lead quickly. Make sure it's solid copper as they make a copper washed steel wool pad too. ETA: Don't forget the solvent. Hoppes #9 for me but use your favorite.

Smashing orientation isn't real critical, I'd just stand it up on its base and whack it a couple of times with a large hammer. You are checking adhesion here so if it comes off when the bullet deforms it is likely coming off when fired and travelling through your barrel. Also as mentioned, make sure your crimp isn't cutting through the coating. That will lead you to nothing good.

ETA2: If all else fails I'd ditch the Lee FC die and see what happens. It doesn't sound like you are squeezing them down too far. To determine if they are .0005" smaller you really need an actual micrometer. Calipers just aren't accurate enough. I think you are probably good enough to reasonably know you aren't swaging them down excessively but I've seen people have exactly your problem and ditching that die cured it. You may be "right on the line" size wise with the bore/bullet combo for your gun.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbYOG5xKTr0

[GyroF-16]

Take the gun apart like you're going to clean it. Look at the muzzle end of the barrel. If the rifling looks silver and you can use a pin to dislodge some of the "residue" in one of the grooves, your barrel is probably leaded.

Beretta's generally like .357 size coated projectiles.
That said, .356 do seem to work. Check that your crimp, seating and powder drop have consistent. All of those can have an effect on keyholing.

Okay- I took a look at the barrel with an eye to leading…
I was surprised to find some in the recessed crown of the barrel. Generally when I clean this gun (every 700 rds or so), the carbon on the recessed crown can be rubbed off with some solvent on a patch, and sometimes a toothpick.
I admittedly did not look at the crown on the last cleaning (which was immediately after the lot of keyholing bullets), but 254 rds after that cleaning, this is what the crown looked like:
77870
I’ve never seen leading like that on this gun before.
I cleaned the barrel with solvent, a brass bore brush, and patches, then used a dental pick to scrape the lead from the barrel crown.
Now it looks like this:
77871
I can’t really see much evidence of leading in the bore, but, then I’ve never seen leading in a bore before.
What do you guys think?
77872
77873
77874

While I can see a bit of something in the edge of some of the lands (especially in photo A), it doesn’t look like a lot to me.

Questions:
1. If 100 of the last 354 rounds fired from this gun were from a defective lot that was shedding the coating, could that result in the leading on the crown?
2. Do any of you see evidence of significant leading in the bore that would lead to keyholing?

At the moment, my working theory is that the most recent lot of Gallant bullets (the first 100 of the 354 mentioned above) are shedding their coating in the barrel, causing leading of the crown and instability in the 20% of the bullets I saw keyholing in the practice session where I took the photos posted earlier.

What do you see to support or refute that theory?
If I’m doing something wrong, I want to fix it. And I want to be pretty certain before I tell Gallant that they sent me a bad lot of bullets.

[Spartan1980]

Okay- I took a look at the barrel with an eye to leading…
I was surprised to find some in the recessed crown of the barrel. Generally when I clean this gun (every 700 rds or so), the carbon on the recessed crown can be rubbed off with some solvent on a patch, and sometimes a toothpick.
I admittedly did not look at the crown on the last cleaning (which was immediately after the lot of keyholing bullets), but 254 rds after that cleaning, this is what the crown looked like:
77870
I’ve never seen leading like that on this gun before.
I cleaned the barrel with solvent, a brass bore brush, and patches, then used a dental pick to scrape the lead from the barrel crown.
Now it looks like this:
77871
I can’t really see much evidence of leading in the bore, but, then I’ve never seen leading in a bore before.
What do you guys think?
77872
77873
77874

While I can see a bit of something in the edge of some of the lands (especially in photo A), it doesn’t look like a lot to me.

Questions:
1. If 100 of the last 354 rounds fired from this gun were from a defective lot that was shedding the coating, could that result in the leading on the crown?
2. Do any of you see evidence of significant leading in the bore that would lead to keyholing?

At the moment, my working theory is that the most recent lot of Gallant bullets (the first 100 of the 354 mentioned above) are shedding their coating in the barrel, causing leading of the crown and instability in the 20% of the bullets I saw keyholing in the practice session where I took the photos posted earlier.

What do you see to support or refute that theory?
If I’m doing something wrong, I want to fix it. And I want to be pretty certain before I tell Gallant that they sent me a bad lot of bullets.

The bore doesn't look terrible. Maybe had some prior to cleaning? I'd be be curious to see what that crown looks like after 100 rounds of jacketed. Cleaning an inset crown like that can sure cure some accuracy woes on some guns.

What powder are you running? Once I literally cured tumbling bullets out of two different guns a Glock and an M&P simultaneously by handing a couple of guys a handful of my loads to try. We were chrono testing prior to an Area match and they had bumped their powder charge up, suddenly got tumbling bullets, and couldn't figure it out. They had shot 1000's of that load before they decided to bump their charge to actually make PF. They were running Titegroup, I was running WST. We were all shooting the same plain lead wax lubed 147 grain bullets and the manufacturer was the one shooting the Glock! Theirs tumbled, mine didn't. The only known variable was the powder. They ran to buy a jug of WST and never looked back.

[GyroF-16]

The bore doesn't look terrible. Maybe had some prior to cleaning? I'd be be curious to see what that crown looks like after 100 rounds of jacketed. Cleaning an inset crown like that can sure cure some accuracy woes on some guns.

What powder are you running? Once I literally cured tumbling bullets out of two different guns a Glock and an M&P simultaneously by handing a couple of guys a handful of my loads to try. We were chrono testing prior to an Area match and they had bumped their powder charge up, suddenly got tumbling bullets, and couldn't figure it out. They had shot 1000's of that load before they decided to bump their charge to actually make PF. They were running Titegroup, I was running WST. We were all shooting the same plain lead wax lubed 147 grain bullets and the manufacturer was the one shooting the Glock! Theirs tumbled, mine didn't. The only known variable was the powder. They ran to buy a jug of WST and never looked back.

Funny you should mention that. I’m using 3.5 gr of HP-38. I recently went up from 3.4 gr after I barely made PF at a regional match when it was unexpectedly cold the morning of chrono, and my submitted rounds had sat out all night in a can.
But I’d be really surprised if a bump from 870 fps to 910 would suddenly cause bullets to tumble.
I’d imagined that tumbling would be caused by either poor engagement with the rifling, very low velocity (low spin rate), or crazy fast velocity causing the coating to peel off.

I have plenty of jacketed ammo, as well as a fair amount of Federal Syntech. I suppose I could run an experiment and see how either of those effect the crown leading. It’s just funny- at LEAST 10,000 rds through this gun were essentially the same load with the same Gallant bullets (just 0.1 less HP-38), and I didn’t see any leading on the crown before.

[Spartan1980]

Funny you should mention that. I’m using 3.5 gr of HP-38. I recently went up from 3.4 gr after I barely made PF at a regional match when it was unexpectedly cold the morning of chrono, and my submitted rounds had sat out all night in a can.
But I’d be really surprised if a bump from 870 fps to 910 would suddenly cause bullets to tumble.
I’d imagined that tumbling would be caused by either poor engagement with the rifling, very low velocity (low spin rate), or crazy fast velocity causing the coating to peel off.

I have plenty of jacketed ammo, as well as a fair amount of Federal Syntech. I suppose I could run an experiment and see how either of those effect the crown leading. It’s just funny- at LEAST 10,000 rds through this gun were essentially the same load with the same Gallant bullets (just 0.1 less HP-38), and I didn’t see any leading on the crown before.

I think you are correct in your thinking. If you look at Scheumann Barrel's website you'll see they recommend .002"-.003" oversize bullets (to the groove diameter) for lead and even with jacketed they state .001"-.002" oversize. I think that's approaching overkill on the upper end but can totally see the lower end being reasonable. Maybe if you are running light bullets really fast to make major PF you need them that tight but I've never heard of it nor have I dabbled in the arena of open guns.

On 2nd page here (http://schuemann.trustedts.com/Portals/0/Documentation/Schuemann%20Instruction%20manual.pdf)



HP-38 and 231 have launched many many tons of lead bullets. In my case above it was the Titegroup and probably not the velocity. Titegroup burns at a very high temp and it's not a good choice for cast bullets IME unless you are at ridiculously low power factors like they had been. They had been loading 2.7 grains and had bumped up past 3.0 to make PF. And those loads smoked terribly too no matter the velocity. The Hi-Tek coating supposedly holds up to it and it is good stuff, but I only use Titegroup with jacketed bullets. I've shot with others that have had no issue using it with coated bullets.

Are you sure it was leading in the crown vs. just carbon? HP38 isn't the cleanest powder out there but either type of buildup in the crown could cause an issue. If it's uneven, it'll impart uneven pressure on the base of the bullet as it leaves the barrel. I'm still looking at that FC die but the crown could be the culprit too.

[GyroF-16]

Are you sure it was leading in the crown vs. just carbon? HP38 isn't the cleanest powder out there but either type of buildup in the crown could cause an issue. If it's uneven, it'll impart uneven pressure on the base of the bullet as it leaves the barrel. I'm still looking at that FC die but the crown could be the culprit too.

Well, I’m not positive, since I don’t have a way to analyze the silver lumps I scraped off with a dental pick, but: 1) the substance was silvery, rounded globs (see photo below), and 2) Didn’t come off using solvent.
My prior experience with carbon buildup was it being black and somewhat flaky, mostly coming off when rubbed with solvent.
77885

I appreciate your input, and will try a 100 rd lot of reloads with the crimp dialed way back, and another with the FC die removed altogether.
If I still get keyholing and leading at the muzzle, I’ll contact Gallant about the quality of the hardness and/or coating.
Oh, and I’ll smash a few bullets today, too.

ETA- Funny how the focus in the photos gets less “sharp” after they’re uploaded, even at high-res. The detail of the texture of the leading is pretty clear in the original, and the machining marks on the flat end of the muzzle are very obvious. Some of that detail is lost when posting here.

[Spartan1980]

Well, I’m not positive, since I don’t have a way to analyze the silver lumps I scraped off with a dental pick, but: 1) the substance was silvery, rounded globs (see photo below), and 2) Didn’t come off using solvent.
My prior experience with carbon buildup was it being black and somewhat flaky, mostly coming off when rubbed with solvent.
77885

I appreciate your input, and will try a 100 rd lot of reloads with the crimp dialed way back, and another with the FC die removed altogether.
If I still get keyholing and leading at the muzzle, I’ll contact Gallant about the quality of the hardness and/or coating.
Oh, and I’ll smash a few bullets today, too.

ETA- Funny how the focus in the photos gets less “sharp” after they’re uploaded, even at high-res. The detail of the texture of the leading is pretty clear in the original, and the machining marks on the flat end of the muzzle are very obvious. Some of that detail is lost when posting here.

Well that pic is much better and your description sure sounds like lead. I have a Leatherman MUT tool which has a brass carbon scraper. It's proven the most valuable thing on the tool for me. Try to dig more of that out with a brass tool of some sort. You may have found your problem. Fingers crossed for you.

[Toddles]

With this particular lot, I’d switched from Federal brass to Winchester, and had to adjust the bullet seating depth, as the initial setting was giving a COAL of 1.095. So I adjusted the bullet seating die to seat the bullet deeper (than I’d needed to with Fed brass to get the same COAL). This was the only adjustment made since loading several thousand rounds of the same recipe using Fed brass- and not having any keyholing in all of those rounds.


I feel like throwing my 2 cents in on this comment.

Can you make another batch using different brass to see if the problem with this lot of bullets persists? In my experience, mostly with 45, sometimes I run into winchester brass that is thicker/has less spring back compared to the rest of my mixed brass. Given you're using a FCD, it could be the carbine ring is hitting some potentially thicker brass than you're used to and swaging down your bullets.

[GyroF-16]

I feel like throwing my 2 cents in on this comment.

Can you make another batch using different brass to see if the problem with this lot of bullets persists? In my experience, mostly with 45, sometimes I run into winchester brass that is thicker/has less spring back compared to the rest of my mixed brass. Given you're using a FCD, it could be the carbine ring is hitting some potentially thicker brass than you're used to and swaging down your bullets.

Good idea.
I’ll try that in the next lot I make.