45 acp accuracy!

[Dad03]

I am a few months into reloading. I reloaded some 45acp using new remington brass, 4.0 grns Bullseye, CCI 300, 225 grn cast FN, 1.22 OAL, Accuracy was excellent.

Next round of reloads everything the exact same except the brass was some range pickup (mixed head stamps) & tumbled clean. The brass was tumbled in walnut and cob media for about 8 hours.

The accuracy of these are horrible. 3" low/high at 15 yds!

Does the re-used brass loose accuracy over new brass?

[Curiousgb]

It might not be the "reused" but the mixed brass that created the issue. Some folks get very anal about sorting brass. I have never really checked with my 45 loads. Without a chronograph to check your strings it is hard to tell what is happening.

[LngRngShtr]

3" low/high at 15 yds. as in a 6" vertical string or a 3" vertical string ?

it could be a velocity variance,. could be some media not entirely out of the casings ,... could be recoil spring binding causing inconsistent locking up could be a barrel link or slide stop went bad causing vertical play in the 1911 could be something different in your reloading technique...

or it could be you were thinking of something ( possibly subconsciously) and your focus may not have been tight as you perceived I have had days where nothing changed and got some weird looking targets and went back a few days later and all was back to "normal" same gun,same ammo,same indor range same targets,..only variable was shooter so it was chalked up to shooter mental prep. or lack of...

When I was shooting serious competition I had what I called "control" ammo it was loaded before the beginning of the season say 500 rounds.. and whenever I thought it was something "other than me" a box of 50 came out of the marked ammo can ... and shot and compared to the pre-season test targets.. 10 from a rest 10 slow 10 timed 10 rapid and 10 rest , all but once it was me once it was actually rear sight drifting in the dovetail..

Always hate to admit it is me that caused it but when you eliminate everything else mechanical and environmental you must accept that possibility...

John

P.S. "old" brass as long as it is in spec. in a 1911 doesn't really affect much,.. but a split casing will cause a flier shake a handful of brass when one rings like a bell look for your split case they sound different.

Maybe the top 1% of Bullseye shooters could tell the difference between prepped and unprepped brass in their match 1911's My BarSto 10mm showed no accuracy differences and neither does my BarSto .38Super I never tested my 5" Gold Cup .45 with a Kart NM Bushing though...

Edited May 3, 2011 by LngRngShtr

[Bad Habit]

Check your rest. That load should shoot.

[Guest TackleberryTom]

I would also check the length of the empty cases. If you are crimping then some might be getting more or less crimp or no crimp. That will really change the bullets velocities.

[whatsights]

A six inch spread over your original groups at 15 yards is extreme. The first thing I would check is barrel leading. Would be hard to tell any difference in the brass at 15 yards.

[j2flan]

It ain`t the brass, some of the brass I have, has been loaded at least 24 times ( mixed head stamps and never never trimed) and accuracy is every bit as good as any new brass I might get ahold of. Unless the load got messed-up I would say "barrel fouling" and a lot of it.