# FTF or I should say failure to lock.



## berreez (Dec 29, 2010)

Went to the range last night and fired a few rounds out of my Kimber 45 ACP. I found while firing; the slide would go forward but not completely lock into battery. It was just short of going into full battery but I couldn’t get it to go forward or eject the round unless I removed the magazine. 
I took a few of the rounds home and checked them. They fit inside the 45 ACP gauge and I when I mic’ed them they were at of just under 1.270 COL, but some were 1.265 COL.
What would cause this? Could the rounds be to short or could it have been the springs in the magazines are getting weak?
I’ve made up about 400 rounds and I don’t want this to happen when I’m competing. I’m using LSWC if that might make a difference.


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## k4swb (Jul 11, 2009)

Once upon a time I got a couple of bad batches of plated bullets from two different mfgs. Some of the bullets were slightly oversized and out of round. I didn't catch this until I had a few thousand loaded and had one gun that acted just like yours. Just wouldn't quite go into battery on some rounds.

I didn't really want to sort through all of the rounds and pull the bullets to throw away since it appeared to be a significant abount so I purchased a Lee FCD. This was not something I wanted to do either but it looked to be the less troublesome option. I proceeded to run all the rounds through the FCD and while most had no contact with the resize ring there were quite a few that did, not much and not all the way round the case but it was just enough to get the rounds to chamber perfectly.

A lot of people don't like the Lee FCD and I can understand why *THEY* don't but it was a real time/money saver for me and I still use it. Most of the time it never touches the round except to taper crimp the case but there are times I feel it just kiss the case and when it does, I know that round may have caused a problem.


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## Overkill0084 (Nov 28, 2010)

I had the same problem with my SA Trophy match. It wouldn't cycle the last 1/4" into battery. I was able to whack it into battery by hand, but target sights are sharper than you'd think... I was shooting 230gr Missouri Bullets. When I used the barrel to check the rds, they had to be pushed in. I was using Hornady dies that were set for a mild crimp. I had shot nearly 500 rds of these bullets w/o incident up to that point. A friend recommended the Lee Factory Crimp Die and an 18.5lb spring. The die fixed the problem. The spring may or may not have helped, but it didn't hurt. I figure that slamming the door shut a little harder couldn't hurt.
The FCD doesn't feel like it's doing much, but it makes a huge difference. With jacketed bullets, it's probably unecessary most of the time, but cast bullets are usually bigger around. 
Oh, I didn't mention that this problem decided start during a bowling pin match, fun stuff.


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## DJ Niner (Oct 3, 2006)

berreez said:


> Went to the range last night and fired a few rounds out of my Kimber 45 ACP. I found while firing; the slide would go forward but not completely lock into battery. It was just short of going into full battery but I couldn't get it to go forward or eject the round unless I removed the magazine.
> I took a few of the rounds home and checked them. They fit inside the 45 ACP gauge and I when I mic'ed them they were at of just under 1.270 COL, but some were 1.265 COL.
> What would cause this? Could the rounds be to short or could it have been the springs in the magazines are getting weak?
> I've made up about 400 rounds and I don't want this to happen when I'm competing. I'm using LSWC if that might make a difference.


A couple of possibilities:

- The bullet profile is allowing contact with the rifling even though the OAL being used is within specs.

- The case mouths were not expanded enough on some rounds, and when the bullet was seated, a small piece of lead was scraped up by the edge of the case mouth and is interfering with full-depth seating of the round in the chamber.

- The primers on some rounds are not seated flush or below-flush with the base of the case (known as a "high primer").

To check for the first two problems, disassemble your pistol and use the chamber end of the barrel as your gauge. Point the barrel down, and drop each round into the chamber, one after the other. When you drop the round in, you should hear a sold metallic "tink" as it bottoms-out in the chamber, and the base of the rim should be flush with, or slightly below, the end of the barrel hood. If you hear a non-metallic thud (or it just drops into place with very little noise, like it got stuck between two books), or the rim is sticking out past the edge of the barrel hood, then the bullet is seated too long or there is a shaving of lead preventing the cartridge from fully chambering. If you still have a few of the rounds you extracted from the jammed pistol on the previous range trip, you can check for rifling marks on the edge of the bullet just in front of the case mouth (looks like little uniformly-spaced dents, of the same number that your barrel has rifling grooves), or shaved lead on a portion of the edge of the case mouth.

For the high primers, use a straightedge (like a metal ruler/scale or machinist's square) laid along the base of the cartridge to see if the primer is not fully seated. If you gently swipe the straightedge across the base of the case, and it hits the edge of the primer at all, the primer is not fully seated in the primer pocket. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RE-SEAT A LIVE PRIMER ON A LOADED ROUND OF AMMUNITION! This is very dangerous, and virtually all reloading manuals caution against it. If you don't have a bullet puller to safely disassemble the rounds, scrap them.


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