New Delta Elite bulging factory ammo!

[SigArmed1]

Took my new Delta Elite to the range for the first time the other day. Brought a box of Hornady 155gr XTP's and 50 handloads. The handloads were fairly mild XTP 180 grain @1000 fps. Started looking at the brass and was horrified and what I saw. All of the handloads looked fine but every single one of the factory Hornady's were bulged badly! I had no idea the Delta had such poor chamber support. Is this normal for a Delta? Can it not even handle full house factory loads? (The Hornady's were 155 gr XTP rated @1265fps) As you can see, my Glock 29 has much better chamber support than the Delta. Have the DE chambers always been like this? Or, is this possibly an out of spec chamber? Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[scubasteve]

YOW!!!!! I be on the fone with Colt HOLLERIN', I yell ya. The 10 is a HIGH pressure round, there is no excuse.
Check it out and let us know their answer.

 

[The_Shadow]

That does look like a lack of support to me, and those are what would be termed a "SMILE" on the brass...I would consider those compromised and not reload them. The brass maybe very soft but early ejection can play into this situation.

One thing you may wish to do is change to a stronger recoil spring to delay blow back and the ejection cycle from starting too early! Some are using 24# springs from Wolff Gun Springs.

 

[SigArmed1]

I think that is about as close as you can get to a case head separation. Sure is as close as I ever want to get again that's for sure!! Pics and a phone call are headed Colt's way Monday morning!

 

[The_Shadow]

BTW the rounds are head spaced correctly as your first picture shows.

Good luck!

 

[The_Shadow]

SigArmed1, I mentioned about the recoil spring in my earlier thread because the stretched out area appears to exceed the amount of unsupported area shown by the picture of the casing in the barrel. Please check to see if this is the case, by slipping one of the expanded out cases into the chamber. If the casing doesn't go all the way in while aligned/oriented in the chamber, then I would suspect the slide moved to the rear allowing even more lack of support under pressure. Hence the need for the extra power recoil spring to keep the ejection cycle from starting too early.

Still waiting to hear what Colt or Hornady had to say!

 

[charliepapa]

I think that is about as close as you can get to a case head separation. Sure is as close as I ever want to get again that's for sure!! Pics and a phone call are headed Colt's way Monday morning!

Did you speak to anyone at Colt yet?

 

[SigArmed1]

I spoke with Colt yesterday and the Product Manager wants to get it in to check it out right away. They have issued a call tag so it should be on it's way back to Colt within the next couple of days. The more I think about it though, I really am leaning more towards an ammo issue than a "out of battery" situation. The reason I say that is because the brass isn't bulged all the way around, but just in the unsupported area above the feed ramp. The Hornady rep I spoke with seemed to agree that it was likely an ammo issue as well but wanted his engineer to look at it and try to determine, if so, was it due to weak brass or over pressure loads. They were supposed to call back today to set up the return but didn't so I will call again tomorrow. I will update the post as soon as I know more. I did, however, hear from a lot of DE owners that said that they shoot full house ammo all the time in theirs and never once have they seen anything like what happened to me. Just the same, I'll feel better after Colt rechecks all the specs on it.

 

[The_Shadow]

Thanks for the update...

 

[charliepapa]

OK, for grins I disassembled my Double Eagle to check it out. Here are a couple shots with a round dropped in. You be the judge, but to me, they look almost identical.

 

[SigArmed1]

I agree. Looks just about the same to me as well. I really bet this ends up being an ammo issue when all is said and done.

 

[Praesul Presul]

Who's brass did you use in the handloads? I think the general consensus is Starline is the stoutest. Or Norma if by some slim chance you had some.

Also you never tried any other factory loads?

 

[SigArmed1]

I used Winchester brass in my handloads and they did fine, although, they were light loads. I do have a 1000 pcs of nickel plated Starline on backorder with Midway and it should be coming in around the end of July. Once it does I will probably use it pretty much exclusively. I actually got a call today from a ballistics engineer at Hornady and he confirmed that the issue I had was indeed related to their weak brass. He said it was from a 2004 lot and he said they never could figure out how to make their brass strong enough for 10mm loads and so they quit trying and now use Starline and others themselves. He was very friendly and apologetic and said he would be sending me a couple of boxes to make up for the problems I had and the hassle of it all. I guess I can't complain about that! As for shooting other factory ammo, I haven't had a chance yet. All of this happened on my first trip to the range! Do you happen to know anyone who has Starline 10mm brass in stock?

 

[charliepapa]

I know the brass that's used by Remington is the nickel plated stuff. I have some of it that we can cut and look at. I'll put the boy on that and let you know.

 

[SigArmed1]

Thanks Benjii. I primarily decided to go with the nickel plated stuff thinking it would be easier to locate/separate at the range etc. but after researching it a bit, it seems that about half the people say it splits sooner than brass cases do and the the other half say that they have noticed no difference at all in longevity. With that being the case, I stuck with the nickel plated stuff. Have you, or anyone else for that matter, noticed a difference in how the nickel holds up over time compared to brass?

 

[charliepapa]

It seems like I read an article on this about a week ago. If I can find it before Obama turns off the internet, I'll post a link.

 

[charliepapa]

This is on 38 Super but it may be what I was thinking about. It does verify that the Starline brass has been noted to bulge less.

http://38super.net/Pages/Brass.html

 

[SigArmed1]

Interesting read. Thanks!

 

[The_Shadow]

SigArmed1, glad to see your updated post about the Hornady brass being the culprit in your situation. Good luck and best regards!

 

[Tulse Luper]

Do you happen to know anyone who has Starline 10mm brass in stock?

I've used Kempf a few times with no problems:

https://kempfgunshop.com//index.php...facturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=41