New to reloading so this will probably be easy ? for some of you.
I reloaded some .38's the other day and they shot fine. Seemed to be just like factory.
I also reloaded some .40's-- some shot fine but some didn't leave that nice clean hole in the paper. Kind of like chucking a rock at the paper. Also, one round didn't go off-- I don't know if a new shell didn't get cycled in or if it was just bad-- I didn't see it fall out of the gun and couldn't find it back.
So is this a load problem or a mechanical issue with the loader like too much crimp or ????
The load is 155 gr. copper plated with 6.0 grains of Hogdon Universal.
Is it safe to shoot the rest of those shells with the bullet flying like that?
Thanks

Welcome to the forum A1. Rules are simple, be nice and join in.

Some bullets, especially round nose bullets do not leave a clean cut hole in the targets. That's just part of the shooting game. If your case ejected it may have went off. You might have had a light powder load in it, enough to fire the bullet and eject the case, but it didn't feel like the other rounds you fired. If it did not go off the bullet would have stayed in the case and the cartridge would not have ejected from the gun.

I'm a single stage loader and do my loading in steps. One of those steps is after I put powder in all the cases I hold the loading block of 50 under a nice bright light and see if all the cases look like the powder charge is the same. You'd be surprised how easy it is to tell if you got to much (usually a double load) or to little powder in a specific case when you can compare them all side by side.

6 grains of Universal is under the max load for the 40 S&W with the 155 grain bullets and they should be safe to fire. Your 40 loading dies make a taper crimp on the 40 and your 38 special dies make a roll crimp on the 38's. Just follow the die makers directions on crimping both these cartridges.

Depending on the bullet type and charge weight, the bullet may be tumbling which will leave a raggety hole in the paper as well.

I once loaded a box of .357 Mag using 158gr Lead Semi Wadcutters, and ran out of bullets something like 5 or 10 rounds short of a box, so I figured "What the hey" and substituted 158gr. full wadcutters for those last few rounds.

I don't know if it was the style or a slightly different lead alloy or what, but when I fired a cylinder-full of those full wadcutters and went up to look at the paper, it looked like I'd blasted it with #6 shot from about 10 feet. Little bitty holes all over the place. I assume those full wadcutters were just disintegrating under magnum pressures. Took me a while to scrub all the lead out of the barrel too!

I threw the rest of them away...

Welcome to the Forum, A1gundog
were all the 40 cal bullets the same?
The same load with the same bullet should make the same hole in the paper.
You may not be getting the same powder charge.
I check all,I repeat;all my cases with a tiny penlight that works better then the bright flourescent overhad light for this purpose.I even check them before I charge,becauseI have found alien things inside the case.
Are you getting oblong holes in the paper?That would be keyholes,and indicate some more load developement.
keep the faith
Frank

Of the reloads I shot--Some of the holes were round as they should be and some looked like the bullet might be tumbling. What would cause this?? The powder loads were all equal. The bullets were the Barnes flat point with copper plating. All the factory ammo that I shot made bullet holes like it should.

Measure the barrel diameter across the grooves, and across the lands. Measure the diameter of your bullets. The diameter across the grooves should be just a 1-2 thousandths less than your bullet diameter. That is, the bullet should have to squeeze into the barrel just a bit so that the lands will fully engrave the bullet to give it a good spin.

What brand of pistol do you have, anyway?