The problem is the "stoning" job you did likely just sped up what would have worked out just fine after a break in period and down the road could cause a tolerance issue. Time and rounds will bear that out.
Correct.
Gunzanamo,
I believe 500 rounds is a commonly made break-in recommendation. In my case, those SWC rounds that wouldn't feed reliably in my first outing with my 97 fed fine much later on, I'd guess around 1000 rounds, but I don't actually know when they would have started working because I wasn't trying them out along the way. They didn't work, then they did. Not sure at what stage of break in they became good to go.
At the end of the day, you don't know why your rounds are starting to function better, but one guarantee I can make you is that there's more break-in occurring in the first hundred rounds than in the second hundred, or fifth hundred, or whatever. You were changing bullets and OALs and stoning metal off the barrel hood. But along the way, every time you disassembled the pistol, fired the pistol, cycled the slide manually, you were breaking it in.
You have loads that are functioning, and that's good, but the idea that stoning was the solution, or partial solution, is a guess, and given that the rest of us feed SWC rounds without stoning metal off the barrel hood, it's probably a bad guess.
I can also tell you now that if the case mouth was catching the barrel hood, the bullet was seated to deep, probably flush with the case mouth. I've done it. If the shoulder is above the casemouth, the case mouth can't hit the barrel hood. The bullet shoulder hits it instead and prevents it.
Your problem was most likely incorrectly (for that gun) loaded ammo and a stiff, gritty new gun.
