SW 40 case bulge reloading question.

[OtterbatHellcat]

I looked back, and found a similar 9mm thread about it, and saw some confusing answers and arguments at the end of it.

I bought a case of Independence 40 SW 185 gr fmj, some time back.. I'm unsure if that brand is factory 1 time reloads or not, but the primers are not brass colored. I'm new to this stuff, and still trying to learn...anyways... I fire these rounds out of a G22, and to me it looks like the cases expanded so much, that it would stick in the die if you tried to resize it.

Why are these cases expanding that much in a barrel that the round is supposed to be designed for?

Thank you for your time.

[Lurch]

Have you tried to resize one? You could also measure the diameter before and after shooting and compare that to another type. But they can only expand to the size of the chamber so I can see them being bigger then any other manufacturer.

[OtterbatHellcat]

No, Sir...I've not. I'm afraid to try it.

The expansion is from 23 to 29 thousandths. Thinnest to thickest.

[Great-Kazoo]

glock bulge, chamber unsupported on the bottom / feed ramp area.
There's numerous discussions over many a gun forum about it. One thing i would suggest, START at the low end when working up a load. These are miniature explosives not a hot rod, where more is better.
Tumble clean, resize, reload. After resizing there are a few options you can take.



http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?_adv_prop=image&fr=yfp-t-122-s&va=glock+bulged+brass

Here's a snippet from another forum, not that i agree with their solutions.

Solutions:

Buy a resizing die from EGW (http://www.egw-guns.com/egw.htm) - that has been ground down so it sizes all the bulge out of the case.
Buy a Lee U (http://www.leeprecision.com/catalog/browse.cgi?1050613057.2633=dies-p7.html) (undersized die) that will probably get most of the bulge out.
Buy roll-sized brass (http://www.competitionbrass.com) and don't shoot it in your Glock again
Send your brass to a roll-sizingservice (http://www.competitionbrass.com/services.html)
Throw out all your guppy-bellied Glock brass
If you want to shoot your .40 Glock, but don't want to sort brass, consider buying a supported barrel.
Buy brand-spanky-new brass and never fire it in a Glock

The two solutions that people seem to have the most success with are the EGW die ($20) and ceasing to use brass fired in Glocks. Repeatedly firing brass in a sloppy Glock chamber and fully sizing it back down should be avoided since you are effectively work-hardening the brass - making it brittle - which may result in a future case rupture.

[Lurch]

hmmmm you learn something new everyday. Glad I don't own a Glock. Jim any other guns this happens in?

[sellersm]

It's only the old Glocks. Mostly internet myths, as Glock solved this issue quite some time ago.

Someone makes a "bulge buster" die, can't remember who.

Glocktalk reloading forum is the place to go to learn more than you ever wanted to know about this.


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[Great-Kazoo]

hmmmm you learn something new everyday. Glad I don't own a Glock. Jim any other guns this happens in?


Do keep in mind those images are what i would consider extreme.
I don't have any issue reloading brass from my 9mm's. I have not come across that many who have issues ( though more pronounced) with their ForTay's either. I size and visual every few rounds then case gauge check. Before i picked up the CG i used the 17 / 19 & 26 bbls for fit. IF you check your brass and finished rounds it's (IMO) a minimal concern. Again me personal experience is with 9mm glocks.
I'm going to buy a few aftermarket bbls, so i can run lead, since i was given a few buckets of wheel weights.

In this forum there are many more who have light years experience over me that may chime in. IIRC MarkCO shot G40's for years, i'm sure his input will vary from mine.

[ruffian]

Lee, Redding and others......Midway supply. Get carbide if possible, use good case lube. I have good luck with Dillon. I tumble clean, lube, bulge bust, size than reclean. I actually bought a cheap Lee single stage press and have dedicated it to bulge duties. Think it was anout $29 from Midway.

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[Great-Kazoo]

It's only the old Glocks. Mostly internet myths, as Glock solved this issue quite some time ago.

Someone makes a "bulge buster" die, can't remember who.

Glocktalk reloading forum is the place to go to learn more than you ever wanted to know about this.


Sent from my fat fingers using Tapatalk

Yes the old case bulge is not as prevalent.
However for a person new to reloading almost anything out of the norm is reason to question. One of my "advisors" told me "call anytime" Think he finally blocked my number.

What i like about reloading in todays environment, (out side of component availability) is how many web sites / info we have access to. be it here, GT, castboolits etc.
You are given a lot of Opinions as well as truly helpful info. Which for me and i'm sure many others, gives us the assistance we need, to reload safely and confidently.

[obawon]

Lee makes a cheap bulge buster die that is carbide so no lube required and the cases are pushed all the way through into sort of a hopper. This was mostly (but not exclusively) a glock thing...basically the mouth of the chamber, especially at the feed ramp were somewhat oversized to improve reliability...most semi-autos do this at least to some degree. If you take out your barrel and place a round in the chamber, you will notice a small gap around the rear of the cartridge (in some guns this gap is minimal, in other it's more significant). The gap will be biggest around the feed ramp...Semiautos that have minimal gap all the way around (especially at the feed ramp) are often said to have "fully" or "Well" supported chambers...in general, these are easier on brass and typically considered better suited to full power or +p loads (all else being equal). Keep in mind that a little bit of margin is required for reliable feeding.

In your Glock, as pressure goes up, the brass will likely develop the appearance of a "smile" (as seen in the pic in the posted link) which is where there is sort of a crease in the brass from where it has expanded into the portion of the chamber where the oversized feed ramp transitions to the nominally sized chamber.

In general, bulged brass can be resized (debulged if needed) and re-used. If there is a "smile" there is a good chance the load was somewhere between warm and possibly too hot. I would not reload brass with a noteable "smile", but would not hesitate to resize brass with a bulge.

This was most notably an issue in the older glock 40s. As mentioned above, glock has reduced this effect by tweaking their chamber dimensions...Most aftermarket Glock barrels are not so loose in the chamber/feed ramp as the factory barrels, this can effect feeding reliability if the chamber is "too tight"...

Remember...it's your melon behind the action when you crack off one of your loads...anything less than 100% confidence is too great a risk. Even though an occasional split case is not likely to be dangerous, it is likely tied to one or more of the following: "brittle" brass due excess work-hardening of the brass from significant resizing, large chambers, higher pressure loads.

For me...Keep an eye on all parameters including brass, keep plinker loads at modest levels (the paper won't know the difference) then Load, shoot, reload & repeat :-)

hope this helps

[OtterbatHellcat]

Yes, I am appreciating the things I'm seeing here about the issue.

My 9mm Glock does not produce any bulge to it's brass, and I guess I'd rather have some bulge in the 40 if the trade off is reliability when that critical moment comes. Those case pics are a bit extreme compared to my situation... I tried to get a good pic, hope you can see it well enough..

http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k419/otterbatcat/th_IMG_1754_zps143d0041.jpg (http://s326.photobucket.com/user/otterbatcat/media/IMG_1754_zps143d0041.jpg.html)

This brass carries the expansion down the case as opposed to mostly in one spot, and you guys might see this pic and determine that I don't need special dies to re size these. Like Jim said, he knows I'm new at reloading and it was a really strange thing for me to see what was happening to these cases. If you think standard dies can manage these, would the times reloaded be limited to like 2 or something like that, due to manipulating it back into shape again like that.

Thank you guys, I appreciate it.

[XC700116]

Redding also makes the G-Rx die to take out the base bulge, works pretty good.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/358543/redding-g-rx-base-sizing-die-kit-40-s-and-w-357-sig-10mm-auto

[cstone]

Do you have a 9mm case gage? If not, remove the barrel from the pistol you will be shooting these reloads. Clean and size the brass and drop it in the gage or barrel. If it drops in freely and falls out freely, and there are no visible issues (cracks, large dents, chunks missing) you should have no problem reloading that brass.

I like case gages because the are generally tighter than the chambers on my firearms. If the sized brass gages, then it will chamber on my firearms.

If you have problems after you've seated your bullet, a Lee factory crimp die will fix most other dimensional problems. Some rounds need no crimp at all, but if you have a hole open on your press, a little after seating crimp/sizing can't hurt.

I have a Lee bulge buster but don't use it. It is basically a Lee factory crimp die with the crimp sleeve removed so the case can be forced completely through the die. I shoot lots of .40 S&W through a Glock 22, Gen 4, and never had any problems with Glocked brass.

Be safe.

[OtterbatHellcat]

More good information.. :)

[Great-Kazoo]

More good information.. :)

crimp separately.

[OtterbatHellcat]

Yessir.

[LeftHandBlack]

hmmmm you learn something new everyday. Glad I don't own a Glock. Jim any other guns this happens in?

H&K handguns are supposed to be bad too!