Brass bulge remover

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Helping a new guy load 9mm and found his handgun has a very tight chamber. My size die, Hornady carbide, doesn’t get the base small enough on all cases for easy chambering. We sized and checked for fit enough cases to get 50 that were OK. Seems some of my range pickups have a small bulge, maybe .001-.002, towards the base. This is far enough down to keep my sizer from touching it.

Made a push thru die today. Wanted .389 as a final size because that is what the “good cases” measure. Other cases measure .391+.

Forgot about spring back so the sized cases go .390. Handgun is now 5 hours away so I can’t check to see if it works. Easy enough to make another slightly smaller.

A little case lube and they go thru smooth as can be.
 

358156 hp

At large, whereabouts unknown.
If you can find them, the old, old Hornady/Pacific & RCBS carbide sizing dies are not chamfered at the die entry as is done with dies nowdays, primarily for use with progressive presses. I snag the elderly die sets specifically for this reason. I end up with a lot of used 9mm & 45 ACP brass, and there are a lot of Glocks, and other guns with sloppy chambers out there. Some pistol caliber carbines are especially bad. These old carbide dies can be lifesavers when you process brass that has been fired in other peoples guns. As mentioned in another thread, I just received 5000 rounds of 9mm brass that I need to process, but I need to psyche up for it for awhile first :)
 
F

freebullet

Guest
I'd be inclined to say them go in scrap bin, once they bulge past what the die will do they're probably bent, have domed webs, or other issues. I will donate 500 bulge-less 9mm cases for him. No shortage up here.

We do have several xd 9 here to try if you'd like.
 
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creosote

Well-Known Member
Didn't even think about the webs.
I've seen 50 cal. Brass cut open, and the web has spider web cracks where the bulge is. But they do make a push through die for the 40. Just thinking out loud.
 

Intel6

Active Member
A lot of competition guys use a Lee "U" dies with their normal loading routine and it solves problems with minimum spec chambers. The nice thing is that doesn't require a separate step in loading.

Lee U Die
 
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Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Seems like the root cause is guns with undersized (off spec) chambers.
Polishing out a couple thousandths from the chamber would seem to be a more
direct approach than adjusting the whole external world to an improperly made
gun.
 

Ian

Notorious member
According to SAAMI, the 9mm Para chamber is supposed to be .3913" +.004" at .200" ahead of the breech face. If .390" is dubious, the chamber is probably too tight. Cartridges are supposed to be .391" -.007" in diameter at the same location.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Probably running a worn chambering reamer for 'just another few chambers'.

"We can tell them they are match chambers".....:rolleyes:
 
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CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
"Glocked" brass in the 40 S&W got ameliorated with the design changes made in the 'Gen 3' 40 S&W pistol chambers. The early Glock 40s DID "guppy" or "smiley" their cases a bit, owing to the unsupported areas of the chambers in those pistols that birthed said anomalies. Glock's answer to this condition was the same response that most mainstream gunmakers chant--"Use only new factory ammunition in our products." HERESY!!

Most people addressed The Glock Bulge by obtaining aftermarket barrels for their pistols to run reloads and cast bullets through. Toward the tag end of my career I attended a meeting at our Academy in which some pooh-bah West Coast LE rep/suit (other less complimentary terms occurred to me at the time) from Glock was trying to sell Glock 40 S&W as a system for issuance en masse. The chief discussion point was the Glock Ka-BOOM factor, to which the rep was chanting the mantra "Use factory ammo". He had several range rats on his frame about the kB problem, including me--we wanted factory info and answers about the hows and whys. To say that Glock was 'sensitive about this issue' was a huge understatement.

I got the floor, and I told the guy that I was a pretty active reloader and shooter apart from work/Academy assignments. I speculated on the causes of Glock kB sequences as follows--brass fired in Gen 2 Glock 40 S&W pistols took on BLEVE-like form in the case head areas at the first firing. This distended brass got ironed out in its passage through a resizing die, which restored dimensions but work-hardened the swollen area of the case slightly with each such passage. Murphy's Law gets no plea bargains, and eventually as luck would have it a case head area that had been reformed in this fashion multiple times--and weakened from same--will over-lay the unsupported chamber area. The result is pressure containment failure, AKA "Glock kB".

The rep smiled and said--"That is an astute assessment. That is as much as I can say." I think we had our answer, such as it was.

I have noticed small, slight "smileys" on my Glock-fired 10mm brass that is loaded above "180 grain at 1150 FPS" levels--Winchester Silvertip and above, IOW (175 grainers @ 1250 FPS). For such loads, an aftermarket barrel with full chamber support might be indicated. I'll get aroundtuit soon.

In the matter of BLEVE-looking brass......remember Murphy.
 
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Ian

Notorious member
These things always bring the .45 ACP fanbois out of the woodwork. You already know what we have to say.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
A friend was the security force training officer at the place where I had most of my career. They carried Glock
.40s and were technically part of the Federal Police (you didn't know we even HAD a Federal Police, did you?)
even though they worked secrity for our private company. Long story that I'm not going into online.

In any case, we talked of many things of the years. One day he showed up at my desk and showed me a
copy of a letter on official Fed Police letterhead, from the head of Fed Police to Glock, asking why so many
Glock 40s, ONLY fired with factory ammo were blowing up in training. He demanded an explanation and
some fix to stop it. I thought it was interesting and asked my friend if we had KABOOMS any locally. IIRC, and I
would not swear to it in court, he said we had one on our local force, or maybe it was in the uniformed
Fed Police outfit that took care of the USMC Payroll outfit that shared our building along with some other
US Fed gov't folks, but used our range facility. In any case, I am certain that a distressing number of
stock Glock .40 S&Ws (any more than zero is distressing, IMO) which had never seen anything but factory
Jbullet loads blew up with factory loads. I presume that is what led to whatever changes that Gaston made
to make it stop, or at least was one of the items.

A reloader friend blew a Glock .40 cal up, got the "your fault, bad reloads in our perfect German handgun"
story from Glock. Replaced it (rebuilt?) and put a (IIRC) Barsto barrel in it and went on reloading without
any more drama. Apparently Glock has solved the issue with later models.

And, as to Ian's comment.....the 1911 True Believers, too. IMO, way more a Glock problem than a .40 S&W
problem. Any other brands known for KABOOMs with .40 cal? Not that I know of.

Bill
 
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CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
All kinds of variables at play here. Load intensities vary--case makes vary in construction & metallurgy.
 

RBHarter

West Central AR
I haven't worn out any 40 brass yet . I do have 10 or so cycles on some . I have made an effort to toss the "Glocked" brass from the pick up .
I've shot probably on toward 1000 rounds and only 2 boxes factory , no kaBooms in the XD 40 . My load is 940 fps with a 178 gr 401-175 TCTL . It out shot the LBT 403-175 RNFP by a narrow margin and 6 is more than 2 for casting volume . I do have a new to me RCBS 40-175 RNFP to run a few and try it out .
 

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
Those aren't especially heavy loads. They are close to my old shop's carry loads, the WWB 180 JHPs. The TOUGH W-W brass does a shooter some favors as well. W-W is the only 40 S&W brass I have ever used. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

If you are going to have trouble with the 40 S&W, it will happen with over-reaching on pressures and velocities. This is seen with the lighter/faster bullet loadings (135 or 150 grainers) than with the almost-Old-School 38/40 WCF duplicators--180s at 900-950 FPS.
 

RBHarter

West Central AR
It is a max load of Hercules Unique .
If it ain't broke .......
I load the WW to but mostly because it was the largest volume of pick up and least expensive volume ammo in the old region .