gauging wear on 38 spl brass

[moxie]

No doubt, crud or bulge.

Case length has absolutely no bearing on straight wall brass headspacing on the rim. So trimming is a non-issue.

BTW, why using magnum primers? Are they SPP or SRP?

With those loads the brass should last forever. You should not be crimping at all, just removing flare from expander.

 

[Walkalong]

Unless the cases are longer than the chamber, which is rare.

 

[moxie]

Rare? Yeah.

 

[murf]

thanatopsis,

the carbide sizer is not sizing the web of the cases. if those cases have a lot of reloads through them, the web will be at, or very close to chamber diameter. and the brass will be a bit work-hardened.

what may be happeining: brass fired in one slightly larger chamber is reloaded and then put in another slightly smaller chamber. result is the round won't fully chamber.

to check this out, put the sticking (larger diameter) round in all the other chambers.

the solution is to either use newer brass, or use old steel dies to better size the web area of the case.

good luck,

murf

 

[BADUNAME37]

Case length has absolutely no bearing on straight wall brass headspacing on the rim. So trimming is a non-issue.

With those loads the brass should last forever. You should not be crimping at all, just removing flare from expander.

There is absolutely NO BRASS FLOW forward, or toward the case mouth, AT ALL, no matter how many times the brass has been reloaded?

Excuse me, do you mind if I ask where the extra brass DOES end up when shooting and reloading a straight-walled case a multitude of times?

 

[Drail]

I think you have tight chambers and/or they're not clean enough. (even if you think they are) I bought a S&W 625-2 back when they were introduced (1988) and all six chambers were so tight that after 18 rounds you couldn't get any cartridges in there unless you used a mallet and then use the same mallet to extract them. Five minutes with a reamer solved the problem. This was such a problem with certain S&W revolvers that I can still remember seeing guys carrying a chamber brush during matches. The cause was worn out finishing reamers at the factory. Have a good smith check it out. Or maybe you do have a reloading problem and I'm completely wrong here.

 

[murf]

take your dial calipers and measure the case head diameter on a fired case and a sized case. if they are the same, you will have a chambering problem with your reloads.

the sized case head diameter needs to be less by at lease a couple thousanths of an inch.

murf

 

[tly999]

I seated some bullets and the initial drop in produced the problem but then taking them out and putting them back in it could not be replicated, I know more wrinkles to the problem.

and the oal is very consistent at 1.53 inch with a variation of .004 inches

I would try to replicate the problem this way:

Try individual rounds in all 6 chambers until you find a round that either correctly fits in some chambers and not others, or doesn't correctly fit in any chamber.

If the round fits in some some chambers but not others it likely is chamber crud or extractor star problems (crud under the extractor, bent extractor, etc.)

If the round doen't fit in any chamber, it is a reloading problem.

My 2 cents.

Terry

 

[BADUNAME37]

For those of you who do not trim your cases, do you suppose the step within the cylinder which acts like a forcing-cone could be stopping an extra-long cartridge from fully seating into the cylinder?

Hmmmm, something you may want to consider.

 

[jim8115]

For those of you who do not trim your cases, do you suppose the step within the cylinder which acts like a forcing-cone could be stopping an extra-long cartridge from fully seating into the cylinder?

Hmmmm, something you may want to consider.

Possible, but I reload and shoot over 10,000 .38's a year, and have never trimmed a case yet