Symptom of an "Overused" 9mm Case?

9mm cases are worn out when you can't find them again, or the neck cracks after firing, or during expanding after sizing.

There is no in between where they develop loose necks.

Is it possible you missed resizing them???

rc

Remington Brass does same thing

I have found that Remington brass is the same way, you can't get the neck tension right. Resize and try again still can't get the bullet to seat tightly.

He might have some bad brass.

Drifter: I have the same problem with Winchester 9mm Luger brass. It all goes into my brass recycle bin.

rcmodel said:

9mm cases are worn out when you can't find them again, or the neck cracks after firing, or during expanding after sizing.

There is no in between where they develop loose necks.

Is it possible you missed resizing them???

rc

Click to expand...

Add to this when the primer falls out of the pocket.

Split necks and an occasional loose primer pocket are all i've ever seen. I would think you could get at least 5 or more loadings from the cases before they start to break down unless it's just bad brass...

Measure the case length, most likely its a long case which when expanded longer cases get expanded more due to more case material traveling further up the tapered expander ball.

You can watch for this as the case activated powder drop linkage will start moving sooner then usual. Its not much sooner but if you load that many shells I'm sure you have a good feel for when things happen on your press.

The only 9mm case I won't load is one that is split, or so bulged or dinged up it has no chance of gauging.

Short of that, I don't consider them worn out, and never had a problem.

Across many, many, many tens of thousands of 9x19 rounds loaded - I've never had an issue with 9mm cases of any manufacture NOT hold neck tension after resizing unless the case was cracked/mechanically damaged in some way. They will eventually crack, but that's after many tens of reloading cycles. I've not had much issue with primer pockets loosening.

Doesn't mean that it isn't possible to have the case's metallurgy FUBARed in some way - just that it's never happened to me. I would expect that any case that won't hold neck tension would also be very pink/off color.

Forty years ago I was buying RNL reloads in .45 ACP, and the ones loaded in Remington cases would allow the bullet to be spun by hand.
I don't reload rifle, but in .45 ACP and .38 Special and 9mm Luger, Remington cases are always the ones, by gar, that have the most loose bullets or deep-seating during feeding.

380 fed. as of now I'm reloading. ss/pin cleaned/sorted but was messing around w/push test of estimated 20 rnds. out of 500 once used rnds? All FED. cant get the neck t. but all cases are stepped short or/have a factory crimp/line inside case. Iv cleaned changed crimp die from lee to redding on my T-7 and am ready to save them? I load the rnd. short .945 w/100g extm. fp. and it seems to get help pushing reel hard into movement(inside line?) I posted this in a bit of a rush/terminology wise. I have my home work also!

That last post is rather difficult to understand, can you edit or rewrite it when you have time?

I toss most of my 9mm brass due to loose primer pockets. Sometimes case neck splits and on a rare occasions when they fail to hold neck tension.

If the pocket is bad but not really bad I just mark the side of the case with a sharpie so I know not to use it again and use it one last time. (I pick these up and toss them at the range so no one else will end up trying to use them) If it's really bad I will deprime it and toss the case.
(not enough of them to mess with recycling)

Sounds like that Federal .380 brass may be shot. (pun intended) if you have poor neck tension. (think I am readng the above post #12 correct) I have had an issue in 9mm where when I use my Hornady sizer some cases have poor neck tension and if I use my Lee sizer they are fine.
(same crimp setup , batch of bullets sizer is the only difference)
Sent the Hornady back to them but they say it's in spec, so all I can figure is the Lee die just is tighter.
0 problems with the Lee die.

I lose more 9mm cases to loose primer pockets than any other problem. I attribute that to so many in our clubs shooting 9 major. I have great feel when seating primers on my 650, it's easy to sort them out.
No problems with over expanded cases.
str1

This was a batch of 380 that was de primed and tumbled w/ss. pins and am afraid I might have let them go a lil. to long as I noticed flaking of brass on top of water like a thin coat of oil, before I cleaned the water out. Might have got a lil heavy on the lemi-shine also? =..(wear on brass.)?

I have never had problems using 9MM brass with my two sets of Lee carbide dies. My biggest issue is loosing them in the tall grass. I do have one here and there that have split necks but not even .01% average. Now I have over 3 five GAL buckets of 9MM brass to work through so I am not using much of the newer stuff to reload unless it happens to end up on the range floor where I am shooting and I just pick it all up.

Some of the newer 380 brass has an internal step that is used to keep the bullet from setting back. The longer bullets are going to push the sides of the brass open and give problems with neck tension/swaging the bullet down when seating them. Never seen that ledge in any 9MM yet.

Just to throw it in the mix I buy 2nd's projectiles and found out some of them I get are setup failures, and do not quite meet the normal measurements mic the round to ensure that they are within normal spec's of caliber being reloaded.

Hmmm I've heard of ppl having problems with RP brass - can't get decent neck tension.
But I've never heard of that issue with Winchester brass.
Something tells me someone has a a very loose resizing die (Shootshellz).

Personally? The only issue I've had is with Remington .224 bullets.
I couldn't get neck tension on several brands of brass.

Never seen it in 9mm.

Just a theory

This is just a theory. Cartridge casings are typically made from an alloy of 70% copper and 30% zinc. When subjected to stresses above their yield point (as when resizing them) they will get harder and less malleable. In fact, so-called High Brass alloys (65% copper, 35% zinc) are commonly used, after hardening, as springs.

The cartridge cases in this situation may have been work hardened to the point they have become spring-like. If so, they may not be retaining the dimensions imposed on them by the resizing die.

An easy test of this theory would be to take a few of the cases that won't hold the bullets and run them up into the resizer die and then wait for, say, 30 seconds to a minute each and then continue to process them as normal. If decent neck tension is restored then you know your brass has become "springy" and has become work hardened enough it is probably on the verge of developing neck splits. And if this doesn't restore neck tension, then you know the new guy had a grandiose idea that didn't pan out.

Never had a problem like those, even using Winchester or Remington brass, to be honest.

I have tried, however, to reload the same batch of brass time after time (marking them with a sharpie to know they were my brass when collecting them from the floor) and I gave up after reloading ten times the same brass. Not a single problem or loose primer pocket. Those were CBC Magtech brass.

Currently, it's Sellier&Bellot and Fiocchi what I generally use. I prefer the Fiocchi over the S&B. Resizes better and gives better OAL consistency.

Any time I had this issue it was a split neck to blame. I use Winchester and Remington brass exclusively right now. I sort by headstamp and when I pick cases up at the range they all get mixed in together with the same headstamp. I run "batches" of head stamps until they're lost or worn out and move to the next bucket/brand. Bad ones are discarded as they are found. Not sure if you mentioned it, but I have seen crimp dies create more loose bullets than anything.

I have several boxes of Winchester 9mm brass that you can't read the head stamp anymore and I'm still reloading them.

Yup...They are not reloaded when I can't find them anymore (I hate grass ranges).