40 S&W Case Bulge

I purchased 1000 cases of 40 S&W. After learning about Case bulge, I acquired the Lee bulge buster. I ran all the cases through the bulge buster and all has been well.

Question. Do I need to run the cases through the bulge buster after every use? I fire them in an M&P and an XD40 MOD2.

I tested a few cases and they didn't go all the way through on a Hornady 40S&W case gauge. They don't have a great a budge as when I received them (assuming they were fired from a Glock).

If the answer is yes, is there a way to keep from having to do this such as reducing powder? I have been using WST and Sport Pistol

I'd really like how the 40 S&W shoots and would like to use it as much as my 9mm, but having to run the cases through the bulge buster after each use puts more time into reloading for that caliber vs reloading for 9mm or 45 acp.

Any advice is appreciated.

r

CH

LiveLife said:

You can tell whether a brass was fired in a Glock because they have very characteristic rectangle primer indentation mark from rectangle shaped opening on the breech wall face along with elongated striker indentation instead of more typical round indentation.

And Glock uses elongated striker tip instead of round tip

And contrary to what you may have heard, by Gen3, 40S&W Glock barrels have tighter chamber than many other brand factory barrels that most overly expanded or bulged brass I saw were not fired from Glocks as they did not have the rectangle primer indent.


No.

40S&W brass only needs to go through the bulge buster (Push-through resizing using 40S&W Lee FCD without the internal parts) if brass resized with the regular resizing die won't allow the resized brass to pass the case gage.

I have found Lee carbide sizer ring will reduce brass to smaller ID and further down towards the case base than other brand dies so that I didn't need to bulge bust my 40S&W brass when I shot USPSA. When a resized brass failed to fully chamber in the tightest barrel I had (Lone Wolf), I would attempt to resize a second time but would cull for recycling if failed again deeming the brass overly expanded/bulged (Think case wall thinned).


If your resized brass fail the case gage after being shot in your pistols, first make sure you are full-length resizing the brass by checking for daylight between bottom of die and top of shell holder/plate. If you see daylight during resizing, adjust your die so you don't.

If full-length resizing still fail the case gage, consider using Lee resizing die (Which tends to be like an undersize/U-die).

Also, keep in mind that damaged case rim may fail the case gage but since case rim don't enter the chamber, use your barrel with tightest chamber to test resized brass that fail the case gage.

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LiveLife Thx.

As always you provide very detailed responses which help and provide insight on what to look for.

I didn't check the brass primer prior to reloading the newly acquired once fired cases, but I do know the source of where I received the brass indicated that he gets his brass from Law enforcement. It made me think that the bulk of it was fired from Glock firearms as those are what seem to be issued at many Law enforcement locations. Other folks have commented that early Glock models were more prone to bulging a case and knowing the lifecycle of firearms tends to run long, I suspected that the cases I obtained were fired from early model Glocks. I do not dislike Glock, I was going by what has been posted.


I'll make sure to used the check gauge and do so after running a few through the resizer. It should only require the check during startup as I have an LnL AP press and don't think it will warrant a check on every case if the first few check out ok.

I will say that visually (now after reloading and firing them once), the cases don't look like they did when I first reloaded the brass (very noticeable bulge). That's why I checked them right quick to see if there was bulge. While visually I didn't notice any bulging, the brass only went 1/2-3/4 of the way down when putting it through the gauge. But that was pre-resizing.

The one thing about my 40 S&W gauges (which is very different from my other gauges) are that LE Wilson seems to have tighter tolerances than Hornady. When I check a case, it typically will not pass the test on the Wilson gauge, but it will pass the test on the Hornady gauge. What's odd about it is that I have never had that issue when I do this on my 9mm and 45 acp reloads (I have different brand gauges for each to include LE Wilson which is what made me like them). I do know that if the 40 S&W reload passes the test with the Hornady gauge, then it will function on my firearm. But, the 40 is the only caliber where I've experienced this. I have read in other forums that bullet gauges for the 40 are not the best. Never really considered it until I noticed the disparity between the Hornady and LE Wilson gauge.

I did obtain a lee resizing die, so I will look at testing the resizing die (Hornady) as you stated to ensure that it is going far down enough. I know some folks complain about them, but I've never experienced any issues with Lee dies.

Thanks again for the help. I reload 32, 38/357, 9mm, 380, and 44sp/44mag. However, I'm new to 40 S&W caliber and it's the first time I've encountered "case bulge" on any case regardless of caliber. If there's expansion in any of those cases (never use +p manufacturer ammo), I don't typically tend to see it at the bottom of the case. In instances outside of 40 S&W, it seems to expand the whole case more uniformly. Unlike with 40 S&W which was visually noticeable on the bottom of the case.

That's what made me scratch my head and I wanted to make sure what others have experience after firing off reloaded 40 S&W ammo.

CH

1KPerDay said:

Same here. Standard lee sizing dies, Gen 3 Glock 22, 23, Taurus .40, never used a bulge buster. No issues.

by the way what do you mean by “all the way through” on a case gauge?

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See my response to LiveLife below on the explanation.

LiveLife, 12Bravo20,

THX. I adjusted the Hornady (was a tad high which also accounted for the need to have a longer than normal prime removing pin) resizing die and ran a few cases through it. They all worked fine on the Hornady case gauge. This alleviates the thought of having to run them through the bulge buster again.

Now I can focus on looking for an optimum powder weight using WST (may look at Sport pistol as I have plenty of that type of powder as well).

CH

Dudedog said:

In case you don't have it, from Alliant
Reduce 10% to start
View attachment 958053

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Dudedog. Thx.

For Alliant powders I normally start at the 10% reduction. I was asking because I haven't run into case bulging for any of the other calibers I reload for. I was testing WST through the whole powder range (starting to max load) It did well. Settlng on 5.7 which is. 2 grains from published max. Just asking to keep from risking case bulge because of powder levels.

I adjusted my resizer die and my reloads (which I reloaded and used previously) have passed the gauge checks.

CH

vaalpens said:

I have been reload 40s&w and 357sig for a while now, but I have only had bulging issues with brass I received. The 357sig issues I have resolved by using the Lee bulge buster, my 40s&w Lee FCD used as a bulge buster.

I have heard about 40s&w bulging issues, but I have never had an issue with it. I don't use a bulge buster on my 40s&w cases, but I do use the 40s&w Lee FCD for crimping. My assumption is that the FCD has been taken care of any possible bulging issues.

Enjoy reloading for 40s&w and be safe.

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Yes. This was all on brass I received. I was trying to build up my brass supply so I purchased 1k of it. Not knowing of case bulge issues with 40 S&W.

The good thing is that I'm just about done going through the brass one time so I won't have to worry about case bulging. I recently ran 100 cases through a 2nd reload and they all worked fine without having to go through the bulge buster.

CH

2011redrider,

Thanks. That's what I was wondering when I posted initially. I figured the manufacturer had a significantly higher pressure than my reloads. But wanted to ask to make sure, especially when I was working up a load.

Which is why I asked after checking the cases after using them once. However, after other members recommended, I checked my resizing die, made the adjustments, and tested some cases, it turned out that I just needed to adjust the resizing die. Once that was done the reloads tested fine on the gauge.

Really like the caliber. Its an excellent combination of bullet weight and speed. Heavier than the 9mm and faster than a 45acp.

CH