All of the sudden .40 doesn't work anymore?

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rhino777

rhino777

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Loaded 2,000+ rounds of .40 S&W with Hornady dies on their single stage L&L press without issues. Now this current round they're getting rings on the projectiles and not fitting in the cartridge gauge after bullet seating. Only thing different is I'm using TopBrass reconditioned brass instead of recycling my own like I was doing before. Any ideas? See attached pix: gauge.jpg boooleet.jpg
 
Could be an issue with "glock bulge" in this lot of fired brass. Did you fully size them?
Do you normally shoot a glock? If not, that is why you may not have seen this issue yet.

Did you bell them as normal? I think the ring on the bullet may be from too much force while seating the bullet so you may have more than 1 issue.
 
Have you looked at the headstamp or measured case length? That looks like a really long .40... aka 10mm. Otherwise you’ve got a couple of problems. The Glock bulge would prevent gauging but not cause the ring on the bullet. That usually points to a seat and crimp in the same operation and the case length is too long... again might be a too long case. Good luck.
 
I have not been lucky enough to fire a 40, or anything really, from a gauge. How they fit yer chamber?

As Captain Renault would say, round up the usual suspects....

Could be ogive on the bullet is hitting something.
Could be bulge at the case head - common in 9's and 40's both, regardless of which gun (some are worse than others tho)
Could be bullet diameter being a bit on the plus side
Could be remnant of case flare put in to assist seating
 
Do they fit your chamber in your gun?

Pictures indicates the base maybe swollen a bit. Flip the round over and see if the base will enter the gauge. Give it a spin and try again. See any ejector marks on the rim? May need to run through a pass through die to size the base down.
 
I would see if the resized brass will fit in the case gauge first. If not it needs to be bulge busted. The ring on your bullet indicates hard seating and is a seperate issue unless the case is getting spread at seating. Fix one problem at a time. As asked are the bullets a new batch could they be oversized? Get out your calipers and compare one that feeds to one that does not. Go from there.
 
Ever clean your dies? The photo doesn't really look like it was from a nasty die, but something may have accumulated over your sessions. I clean my dies fairly often, I use a little "Gun Scrubber" to melt any excess wax and stuff. When loading lead, I check fairly often.
 
I shoot a Kahr and it has a really tight chamber. The Glock bulge got me. The bulk of my .40 brass had been shot in Glocks. I had to invest in a Lee bulge buster kit. That fixed my problems, now I just run all my .40's thru it just to be sure. I can't speak to your other issues.
 
I believe the Top Brass is roll sized, not run into a die. Wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if it was a little small on the mouth end making bullet seating more difficult resulting in a ring on the bullets, especially if they are soft bullets or hollow points. The roll sizing may well not size the base end of the case small enough to fit your case gauge either. In fact, it might even make it a bit larger. I’d run a few through my sizing die and then see what happens. Then cover your problem case with a sharpie and put it in your check gauge and see where the ink gets scuffed off. That will tell you what’s happening and then you can figure out what to do with it. I’ve read about running loaded ammo through a bulge buster but have never tried or had need to try it. That might be an option rather than pull bullets and resize cases. Maybe they’ll fit your chamber even though they don’t fit your gauge. If so, shoot them. I’m betting it’s a sizing issue with the Top Brass “reconditioned” brass.
 
FROGO207 said:
I would see if the resized brass will fit in the case gauge first. If not it needs to be bulge busted. The ring on your bullet indicates hard seating and is a seperate issue unless the case is getting spread at seating. Fix one problem at a time. As asked are the bullets a new batch could they be oversized? Get out your calipers and compare one that feeds to one that does not. Go from there.
Click to expand...

2X for this post.

Rhino, sometimes the engraving ring on the bullet is caused by the die. If you're not having to exert undue force seating the bullet, then it could be the die not matching the bullet profile. There are a bunch of forum threads dedicated to addressing this especially for rifle bullets but the concept is the same. When you tear down the die to clean it, fit a bullet into the profile cavity, and check the fit. You can use some very fine sandpaper around the tip of a dummy round to cut a very small radius where the bullet meets the die. Don't take off a lot or you might start having alignment issues - concentricity.
 
"Could be an issue with "glock bulge" in this lot of fired brass. Did you fully size them?
Do you normally shoot a glock? If not, that is why you may not have seen this issue yet."

Yes....and full length sizing besides that last millimeter you can't get to with a regular die.
I do so I am fully aware of the 'glock bulge' issue.

"What's your OAL?"

1.125. Similar to the Hornady XTPs except these are Berry's Bullets.

"Have you looked at the headstamp or measured case length?"

40 S&W on the headstamp although also say 'Blackstone' which I'm not familiar with. They are .844 after expander die versus .841 after expander die on the recycled Hornady and Blazer brass from my last range day a few weeks ago.

"I'd check the seating plug and see if there's a build up of shmoo"

Already pulled apart and drowned it in Hornady gun part cleaner :)

"Could be ogive on the bullet is hitting something.
Could be bullet diameter being a bit on the plus side"

I've used a few rounds of Berry's Bullets before and they worked great. I did just notice this particular box is their RS/Round shoulder variation instead of the FP/Flat Points I've used before. This I assume does make the ogive fairly different.........?

Cases fit into the gauge both after the sizing die and the expander die. Just not quite after the seating die.

I just ordered a Lee Bulge Buster even if that isn't my main issue. :)

Thanks for the replies I'll try the suggestions here and see what happens!
 
I load 40s&w Berry's FP bullets to a COL of 1.125", but to me your COL looks longer. It could just be the picture, but I would verify the COL again and make sure it is 1.125".

rhino777 said:
Cases fit into the gauge both after the sizing die and the expander die. Just not quite after the seating die.
Click to expand...
Just not quite after the seating and crimping die?
 
Cases fit into the gauge both after the sizing die and the expander die. Just not quite after the seating die.

I just ordered a Lee Bulge Buster even if that isn't my main issue. :)
Click to expand...

If the case fits into the gauge after sizing by itself, a bulge buster won’t help you, because that’s not a problem.

If it works before “C” process but not after, that’s where you should focus attention.
 
It sounds like he seats and crimps in one stage. Could the issue be not setting the seater crimp die correctly that causes the die to create a slight bulge at the top portion of the case? I know I had that problem at one time, so I decided to split the process up into two different stations; 1 for crimping and another station solely for taper crimping.

Folks have stated that as you gain experience, you can do both in one step. I just gave up as it was too inconsistent for me between calibers.

CH
 
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