Bulged Brass

[BGguns2S]

I am familiar with brass bulging in factory handguns that have unsupported chambers, and I have had issues in the past from range brass that I reload sticking in the chamber.

Does anyone have any experience with reloading equipment from any of the following manufactures:


Lee Bulge Buster?

Redding G-RX push thru die?

Magma Case Master?

Case Pro 100?

AUTO DEBULGE 40?


Please tell me about your experience with any or all of the products you have used and how well they work for you?

 

[Reefinmike]

At 2-3 cents a piece, 40 brass is cheap enough that i would toss any badly buldged brass. Aside from the fact that you will be hiding badly stressed brass, it will take over a thousand pieces of buldged brass to pay for most of the kits listed.

I'd scrap it.

 

[BGguns2S]

Please help?

That is not helping me.

I have over +15,000 cases of 40 S&W and I don't want to go through and check the brass one by one and throw out 1,000 of it because they are sticking in a custom tight chamber barrel.

Most of the stuff will fit a typical factory pistol just fine, but trying to separate the brass on race day sucks.

Looking for people that have some experience with any tools that remove case bulges.

Please do not release your barking dog on me.

Thx.

 

[Wyatt]

My only experience is with the Redding GRX Push Through carbide die. Pricey, but works perfectly. I also use a Shock Bottle to verify most of my volume pistol loads. I find fewer and fewer bulged cases these days, but everything that doesn't come from my guns is run through the GRX.

 

[horseman1]

I used the Lee version and it works fine.

 

[oldreloader]

I've had good luck with the Lee Bulge Buster.

 

[Gummi Bear]

I run all my 40 brass through the Bulge Buster.

It is mostly range pick up brass, and I never know what it was shot from, so it is just a quick and easy step.

 

[Duvel]

Even though I'm using a pretty tight AM barrel, and only load my own brass, I occasionally had chambering issues in my G20.

A little case lube and a pass through the Buldge Buster (need to own the corresponding FCD) = problem gone.

No, I'm not ironing out smiles.

 

[ku4hx]

I have over 20,000 40 S&W cases of known origin and the fact is I'll likely not live long enough to reload all of them as much as I normally do.

With few exceptions, my 40 guns are Glocks and my most favorite is a Gen2 model 23. I bought this gun circa 1993 and it has that infamous original "unsupported" chamber. I've shot thousands of rounds through it and easily 99.99% has been my own stuff.

I've never done anything more than use a standard carbide sizer die. I've never experience any problems and some of my cases are on loading number five. My case bulge removing tool is therefore a normal die. Works good; lasts long time.

Maybe I'm just lucky, but I've never seen "the bulge" on any of my stuff. Maybe that's at least partly because I load only mid range power levels. I leave the peak pressure stuff to the factories, but even those I've fired left no discernible bulge.

 

[Walkalong]

Please do not release your barking dog on me.

No need to get upset, they were just relating their experience, which mirrors mine by the way.

No thread has 100% answers you will like or are even strictly on topic by your expectations. As with life, take the answers you find helpful and ignore the ones you do not. As long as posters are being polite, their is no need to get upset.

And welcome to THR, where you will find a very diverse, polite, knowledgeable, and helpful crowd. Even if we do have trouble staying strictly on topic from time to time.

 

[billybob44]

My only experience is with the Redding GRX Push Through carbide die. Pricey, but works perfectly. I also use a Shock Bottle to verify most of my volume pistol loads. I find fewer and fewer bulged cases these days, but everything that doesn't come from my guns is run through the GRX.

Same here..
Most of my .40 S&W+10MM is range brass, with a lot from a local Police range.
I just run them all through my Redding carbide Gr-x. I de-cap first and initial clean first before it hits this die.
My homemade case lube (9 parts 91% alcohol to 1 part hand lotion) gets applied before--some of those cases are TIGHT..
Hope this helps..Bill.

 

[RealGun]

Lee Bulge Buster and Redding G-Rx work for me. The Lee can also do 45 ACP.

Brass with some head stamps is deadly for getting stuck in this equipment. I suggest you sort your stuff by head stamp but of course in manageable batch sizes.

The great advantage for me is that 40 brass will flow well in small size case feeder drop tubes, if completely presized in the Redding or Lee. Once you go to the large tube, 40 becomes problematic for the case feeder.

 

[BGguns2S]

Thanks everyone.

I was reading a few complaints about the carbide sizing ring inside the Redding G-Rx die tends to get cracked easily if a case that is a bit to fat gets pushed thru. A few people have told me that the ring snaps and gets a very fine hair line crack in it and from there it never sizes the same??

Does anyone know how much time it would take me to do 15,000 cases with the Lee or Redding die method?

 

[Scooter22]

Never did that much brass. Do 15 cases and multiply the time by 1000. Or 150 x 100.

 

[fiftybmg]

Bulge Buster from Lee.

It goes faster with a squirt of case lube spray.

Keep in mind that after bulged brass is resized, firing it in an unsupported chamber a second time greatly increases the odds of a kaboom. It can only bulge once at a given point, the second time at the same point, it ruptures.

If your pistol has an unsupported chamber, discard the bulged brass.

 

[jmorris]

I have a few casepro machines and automated this one.



They have two dies that the brass rolls in between and they repair any base, rim or extractor grove damage.


The push through sizers work best with cases like the 45 acp or 40 s&w, only touch the rim on 9mm cases and can't be used with anything that has a rim, like the semi rimmed 38super.

Although I use it for push through sizing bullets vs cases I did throw this automated single stage push through sizer together for about $6200 less than a case master.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01zbImsdkbg

Not sure what the auto debulge 40 is doing but it only works with 40 and 45 acp, so like the push through sizers, that's a deal breaker for me.

 

[RealGun]

Does anyone know how much time it would take me to do 15,000 cases with the Lee or Redding die method?

Why dwell on that, as if you were going to reload them all in one loading frenzy? To me, I would think 1000 at a time would be plenty for anyone.

 

[WestKentucky]

My 10mm puts a truly nasty bulge on brass. I loaded the first few last friday. Regular old lee carbide dies did the trick. I am concerned about brass life though. Wish I could anneal, but it basically is the head that's swelling so not trying that.

 

[vaalpens]

If you have the 40s&w Lee FCD, then the only additional item you need is a punch to have a bulge buster. I use my 40s&w Lee FCD and a punch to debulge all my 357sig brass.

I wonder if the Lee FCD will debulge sufficiently if you just use it to crimp your 40s&w loads. I use it when loading 40s&w and never had any issues with range brass.

 

[Sunray]

"...have over +15,000 cases of 40 S&W and I don't want to go through and check the brass one by one..." Checking 'em is something you need to do anyway. Moreso if it's range brass. The unknown aspect of range brass is why it's not used for 'racing'.
Mind you, I'd be inclined to sell at least 10,000 of those.

 

[ReloaderFred]

I have the Magma Case Master Jr., with dies and feeders for the 9mm family of cases, the .40/10mm family of cases, and the .45 acp family of cases.

You can go through them pretty fast, as long as your arm and shoulder hold out. I lube the cases with spray lube in a ZipLoc bag, and then load them into plastic tubes and run them through the machine. You can really work up a sweat with it, but it does a good job, as long as you coordinate moving the case feed slide with pulling the handle. Lube is necessary, since you're running the case all the way through the carbide die, in effect sizing the base and rim, which are the thickest parts of the case. It makes the whole case uniform from case mouth to rim.

I'd sell mine, since I've got buckets full of brass that I'll probably never get around to shooting. Contact me via PM if interested.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[Wyatt]

I've never timed myself, but I would guess you could do 1k in an hour and a half without too much trouble if you have good dexterity. I break out the die a couple times a year once I have 500-1000 saved up that are range pick ups or otherwise given to me.

I can get going at a good clip, but have also been bitten a couple times and it wakes you up real quick!

 

[bocefus78]

Another lee user here. I'll say that my normal sizing dies do just fine on brass from my Gen 3 glock. The older glocks were allegedly worse about bulging the brass.

As for time, I can do 1k per hour.

My bulge buster hasn't been used since I discovered ammo sized and loaded runs just fine in my guns. Have you tried loading them without a bulge busting product? You may not need it at all!

 

[Blue Thunder]

I have close to 10K of 40S&W brass that are once fired and deprimed. I have a G-RX and have not had any issues with the brass after being run thru it. I did swap out the barrel in my G-35 to a fully supported chamber so when fired in it there is no need to run it thru the G-RX.

 

[david bachelder]

I own and use the GRX 80. I have had good success with it. I run all of my 40 brass through it. It's become routine. I use my RCBS RockChucker for the job. Then I load the 40's on my LNL.