Bullet Gauge Reality Check

[Fishingted]

Had a bit of a reality check just yesterday. Recently Had bought a Lee Bulge Buster for My 10MM and 40S&W brass. Also got a gauge for those same calibers. Mind You 98% of my Brass for the 10mm Glock 40 MOS is all My Own. I started out reloading for that gun with brand new Star Line Brass. I quickly bought several after market barrels for it. A LW 9 inch and a Alpha Wolf Threaded Barrel with a compensator on that Barrel. I had just made up about 500 rounds of 10MM using CFL Powder. I Load on a Dillon 550. This Brass has only had 1 Loading Cycle. I have checked a little over Half of them with the gauge and I am getting about a 10 percent failure rate. Most were able to be fixed by running thru the bulge buster. But even then a few on closer inspection were suspect and I pulled the Bullets and discarded the cases. Conclusion is that when I first Got that gun I had shot some ammo thru it with the Glock stock Barrel. Which is a a Unsupported Chamber. Some of the Finished bullets were Very Hard to even get to go thru the bulge buster Die. And I did manage to Jam one that I had to Beat Out. I hate To think what could have happened Had I not ran them the thru the Gauge. I am now in the process of going thru all my 10mm and 40 S&W ammo. If it doesn't make the gauge it isn't going in the Gun. That simple. Also have Gauge for my 45 ACP. And I am Getting a Gauge for my 9MM also. Also I will Never Shoot any Ammo in a Glock Stock Barrel that I intend to Reload. A little Lengthy But I hope it helps other Re-Loaders to Not make a Posable Catastrophic Mistake. Get A Gauge and Use It.

 

[Varminterror]

Which is your tightest of barrels? Cartridge gauges tell you whether a cartridge will fit in the gauge, which by design, must be smaller than the smallest potential chamber in any compliant ACTUAL FIREARM. In many, many, many cases - as in most cases - gauges will reject cartridges which the firearms would haven swallowed with a smile.

 

[mdi]

I thought I needed case gauges when I got my first center fire semi-auto pistol. Good Wilson cartridge gauges now live in a drawer, somewhere in my shop. I first seat the bullets to the bullet manufacturer's or reloading manual recommendations and do a plunk test with the "tightest" chamber for the specific cartridge. Occasionally (rarely) I'll have to adjust OAL, but in 22+ years I have had no failures to chamber/feed in 9 different semi-auto pistols...