Here's a first for me on reloading

[ar10]

I finished reloading 2000 40SW using range brass, all the brass is head stamp sorted and cleaned.
I use a Hornady SS LnL along with a small Lee. Every case, 6000, followed the same process, Lee/de-prime, Hornady sizing. When loading I set the Hornady for belling and Lee for crimping.. Every die is the Hornady carbide die set.
The strange part is every one of the RP's were so loose and wide that I could push the bullet down into the case with my thumb even with the crimp. all the other cases were tight. Anyone know what caused this??????

 

[Doug b]

Can't say for sure what caused it but I can tell you it has not happened to me since I quit loading Remington pistol brass way back in the 1980's.

 

[fourdollarbill]

Measure the bullet. Maybe it is too small. Or the case wall is thin at one point. Roll the case in your fingers and tighten you grip while rolling. If one point caves in your case was too thin at that point. The other side is probably extra thick.

 

[Smokey Joe]

Remington Brass...

A. R. 10--IMX, Remington brass is among the softest brass made. I reload .45 ACP, and the bullets always back too far in to the Rem brass, so the OAL is shorter than the other cartridges. Frustrating.

Makes the Rem brass EZ to resize, but that doesn't compensate for the variation in OAL.

I have enough .45 ACP brass, now, that I just automatically scrap the Rem's when I come across them among the range pick-up brass.

In .357 Magnum, I have not noticed the same problem.

Agreed, it is REALLY frustrating when you do the exact same thing to a case, with the exact same die, as all the others, and it comes out different. My suggested solution is to scrap the Rem brass.

 

[Steve C]

I wouldn't say Rem brass is softer but it is a bit thinner. I like it for loading lead bullets over most other brands as there's seldom problems with cases wrinking from an over tight bullet fit. I've never had any case tension problems loading jacketed ammo in Remington cases (9mm, .38,.357, .41, .45acp) but I don't load .40 S&W's so I can't comment on them.

 

[depoloni]

Don't know certainly, and don't want to question your reloading practices. But when I get a "1 in 1000" oddball situation, given the repeatitiveness of the progressive loading process (that's quite a stack!) I always question the man first, machine second if all else seemed to be right.

Are you SURE you didn't somehow miss one in the sizing die? Again, not saying you did anything wrong (Rem IS thin) but every time I catcha random case the bullet just slides into I somehow double-cocked the progressive due to some distraction and failed to resize the case before belling. Just a thought.

 

[ReloaderFred]

I've found that with some lots of Remington .40 S&W brass, there isn't much you can do to make it work with jacketed bullets. I've got five (5) 10mm/.40 sizing dies, and none of them will size the R-P brass down enough to hold a jacketed bullet in that caliber. This seems to be more of a problem with newer lots of brass, and those lots won't hold a bullet even before a belling die is used on it.

I do use R-P brass in .40 S&W for loading cast bullets that are sized .401" diameter. This seems to be just enough difference to allow the bullet to stay where I want it to.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[ar10]

I just thought it was odd. I sized all of the 40's and it was just the Remington that were too big. My only concern was getting a compressed load when the bullet was going up the feed ramp. The way I found it was by pushing the bullet after it was crimped.
The cases I used were Blazer, CBC, PMC, and Winchester. After I saw the first problem case I started checking all the cases and found the Remington to be the culprit. Everything else crimped fine.

 

[ReloaderFred]

That was what I also found to be true. I did quite a bit of experimenting with my five different sizing dies to see if I could get them to hold a jacketed bullet, but they wouldn't, even before the expander was run into them. They're apparently thinner walled than the other brass in this caliber, which causes the problem. It's nothing you've done, it's the brass.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[Hikingman]

My Rem. cases reload okay, and I don't ignore them when found at the range. My preference to buy is cases like Winchester or Starliine that are thicker as reported in numerous posts.

 

[MkgReloader]

I had a similar problem with 500 new primed 10mm Remington cases I purchased last year. They loaded fine and shot fine, but when I tried to reload them with jacketed bullets I had the same problem - you could push the bullet down into the case with you finger. I tried both RCBS and Lee dies which both size down to 420/1000 OD - same result.

I miked the case walls and found that they were 10/1000 or less compared to Federal and Starline 12/1000 and PMC 14/1000. After a few letters, including one to their President, Remington refunded my purchase price.

I have had no problems with Remington 357mag, 45acp, or 9mm case and reload lots of them.

 

[IMtheNRA]

I had that same problem with Speer cases in 9mm. Almost every round I loaded into Speer was so loose, I could push and pull the bullet with my fingers.

Equipment used was Hornady LNL with Hornady 9mm dies, Winchester 9mm 115-gr bullets.

From then on, I continued to use only Winchester brass for 9 and .45 with great results and no fear of bullet set back.

 

[ar10]

I pulled all the Rem's and dumped them in the scrap barrel, I'll take them to the scrap dealer when I get a full bucket. I really don't need the headache because I have over 10k 40SW cases, all headstamp sorted, sized and deprimed. So I have plenty of others to work with.