Problem w/ Rem 38 spcl brass

[jbrown13]

I have never tried to reload Rem OF 38 spcl brass before today, but experienced a problem I didn't experience with Win & Starline OF brass.

The brass was all trimmed to the same length and resized in a Hornady sizing die. Mouth was chamfered and deburred. Bullet used was a .357" dia.
jacketed HP w/ cannellure (?sp). Crimp was a light roll crimp done in a separate die in station 5.

After checking a few I found that I could push the bullet down to the top of the cannellure with my fingers, and easily pull it back to bottom of the cannellure with pliers. Again, I have not experienced this with Win and Starline brass. The roll crimp is just enough to remove the bell and allow the round to gage. I hesitate to put a heavy crimp on the round because my understanding is that case neck tension is what holds the bullet in place. Am I doing something wrong?

Is Rem brass that thin that the ID will not be small enough to tension a bullet after resizing? The ones I finished and pulled only took 2 to 4 taps with an inertial bullet puller on the anvil of my shop vise to come apart. I mean TAPS, as in 4 to 5 inches from the anvil.

Comments or suggestions please.

Thanks,
Jeff

 

[rcmodel]

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=236104&highlight=remington+.38+spl+brass

You may find some that is right mixed in with the ones that are wrong.

You can cure the problem by taking a little off the expander button with a drill & emery paper.

Or you could use a 9mm expander out of another die set.

rc

 

[The Bushmaster]

What he [rc] said. You can patch the problem with a Lee FCD or use rc's method (much better idea). Or...toss them.

For some wierd reason Remington .38 Special cases are too thin and tend to rebound after resizing and allowing a loose fit between bullet and case. I have no problem with the rest of the Remington family

 

[rcmodel]

I wonder if it would be worth annealing some of them and see if it cures the "rebound" problem?

rc

 

[jbrown13]

Thanks for the Quick Replies

Thanks RC and BM. Good info from you two as always. I'll put it aside for gathering dust or lead bullets. My guess is dust since I don't see lead bullets in my future. Jeff

 

[The Bushmaster]

jbrown13. Do you have Lee dies? If you do...You will need to turn down the expander in the powder through die instead of the resizing/decaping die...Just enough that the expander button starts into the .38 Special case. If that doesn't do it turn it down a little bit more. The Lee expander is usually a bit rough anyway and it doesn't hurt to turn them down on all of your Lee dies. Just be careful not to turn them down too much. It only takes a little bit to do the job...

 

[Steve C]

Just crimp a bit tighter.

Remingtons are a bit thinner than Winchesters and Federals. Makes for easier sizing and they last as long as any of the others. I like them best when reloading lead bullets that are .001" larger in diameter than jacketed but have never had any problems with jacketed bullets in Remington cases.

 

[The Bushmaster]

And be careful how much you crimp them too. You could end up with a bullet that is held in the case just by the crimp and the rest of the case mouth opened up and doing nothing. The crimp is for holding the bullet in place during recoil. The bullet still needs case to bullet tension to get a good burn on the powder...

 

[HankB]

I've had the same trouble with Remington .45 ACP brass - my calipers show it's a couple of thousandths of an inch thinner at the case mouth than ANY other brand of brass I've tried.

I tried sizing with both RCBS and Dillon carbide dies, and even brought an old RCBS steel die out of retirement - no joy. And a simple roll or taper crimp will not replace proper sizing!

Some lots are just bad . . . and now it seems the .45 problem is infecting other calibers in the Remington line.

 

[Bruno2]

I have problems with the .38 spl brass by Rem . My press doesnt like them . I always get a bulge in the cases when expanding them .

 

[ReloaderFred]

Measure the expander, as mentioned above. I load and shoot Remington .38 brass all the time without any problems, but most of my bullets are lead, sized to .358".

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[jbrown13]

jbrown13. Do you have Lee dies? If you do...You will need to turn down the expander in the powder through die instead of the resizing/decaping die...Just enough that the expander button starts into the .38 Special case. If that doesn't do it turn it down a little bit more. The Lee expander is usually a bit rough anyway and it doesn't hurt to turn them down on all of your Lee dies. Just be careful not to turn them down too much. It only takes a little bit to do the job...

Bushmaster, my dies are a Hornady 3 die set with an RCBS Crimp die. There is only about 100 of the R-P brass, and it was free, so setting it aside and using the other 38 spcl brass I have is no big deal. Don't feel comfortable crimping harder, as one poster said. I can imagine that ballooning the brass more just below the crimp.