Reloading .40S&W for a Glock 22

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compujas

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I have been trying to research this topic for months now before I get into reloading but am having trouble getting to the bottom of it.

I have a 3rd Gen Glock 22 (.40S&W) that I would like to reload for. I have some brass that I've been collecting as I shoot factory ammo through it, so the brass has already been shot through the Glock. Basically, what I want to know is is it safe to reload brass that has been shot through a Glock (specifically my 3rd Gen) to be shot through the same gun. If so, what do I need to do to it?

I am aware of the Bulge Buster kit and similar things to get rid of the bulge, but I know they also say that you shouldn't use them on Glock brass. My biggest concern is that if the brass is bulged (which I'm not 100% sure it does with a 3rd Gen, I can't find anything conclusive yet), and then fully resized, that bulged region is still going to be thinner, which could cause problems.

Obviously, I could just say screw it and not reload for it to be on the safe side, but I could say that about any caliber, and reloading in general. I am trying to be as safe as possible with reloading so I don't blow myself or anything else up.

Also, if it's absolutely not safe to reload brass fired from a Glock, would getting an aftermarket barrel be a safe solution? I would certainly consider buying a $100 aftermarket barrel to be able to reload for it.

Any information, suggestions, comments, etc. would be greatly appreciated because I want to get to the bottom of this and not have to worry every time I go to pull the trigger.

Thanks in advance.
 
yes, you can reload it. I would recommend that you try to reload the brass normally, making sure that the sizing die gets as low as possible. Try a hundres or so rounds like that and see if there are any problems. If there are, you can get the redding GR-X system to eliminate the bulge, or the EGW die (cheaper than GR-X).
 
Just curious...why wouldn't you be able to reload brass fired from a Glock? I'm new to this and I have a Glock 10mm and I was hoping to reload brass fired from my Glock. I have a Lonewolf barrel on the G29...
 
I am aware of the Bulge Buster kit and similar things to get rid of the bulge, but I know they also say that you shouldn't use them on Glock brass.
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That's just their attorney talking out of his tail pipe. The Lee Bulge Buster along with the factory crimp die will bring the cartridge back into specs. I have run many .40 and 10mm reloads this way in my Glock's without a single issue. Just play it safe and keep your loads reasonable... aka: don't load nuke's just for plinking. Stick with moderate loads and you will be fine. First run the brass through the Bulge Buster, then full-length size them afterward.

Also, if it's absolutely not safe to reload brass fired from a Glock, would getting an aftermarket barrel be a safe solution? I would certainly consider buying a $100 aftermarket barrel to be able to reload for it.
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Reloading issues with Glocked brass has been blown way out of proportion by internet "experts" and Glock haters alike. Just make sure it is properly resized and the load is not over pressure and you will be fine. An aftermarket barrel will help to make your brass last longer, but you should still get 4-5 reloads out of your brass in the stock barrel.
 
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If you're not even sure the brass is bulged, it's not.

Just curious...why wouldn't you be able to reload brass fired from a Glock? I'm new to this and I have a Glock 10mm and I was hoping to reload brass fired from my Glock. I have a Lonewolf barrel on the G29...
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The only reason to not reload Glock-fired brass is the same as with any other autoloader. If the unsupported part of the brass over the feed ramp bulges out during firing, the case is weakened. But you have to shoot some pretty hot loads for this to happen in a Glock, especially a 3rd gen. They have about the same case support as most other autoloaders.
 
The question is why is your brass bulged??? I have been shooting my Glock 22 and 27 since they first came out and I have never seen a bulged case. I have shot many thousand rounds of reloaded ammo in my pistol. However, I don't reload hot ammo, just pliinking and practice ammo. I have a small Dillon press for this caliber. If your brass is bulged, you better contact Glock about it. There may be a problem with your gun.....chris3
 
The later gen 3s, tighten up the chamber a bit, so the brass is bellied less, or not at all. If your brass looks straight, your good to load, and if its bellied out, don't load it as many times. I shot a starting load of Power Pistol, and it was a tackdriving load, when I had a G23.
 
I shot my Gen3 G22 Monday for the first time with reloads. I ran some fairly hot loads through it and did not experience any "Guppy bellies" as I've heard them called. Ran lead bullets too and got surprisingly little leading with the stock barrel. Lead cleaned out easier than my conventional rifled Sigma.

When I bought this pistol I was aware Glocks supposedly have loose/sloppy chambers for enhanced reliability. After getting it home I pulled the barrel from it and my Sigma and dropped a round into the chamber of each. The Sigma had a LOT more slop in it than the Glock. My plans for a Lone Wolf barrel are on hold until I can do further testing.

All the Best,
D. White
 
Thanks for the input everyone. It sounds like I should be fine to just go and load them as normal. I was just getting worried from all the internet "experts", as KB put it, that I'd have problems.

I don't know for sure that they are bulged, I haven't inspected the .40 cases yet since I don't have all of my equipment yet anyway. All I have right now is enough to deprime and tumble, and I don't even have the die set for .40 yet since it was backordered, so no shell plate to deprime them. I only deprimed and tumbled my first 100 .308Win cases last night, so I'm VERY new to this, but since I'm an engineer I think I have a case of "a little knowledge is dangerous".

When I finally do get all of my equipment (the wife wants to give me the rest for Christmas, so it's sitting in the corner of the living room taunting me right now), I think I'll just load the .40 as normal, and just start off with the low end of the power range and work up (like I'm supposed to anyway).

Thanks again.
 
I have reloaded 1000's of .40 rounds for my Glock 23. I have NEVER ran into any problems with brass. Hornady New Dimension dies are nice they have a coller that drops down and makes bullet seating easier, which is a nice feature IMO.
 
Compujas,

Do take the time to work up a load and don't go loading more than 5 of anything until you're sure it will function in your pistol. I helped a friend start reloading 9mm for his XDm and couldn't get reliable functioning until we were almost at the max charge recommended by the powder manufacturer.

Nothing like having 100 rounds that have to be loaded individually or taken apart with a bullet puller.

Happy reloading.

All the Best,
D. White
 
Compujas,

I have reloaded several thousand rounds for my Glock 22. First off, I would like to say that Glock barrels have very sloppy / lose tolerances. However this is not a problem. When the case is fired through a Glock it creates a slight belly due to the bad tolerances. The simple way to reuse this brass is by using Lee carbide dies. Lee is the only die that I know of that will correctly remove the belly from brass which has been fired through a Glock barrel.

If you size all your .40 brass with Lee dies then there will be no worries about the cases not fitting correctly.

As for another fix to this problem- Lonewolf barrels. Lonewolf has to follow the strict tolerances of the USA gun standards. When a case is fired through a Lonewolf barrel, you can take the shell and check it in a case length gauge and you will have no problems. However that would be different if you tested a case fired though a Glock barrel.

Hope this helps...

DFisher3112
 
I hate to resurrect a thread, but since it's my own, it's ok.

I finally got around to sizing some .40 brass to see how it goes. I ran some through the Lee Carbide sizing die and notice that while the small bulge is gone, there's now a ring that is a larger diameter near the base. I also tried running some brass through the Lee Bulge Buster kit (both with and without running it through the regular sizing die first) and still notice the ring.

I decided to measure some cases and I'm getting around .418" diameter from the mouth all the way down to about .57" from the mouth. At that point the diameter starts to increase up to about .423" diameter before the extractor groove. According to SAAMI specs this is all within tolerance and should be fine. My concern however is that there is a distinct difference in diameter and whether this would cause a weak spot in the case.

For reference, the SAAMI spec is .4231 -.005" "near" the mouth and .424 -.005 "near" the extractor groove. So obviously the regular sizing die runs near the low end of the tolerance to allow for die wear.

When you guys resize your Glock .40 brass, do you notice this? And is this safe to reload? I can take some pics if it helps or even draw up a quick sketch.

Thanks.

EDIT: And by the way, I did check some fired cases and there is definitely a small bulge near the base in a small area (not all the way around).
 
Sounds like they are just fine to me. I have loaded thousands of .40 and other calibers using only Lee Carbide Dies exclusively and have never had a problem with the brass during loading or after shooting. Follow the load data and read the instructions on procedure. Since you are an admitted engineer I think you are over-thinking this a bit too much. Just start out with a low power load and work up from there.

When I start a new load or cartridge I segregate them with a note in my bullet box with the powder charge, bullet weight, COAL, and any other pertinent information such as iffy brass or easy seating bullets. My .40 is a 3rd gen Glock 22 as well and my pistol and brass are no worse for wear than using factory ammo. Load em up and have a blast.
 
FWIW, this is my thinking on using a Bulge Buster:

Size a batch of brass. Drop it in the chamber. Drop it out. Rotate 180 degrees. Drop it in the chamber again. Drop it out.

If it doesn't stick, then your brass isn't bulged.

If it's bulged, normal resizing won't get rid of the bulge on all the cases, and some of the brass will stick.

If YOUR gun did it, buy an aftermarket barrel or start loading lighter if you're planning to debulge it. Safety aside, you do NOT want to have to debulge your brass every time you reload, because it's a PITA.

If YOUR gun's brass is fine, and this is just range pickups, and they look ok, then go ahead and debulge the lot of them.

I have a third gen G27, and the only significant bulges I have seen were on purchased brass. So far, it looks like these cases are fine after the first debulge, although I'm sure I'm taking a greater risk of a case failure by using them. Seems like most of my 40 brass that has been through a debulger has the ring shown in the previous post, though not nearly so bad. I'll have to keep an eye on my brass. If that ring becomes more prominent, I'll start weeding out the bad ones.
 
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Brianp90, that is essentially what mine look like, except nowhere near as defined. On mine it's not so much a step, but more of a ramp. If you just took a quick look at it you wouldn't even notice it was there, but if you feel for it or hold it up straight you can see the slight change in angle. I may be over-thinking it as sediment said, but given how sharp and quick the P-t curve on .40 is, I feel justified.

GLOOB, my gun is definitely causing bulges. I checked some fired brass and there is definitely a bulge there. Fixing them isn't a big deal since my Lee dies seem to take care of it. I'm just making sure that what the die leaves afterwards is acceptable to shoot again.
 
Well, sure. My definition of a bulged case is one of those guppie belly things that a normal resizing die doesn't remove. You don't have to check your fired cases for these; they'll be obvious. If you need to pull out the calipers or roll the cases around to see it, it's probably nothing. A little bulge is perfectly fine. Be sure to chamber check a good sample of your ammo, though.
 
GLOOB said:
FWIW, this is my thinking on using a Bulge Buster:

Size a batch of brass. Drop it in the chamber. Drop it out. Rotate 180 degrees. Drop it in the chamber again. Drop it out.

If it doesn't stick, then your brass isn't bulged.

If it's bulged, normal resizing won't get rid of the bulge on all the cases, and some of the brass will stick.

If YOUR gun did it, buy an aftermarket barrel or start loading lighter if you're planning to debulge it. Safety aside, you do NOT want to have to debulge your brass every time you reload, because it's a PITA.

If YOUR gun's brass is fine, and this is just range pickups, and they look ok, then go ahead and debulge the lot of them.

I have a third gen G27, and the only significant bulges I have seen were on purchased brass. So far, it looks like these cases are fine after the first debulge, although I'm sure I'm taking a greater risk of a case failure by using them. Seems like most of my 40 brass that has been through a debulger has the ring shown in the previous post, though not nearly so bad. I'll have to keep an eye on my brass. If that ring becomes more prominent, I'll start weeding out the bad ones.
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Gloob,
Your right on the money. My Glock doesnt budge anything / or very very little, but I buy bulk brass and its all pretty crappy. I run everything threw the GR-X die on my single stage and then full then full length size on the Hornaday LNL press with the Hornady dies.

Oh, as a note, I learned the hard way. A "full length" sizing die will not remove the bulge on a progressive press. The die contacts the shell plate before the bulge is all the way gone. So I bought a cheapo single stage and the G-RX die and run them threw that before running them on the progress press. Plus I got to buy another toy. Also, the G-RX die will not work on a progressive press. The "pusher" wont attach to the shell plate, at least on my LNL it wont.

Branden
 
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I learned the hard way.
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I hope it didn't result in any damage to your guns or yourself.

If you meant hard way, as in having loads of finished reloads that don't pass a gauge, then maybe you didn't know this. You can put the finished rounds through the push-through sizers. At least you can with the Lee Bulge Buster. It takes the same amount of time to do it either way, but you might get some unwanted post-sizing of the neck/bullet if you do it after. (No worse than if you actually use an FCD on your 40 ammo, already).
 
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GLOOB said:
I hope it didn't result in any damage to your guns or yourself.

If you meant hard way, as in having loads of finished reloads that don't pass a gauge, then maybe you didn't know this. You can put the finished rounds through the push-through sizers. At least you can with the Lee Bulge Buster. It takes the same amount of time to do it either way, but you might get some unwanted post-sizing of the neck/bullet if you do it after. (No worse than if you actually use an FCD on your 40 ammo, already).
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Sorry, I meant I learned the hard way by buying a bunch of stuff and not having it work correctly.
I've herd that about the Lee dies unfortunately I bought the Hornady dies. I like them and they work but I didnt want to "make" something to push the shell threw the die. Ive herd of guys doing this but I was worried for, 1 of my craftsman skill and 2 I didnt like putting that type of force on the side of the progress press. I felt like I was bound to screw something up on my new press. So I bought a single stager and that worked fine.
 
Thanks for all the input. It seems like my best course of action is to size them to the best of my ability and start at the bottom end of charge weight and be very cautious for signs of pressure and damage. Hopefully this method will allow me to find the charge weight limit before causing damage to the gun (or myself). Any comments on my plan?
 
Load em and shoot em. If you are using current load data and following it then I don't see you having a significant problem.
 
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