What do you do with your "out of spec" rounds?

[LocoGringo]

I just finished loading about 600 9mm rounds and 15 of them would not fit in the chamber after a chamber check. I'm not sure if the problem is the actual bullet I'm using is "too fat" or the brass is messed up somehow because it is fired, mixed head stamp brass and won't return to spec. So, since the rounds are useless, what would you do with those rounds? Throw them away since it's such a small number, try to salvage the powder (5.1 grains per round), something else?

 

[someguy2800]

Try blackening a round with a black sharpie and see what's interfering and stopping it from chambering. Will they go in the chamber but just not deep enough to let the slide go into battery?

 

[rg1]

If I had 15 rounds that won't chamber check, I'd first do some measuring to see why they won't chamber and make sure the bullets aren't seated too long for my chamber. Then I would pull the bullets with an impact bullet puller, save the powder if you're positive what powder is in the round, take the depriming punch out of the sizing die so the good primer will be saved. Resize and expand as usual and reload with another weighed powder charge, measure the bullet diameter to make sure it's not oversized bullets, then seat the bullet and taper crimp again. Retry the chamber check. If it still fails the chamber check, I again pull the bullet and save the powder and throw away the case and waste the primer. Like mentioned, you need to find out why by either measurement or marking the bullet and case to find why it's tight in your chamber. I hate to waste components so I try to save the bullets and powder and hopefully resizing and reloading the round will fit.

 

[Ruger 15151]

Did you pick this brass up frm the range? If so, maybe some of the brass was shot from a Glock ( where chamber is not 100% supported). You may have a bulge near the rim that wasn't removed during resizing. My suggestion would be to use a Lee factory taper crimp die (FCD). This will bring the entire shell back to factory specs whic should allow the rounds to be chambers. Otherwise, just pull the bullets, save the powder and bullet, and scrap the brass.

 

[Walkalong]

I check all sized 9MM brass with a Wilson gauge. If it won't fall free of its own weight, I scrap the case, usually about 10% to 15% of range brass. All because I bought an EMP and it has a SAMMI minimum chamber. I was blissfully ignorant until then as my reloads fit my fat chambered 9MM.

Since I do not have a bullet puller, I might scrap them, depending on the mood, or I might pull them with pliers, and save the powder and primers, maybe.

 

[dgod]

If I have this problem (Rarely), I will use the full length sizer, removing the Deprimer rod, then size the case (Slowly), and then try it again, be sure to check the crimp after this.

 

[LocoGringo]

Ok, thank you for all of your suggestions. I guess a little more info is warranted here. The bullets are Black Bullets International coated lead bullets (black color, so the sharpie wouldn't work) rather than plated or jacketed, so if the coating is compromised during pulling, it's just about ruined. The brass was purchased from Palmetto State Armory fully processed and ready for loading and they claim that it is once fired range brass from a police range (I think). I've had this brass for a long time, so I don't remember all of the details. Now, I don't know how many cops use .380 or 9mm Makarov or .22 TCM or even .38 Super because I've found quite a bit of that brass mixed in (especially those damn .380), but I know I'm not buying that brass from PSA again. All loading has been done on a Dillon 550B with Dillon dies.

One of these rounds slipped through my QC last time and it was so fat, it completely locked up my gun. The slide was out of battery and wouldn't move forward OR backward. I tapped the muzzle with a rubber mallet and it went into battery, but no matter how strongly (and carefully because the gun was now loaded) I tried to rack the slide rearward, it wouldn't budge. I didn't know what the problem was and I was afraid the barrel link had broken somehow (STI Marauder) and had mechanically locked the gun that I didn't want to shoot it to clear it, so I had to pay a gunsmith $38 to fix it for me. I don't want to repeat that situation.

Like I originally said, it's 15 rounds out of 600, so it's not very common (2.5%). I like the idea of checking by measuring, but it sounds like a lot of work (I know I sound really lazy now). Y'all are right though, I DO need to find out why they won't load. I guess I'll save them for a rainy day to diagnose because it's too darn pretty outside to be stuck inside doing that. Thank you all for your suggestions again.

 

[GRIZ22]

Ok, thank you for all of your suggestions. I guess a little more info is warranted here. The bullets are Black Bullets International coated lead bullets (black color, so the sharpie wouldn't work) rather than plated or jacketed, so if the coating is compromised during pulling, it's just about ruined. The brass was purchased from Palmetto State Armory fully processed and ready for loading and they claim that it is once fired range brass from a police range (I think). I've had this brass for a long time, so I don't remember all of the details. Now, I don't know how many cops use .380 or 9mm Makarov or .22 TCM or even .38 Super because I've found quite a bit of that brass mixed in (especially those damn .380), but I know I'm not buying that brass from PSA again. All loading has been done on a Dillon 550B with Dillon dies.

One of these rounds slipped through my QC last time and it was so fat, it completely locked up my gun. The slide was out of battery and wouldn't move forward OR backward. I tapped the muzzle with a rubber mallet and it went into battery, but no matter how strongly (and carefully because the gun was now loaded) I tried to rack the slide rearward, it wouldn't budge. I didn't know what the problem was and I was afraid the barrel link had broken somehow (STI Marauder) and had mechanically locked the gun that I didn't want to shoot it to clear it, so I had to pay a gunsmith $38 to fix it for me. I don't want to repeat that situation.

Like I originally said, it's 15 rounds out of 600, so it's not very common (2.5%). I like the idea of checking by measuring, but it sounds like a lot of work (I know I sound really lazy now). Y'all are right though, I DO need to find out why they won't load. I guess I'll save them for a rainy day to diagnose because it's too darn pretty outside to be stuck inside doing that. Thank you all for your suggestions again.

Get a silver Sharpie.

 

[hdwhit]

LocoGringo wrote:
What do you do with your "out of spec" rounds?

After investigating why they are "out of spec", disassemble them (use a kinetic puller if you are concerned about damaging the bullet coating) and put them back through my reloading process starting at step #10 (resizing).

 

[TheDomFather]

Ok, thank you for all of your suggestions. I guess a little more info is warranted here. The bullets are Black Bullets International coated lead bullets (black color, so the sharpie wouldn't work) rather than plated or jacketed, so if the coating is compromised during pulling, it's just about ruined. The brass was purchased from Palmetto State Armory fully processed and ready for loading and they claim that it is once fired range brass from a police range (I think). I've had this brass for a long time, so I don't remember all of the details. Now, I don't know how many cops use .380 or 9mm Makarov or .22 TCM or even .38 Super because I've found quite a bit of that brass mixed in (especially those damn .380), but I know I'm not buying that brass from PSA again. All loading has been done on a Dillon 550B with Dillon dies.

One of these rounds slipped through my QC last time and it was so fat, it completely locked up my gun. The slide was out of battery and wouldn't move forward OR backward. I tapped the muzzle with a rubber mallet and it went into battery, but no matter how strongly (and carefully because the gun was now loaded) I tried to rack the slide rearward, it wouldn't budge. I didn't know what the problem was and I was afraid the barrel link had broken somehow (STI Marauder) and had mechanically locked the gun that I didn't want to shoot it to clear it, so I had to pay a gunsmith $38 to fix it for me. I don't want to repeat that situation.

Like I originally said, it's 15 rounds out of 600, so it's not very common (2.5%). I like the idea of checking by measuring, but it sounds like a lot of work (I know I sound really lazy now). Y'all are right though, I DO need to find out why they won't load. I guess I'll save them for a rainy day to diagnose because it's too darn pretty outside to be stuck inside doing that. Thank you all for your suggestions again.

I am having this happen about 1 out of every 100 rounds, sometimes running the cartridge back through the seating die will fix this. I use plated or jacketed bullets only, if they dont get fixed via this process I pull the bullet and inspect the brass. One thing to be cautious of is how much you are flaring your brass and crimp you are putting on the brass.

 

[Walkalong]

Sharpie the brass, it may be too fat near the base. May not have anything to do with the bullet.

Make sure you have enough bell on the shortest cases so it doesn't shave the bullet.

 

[mdi]

Whenever there is a fit problem, measure! Find out where the cartridge is too big and you can determine when it happens during the process, and fix it.

I would pull the bullets, salvage the powder and brass. Inspect the bullets (visual and measure) to see if they could be reused. But I've got tons of time (but I'm retired and I have waaaay more time to reload than I have to shoot!). I also have a "To be dealt with later" box. I dump questionable rounds in there and when I'm not doing anything else, I'll deal with them, depending on what the problem is.

 

[Blue68f100]

One is too many in my book. Do a full diagnostic to find the root of the cause. Correct the problem weather it's inspection of brass prior to loading or afterwards. You may run into a sizing issue if the brass has a few cycles on it. Normally this is corrected by annealing. I do this every load cycle to just keep every thing uniform and consistent. I do notice a better improvement in the load consistency when I anneal.

 

[LocoGringo]

Walkalong, it's interesting that you mention a Springfield Armory product as having a tight chamber. I use my XDm to do a vast majority of the chamber checking because it is the tighter of the two chambers between it and my STI. I was surprised to learn that. While chamber checking with the XDm, any that are questionable are set aside. Those that are set aside after I'm done with the majority, I recheck with the STI and most of them fit just fine. Those that fail the chamber check with the STI are absolute failures.

Thank you for all of the suggestions. I'll have to start marking with a sharpie and measuring.

 

[jr_watkins]

For handgun, any rounds that fail to drop without issue into my gauge, but pass all my other checks get shot at a range that doesn't allow brass pick up or where brass pickup is inconvenient. Usually an indoor range. I'd say I have a few every hundred that fall into this category. The issue is almost always the brass itself so it is good to leave on the ground and get out of my rotation. On the rare times that the issue is the bullet itself or the loading, I disassemble and salvage what I can of the components and fix the source of the issue. An example of this is if the press isn't set perfect for the type of bullet being used and the bullet is damaged during seating.

 

[Walkalong]

Walkalong, it's interesting that you mention a Springfield Armory product as having a tight chamber. I use my XDm to do a vast majority of the chamber checking because it is the tighter of the two chambers between it and my STI. I was surprised to learn that. While chamber checking with the XDm, any that are questionable are set aside. Those that are set aside after I'm done with the majority, I recheck with the STI and most of them fit just fine. Those that fail the chamber check with the STI are absolute failures.

Thank you for all of the suggestions. I'll have to start marking with a sharpie and measuring.

It was actually tighter than SAMMI and SA reamed it a little, but left it at minimum. Anything over .3915ish is tight, and .392 near the base will stick in the Wilson gauge. If I scrap any that fail the gauge the rest will fit the EMP chamber. My XDm chamber isn't as tight.