I had to go to that die when I bought my tight chambered Springfield RO 9mm. So far I have been able to use all range pickup brass.

 

That's the pistol I'm have a problem with KP321. RO 9mm and Compact RO 9mm Champ. Great pistols but very picky eaters!!

Bob

 

You might need a small base die due to a chamber being tight but Glocked brass is a thing of the past. It affected Gen 1 and early Gen 2 Glocks that didn't have fully supported chambers. Those guns are pretty old now and there are millions of newer Glocks out there shooting fully supported barrels

I only load once fired brass from ranges and I don't think I've ever seen a bulged case that wouldn't shoot. Just my .02

 

That's good stuff Alex. Thanks for the info. I've gotten to where I only load brass from my pistols also and need a little more brass than that so I was looking for a reliable die.

 

I've fired and reloaded eleventy-zillion 9mm rounds through Glocks. I load pretty hot. Haven't seen a Glock bulge yet. Small base dies are rifle dies. Modern Glocks don't have fully supported chambers.

I use plain ol Lee carbide dies. My 9mm never fail.

 

Push through die.
Did those first gen Glocks suddenly stop working?

 

There's lots of old Gen 1 guns out there, but if I was a reloader I wouldn't use brass that has the guppy belly. Even if you use a pass through die to iron it out, that brass is weaker and could blow out on a subsequent reload, particularly if you're running high end loads.

I know a lot of guys do it, but a lot of guys don't think about the ramifications of it either. I've seen enough blown up Glocks to make me a believer.

 

I don't do 9mm, but I do use the U-die for .45 (I got it from EDW, but its made by Lee). It works superbly. Since they also have them for 9mm, and .38 Super, I would expect them to work just as well.

 

Do the small base dies size the case far enough down to get rid of a bulge? I was under the impression that pass through dies were needed to get rid of it.

I have seen smiles on 40 S&W cases but do not recall seeing any on 9mm Luger cases.
I have a Redding pass through die to help with the few 40 S&W cases I pick up that make it through my screening process but have never had the need for a pass through die for the thousands of 9mm range cases I have loaded and fired.

 

I us the 9mm Lee U die; after cleaning, I size.
No problems feeding any reloads through the U die. I also push all
.40 cases through a Redding GRX after cleaning.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

Tight chamber in barrel....

If I had a 1911 that was finicky on feeding ammo, I would talk to the mfg.

A tight chamber might be corrected by having the mfg. use a chamber reamer.

I had a 9mm Kart barrel that would not feed some bullet profiles due to a short leade of the chamber.....I used a finishing reamer and the problem was solved.

 

I only shoot range 9mm brass, Plano Dillon 9mm die has never failed me once, my 40 to 9 KKM barrel is tight and never a issue. In 40 I also use range brass, every piece is sized first with a Lee Bulge Buster, then run through a Dillon die

 

You guys using those bulge buster dies do realize that when you overstress brass enough to make it flow like that, it changes the crystalline structure and weakens it, right?

The only way to fix it is to anneal the brass, which restores the structure. But you can't do that with pistol brass because you will ruin the temper of the case head.

Sooner or later, you'll get one of those cases load in the same way as it did before, exposing the weak spot to the more or less unsupported feed ramp area. That case could let go. It is not something you want to experience, so proceed accordingly.

 

GONRA's RCBS carbide sizing die (older one, with small entrance radius/chamfer)
with a retrofitted RCBS spring loaded decapping pin
has always done a great job on all 9mm "range brass" I pick up.
Resized cases look just like Factory - no bulge/belt above extractor groove.

 

9mm parabellum is very slightly tapered and isn't conducive to have push through "bulge buster" case saving technology applied to them.

 

Some folks use a "Roll Sizer", expensive, and IMO, not worth it unless processing mass quantity's.

 

9mm never showed much gWawk bulge
And don't ever recall seeing it in 45
It was and still is in 40.....some gen 3s are worse than others too

Some show a lot, some little to none

I don't load anything hot to speak of , standard dies work fine for me
Anything hot gets new brass or once fired in a " known" chamber

As Riff mentioned, it's still weak even pushed back into shape
I personally don't take chances with hot loads in high pressure rnds

YMMV.




LTA

 

You guys using those bulge buster dies do realize that when you overstress brass enough to make it flow like that, it changes the crystalline structure and weakens it, right?

Do you understand how brass work hardening operates?

 

Of course I do. Work hardening makes it brittle. When its brittle, it doesn't bend, it breaks. It also changes the crystalline structure. That's why you anneal, to realign the structure and make it ductile again. You can't anneal pistol brass however, especially near the case head.

So yeah, I think I understand work hardening.

 

The brass cartridges major function is to seal the chamber against high pressure.
It also makes a handy way to transport powder, primer, and bullet.

As long as the gun you are going to use the brass in does not duplicate the unsupported area harder is not going to harm anything.

You cannot anneal that close to a case head because the brass is purposely hardened there during manufacture.
There is almost invariably a tiny gap in support at the case head in most gun designs.

Human portable guns are not large enough to have the interrupted thread breech style that reduces gaps to essentially zero.

If we attached a barrel to a receiver by heating the receiver and cooling the barrel with a press fit we could probbaly increase peak pressure even further.

As with larger guns it would be a significant added cost though.

 

What does all that have to do with the original question? I believe I also already said what you just said. The way overstressed brass reacts is well understood by anyone who cares to find out, and doesn't require a degree in metallurgy to make sense of.

 

Work hardening makes it brittle.

Eventually.

But it also makes it harder and stronger.
That is part of the trick of making brass cases by repeated cup and draw steps.
The head ends up as hard as we want and we can always heat and soften the forward parts of the case.

Each case starts out as a brass disc punched from a brass strip.
After a few punch and draw steps the head is nicely work hardened.