I shoot and reload .40 S&W for both my Glock and Kimber. I have Dillon dies in my XL 650. Right now I am loading PMC brass that I shot and salvaged when new. It is no surprise that the brass that went through the Glock is more expanded at the base than that through the Kimber. I have no problem with the Kimber brass. However, my resize die (which sits on the shellplate at compression) seems not to reduce the basal width of the Glock brass to below .429. Is there another brand of die that will resize down to the .424 spec., or is this even a problem? When I test this ammo on the Kimber barrel it is very close to binding and I worry that the brass will continue to expand and eventually cause a misfeed.
Resizing .40 S&W brass
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I size to .430" with my Dillon 550 and factory dies, and only use these loads in my Glock. The Glocks have oversize chambers, and this way I don't overwork the brass, and I also keep these reloads below max pressure.
You have to be careful to avoid the bottom of the case forming a "belt", this will cause feeding problems and could form a weakened brass area. When you reload for .40 Glocks you have to be extra careful!
There are some dies to do real full lenght resizing (you push the cases through), but I prefer to segregate brass.
You have to be careful to avoid the bottom of the case forming a "belt", this will cause feeding problems and could form a weakened brass area. When you reload for .40 Glocks you have to be extra careful!
There are some dies to do real full lenght resizing (you push the cases through), but I prefer to segregate brass.
The Lee die that George sells is just the standard Lee carbide resize die.
EGW claimed, to a friend of mine, that they have reworked it and that it came all the way down to the bottom of the case, but they didn't and it doesn't. It would be nice if there really was such a die.
The spec on 40 case diameter 0.424. The ID of my Dillon case gauge measures 0.430. When, after resizing, the cases no longer fall out of the gauge easily, I toss em. I always look closely at the cases coming out of the Glocks. So far, no problems, but only 2-3 firings on each case at this point.
EGW claimed, to a friend of mine, that they have reworked it and that it came all the way down to the bottom of the case, but they didn't and it doesn't. It would be nice if there really was such a die.
The spec on 40 case diameter 0.424. The ID of my Dillon case gauge measures 0.430. When, after resizing, the cases no longer fall out of the gauge easily, I toss em. I always look closely at the cases coming out of the Glocks. So far, no problems, but only 2-3 firings on each case at this point.
Thanks for the quick responses folks. The little belt at the base of some of the brass is what prompted my initial post. I am loading to the minimum, 5.0 WSF behind a 180 gr bullet, so I have to believe that most of the expansion occurred at the initial firing of the factory ammo. I had asked Dillon about the this issue and they said to separate the brass for the two firearms. At the outset this seemed like a lot of trouble and I assumed their response was because they wouldn't recommend another manufacturer's dies. The point about overworking the brass is well taken. Repeatedly sizing down to .424 and expanding to something over .431 by shooting in a Glock is probably not a good idea. I am thinking now I will reload all the old, expanded PMC brass for the Glock and buy some new Starline for the Kimber.
Badger, 5.0 WSF behind a 180 gr bullet is a minimum load, but piezo pressure is around 23'000 psi, still enough to deform the case against the oversize chamber.
I load to higher pressures, and get 10+ shootings out of my cases (none of them break or split, if I detect minor defects I toss them).
The one thing you should keep an eye on when developing new loads is those large localized deformations in the unsupported area; if the the case deforms uniformly to 0.432"-0.433" (chamber diameter is 0.434") in the base everything is normal.
[This message has been edited by TiroFijo (edited 12-05-2001).]
I load to higher pressures, and get 10+ shootings out of my cases (none of them break or split, if I detect minor defects I toss them).
The one thing you should keep an eye on when developing new loads is those large localized deformations in the unsupported area; if the the case deforms uniformly to 0.432"-0.433" (chamber diameter is 0.434") in the base everything is normal.
[This message has been edited by TiroFijo (edited 12-05-2001).]
I just ran into this problem this week. I collect brass from the local range and all the forties that come out of a glock are bulged at the base. I tried to reload with Old Hornady 10mm dies(pre .40s&w) and they wouldn't get down far enough to resize the belt left by the glock. When I took the initial box of reloads to fire in my Delta w/Ed Brown 40 barrel. I had 2 jams that I had to take the gun apart to pry the brass out of. I went to the store and bought a new set of Hornady dies and I was able to size down to the belt with no problem. The old die was leaving the base at .427 and the new die leaves it at .423 resulting in no more impossible jams. With the new dies the shoulder of the resizing ring is closer to the base of the die. Some people have also put their dies into a lathe and trimmed a little off the base to allow this to happen.
Good luck.
Good luck.
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3,312 Posts
I am currently using Hornady dies for loading .40/10mm and .45ACP. Excellent dies. They also market a taper crimp die for .40/10mm and other auto calibers. I have it as well. No problems here picking up brass fired in Gluck for loading in my 1911's.
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John
"And by the way, Mr. Speaker, The Second Amendment is not for killing ducks and leaving Huey and Dewey and Louie without an aunt and uncle. It is for hunting politicians like (in) Grozney and in 1776, when they take your independence away".
Robert K. Dornen, U.S. Congressman. 1995
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John
"And by the way, Mr. Speaker, The Second Amendment is not for killing ducks and leaving Huey and Dewey and Louie without an aunt and uncle. It is for hunting politicians like (in) Grozney and in 1776, when they take your independence away".
Robert K. Dornen, U.S. Congressman. 1995
I second JF's comment on use of the Hornady dies. I use Hornady 40/10mm dies for .40-S&W all fired in Glocks, with all loads 2% -to- 5% below Max using Blue-Dot or Titegroup powder with 165-gr. and lighter bullets.
No 'belts' showing on any of my brass -- I never bothered to track brass by firearm. The only sorting I do is to keep brass segregated by headstamp, so I've got no way to estimate howmany times a given batch of brass was actually loaded and fired... the short-40 brass just never seems to wear out.
This same brass was fired repeatedly in various .40-cal Glocks and also worked flawlessly in two different S&W .40-cal. sigma semi-autos.
Maybe some Glocks have more generous chambers than others, if so -- I must be lucky.
I am more cautious of .40-cal loads having seen some of the recent 'Ka-Boom' postings on this forum ! (A little more cautious with my 45-ACP +P loads, too -- I'm wondering if my luck might run out soon !)
I have had trouble getting a good / tight taper crimp using Remington brass -- the Customer Service folks at Hornady politely suggested I stick to other brands of brass for my .40-cal reloads as the Rem brass had a reputation of being somewhat overly thin. --CC
No 'belts' showing on any of my brass -- I never bothered to track brass by firearm. The only sorting I do is to keep brass segregated by headstamp, so I've got no way to estimate howmany times a given batch of brass was actually loaded and fired... the short-40 brass just never seems to wear out.
This same brass was fired repeatedly in various .40-cal Glocks and also worked flawlessly in two different S&W .40-cal. sigma semi-autos.
Maybe some Glocks have more generous chambers than others, if so -- I must be lucky.
I am more cautious of .40-cal loads having seen some of the recent 'Ka-Boom' postings on this forum ! (A little more cautious with my 45-ACP +P loads, too -- I'm wondering if my luck might run out soon !)
I have had trouble getting a good / tight taper crimp using Remington brass -- the Customer Service folks at Hornady politely suggested I stick to other brands of brass for my .40-cal reloads as the Rem brass had a reputation of being somewhat overly thin. --CC
The best way to deal with the Glock case expansion if you want to use the Glock barrel is to roll resize. The cheapest machine I know of to do this costs about $400. If you want to do this email me and I will tell you where I got mine. The other way is to get an after market barrel with better support and a tighter chamber. Expect to pay $125-$200 for this fix.
Look at the www.glocktalk.com forum about KABOOMS. They are a very real problem with the Glock 40SW models and reloaded ammo previously fired in a Glock.
Good luck.
[This message has been edited by DBR (edited 12-05-2001).]
[This message has been edited by DBR (edited 12-05-2001).]
Look at the www.glocktalk.com forum about KABOOMS. They are a very real problem with the Glock 40SW models and reloaded ammo previously fired in a Glock.
Good luck.
[This message has been edited by DBR (edited 12-05-2001).]
[This message has been edited by DBR (edited 12-05-2001).]
I just wanted to provide an update on the advice given to my original post. I did order and install the Hornady resizing die suggested by several responders and the die worked as advertized. The cases were sized down to the point that today I successfully shot the same reloads in IDPA and pin shooting matches using both my Glock and Kimber. Thus, I avoid having to segregate brass. Another problem was solved by the die switch as well. I had earlier learned from the Dillon help line that their decapping pins don't deal well with the CCI primers I was using. Apparently the pin does push the primer out, but the primer is sometimes retained on the pin and is pulled back into the pocket, in my case, frustratingly, maybe 5% of the time. No such problem with the Hornady decapping pin, in a thousand rounds reloaded since the switch.
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Find someone near you with a roll sizer/case pro and have them process your brass. Go to an IPSC match and ask around. Someone is bound to have one. I know of three people here in Colorado who have one. That or mail me you brass and I can do it for you. It doesn’t take long. I usually do about 2K an hour.
I roll size all my brass, 38 super, 9x19, 40 and 45, and use EGW undersize dies in my 40 and 38 Super (TJ) ammo. The primer pocket fails before anything else. Assuming I haven’t lost my brass by that point. I am guessing roll sizing also tightens up the primer pocket as I have some old super brass with 18-20 reloads of IPSC major through it.
Tom
AF Shooting Team
I roll size all my brass, 38 super, 9x19, 40 and 45, and use EGW undersize dies in my 40 and 38 Super (TJ) ammo. The primer pocket fails before anything else. Assuming I haven’t lost my brass by that point. I am guessing roll sizing also tightens up the primer pocket as I have some old super brass with 18-20 reloads of IPSC major through it.
Tom
AF Shooting Team
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