Topic: Learned a new word today...

[Jaggy13]

I had never heard of golck bulge before...
A couple guys recommended I get an ECW U die. (undersizing die)
my question for the group is, should I replace my standard sizing die, run it until I have shot all of my brass?
Will the U die work the brass too much?

Factory cripm die was also mentioned, but I have a 3 stage press. I would have to single stage all of my ammo again after it was loaded.

[RGinIdaho]

IMHO
The bulge is/was an issue with older Glock .40s, not so much since Glock has re-dimensioned thier chambers.

If you are not having an issue, don't waste your cash. You will clearly see the bulge if it exists.

If you find excessively bulged brass, toss it in a bucket. If it turns out to be a significant portion of your brass, then look at the ECW die. Brass is cheap over the long haul.

As for working the brass too much; The farther more you work the brass the harder it gets. All brass will harden and fail over time.

For me personally, I toss the bulged stuff in the scrap pile. If the brass is going to work harden and split, I rather have it happen at the mouth. Bullets and gas should exit the business end. If it splits/fails at the base the gas is coming back toward the shooter and down through the magwell.

[Nealio]

I use the EGW undersize die to improve feeding.  Anything that is bulged won't resize easily with either die so I toss that brass.

[Grumblecakes]

ive used a standard die when loading for my brothers 40 glock. its got the newer chamber, i load mild loads for it, never had the buldge show up. your mileage may vary

[ekuo]

Jaggy,
From what I remember, your problem was the slide not going back into battery and the slide wasn't achieving full lock-up.  

My guess is that it was ammo related because that one time where we had to clear that jam by smacking the rear of the grip while holding the slide is usually indicative of ammo that is out of spec -especially given the force that was needed to extract it from the chamber.  That's akin to doing a butt-stroke on a rifle to clear a jam.  Something is wonky.  

Some possible culprits:

How long of an OAL?  If too long, the ogive part of the bullet may be making contact with the rifling in your barrel, and that could keep the slide from going back into battery.

When I looked at one of your rounds there did not seem to be much of a crimp.  Are you using a separate taper crimp, or are you crimping and seating in one step?  Roll crimp die or taper crimp die?  

Do you have your press set up so it cams over when you resize?  Unless you're bottoming out on your stroke, you may not be resizing the entire case.  

Do you use a case gage after loading or to determine how much crimp to use?

 

I for one am not sold on the myth of Glock-bulge.  Its true that at one point (in the early gen Glocks) the Glock chamber did not fully support the case, which some people attributed to causing the infamous Glock bulge.  But from what I've read, that wasn't restricted to just Glocks.  

I use an EGW U-die when reloading .40SW, especially with range pick-up brass.  A while back I was having problems using a standard sizing die to re-size the brass enough for proper neck tension, and I was getting bullet setback as a result.  Once I switched to a U-die and started using a case gage, my ammo-related problem went away.  In fact the last time I had a jam of any sort was when I brain farted and somehow didn't taper crimp a round -must have removed it from the press to check OAL and forgot to crimp it.  

Personally I think I'd lose my brass before I've reloaded it too many times with the U-die to worry about overworking the brass.  There's a lot of threads on BE regarding U-dies, Glock Bulge, and even LFCD (Lee Factory Crimp Die).  Some good info in amongst a lot of BS speculation / anecdotal stories.

[junkie]

Finally I put the name and face together WOW!!!!
I recommended the Lee Factory Crimp Die (FCD) and you run the brass all the way through with a dowel of some sort on the press. It seems to be the cheapest way but requires a single stage press. I do this to the brass BEFORE I reload on a cleaned empty case.

Jaggy I have a lee single stage not in use I can lend you if you don't have one for this step, I also have some small metal dowels that fit perfectly on the ram. Just PM me and we can get hooked up

[Jaggy13]

I pulled 17 rounds out of service that failed chamber check and havent measured them yet.
OAL is 1.10 if memory serves, had an issues with that  early on.
I hope its just the crimp.
once in a while I have had the slide stop before lockup but could just push it closed, nothing like what we say yesterday... That really scared me.
not buying anything until I figure out what the true issue was.
thanks for the input, I will keep ya posted

[Nealio]

One thing to note is the resizing ring on the EGW u-die is leer than a standard die, so it goes down farther on the case. I have it set up on my Dillon so it almost touches the shell plate, so that combo seems to remove any swelling near the base.

[carharttfarmer]

is this in a 9mm or 40  ? you can take the barrel out of your gun and stick the rounds backwards in the chamber  you will know right away if its a buldge in the base of the case

one other thing to consider is the taper/shape of the bullet i have a couple of guns that a TC type bullet will run into the throat/rifleing and stick before the slide fully closes and you have to smack the slide like evans described to get it out  but a roundnose has enough of a taper to keep this from happening

[RGinIdaho]

I pulled 17 rounds out of service that failed chamber check and havent measured them yet.
OAL is 1.10 if memory serves, had an issues with that  early on.
I hope its just the crimp.
once in a while I have had the slide stop before lockup but could just push it closed, nothing like what we say yesterday... That really scared me.
not buying anything until I figure out what the true issue was.
thanks for the input, I will keep ya posted

If bulge at the base was the problem, you would have definitely seen it when you loaded the cases. It is that obvious and rarely seen anymore.

If OAL is not the issue... Can't say without having the barrel and rounds in hand.

Check your crimp. If you bought a typical set of newer pistol dies, you got a taper crimp die not a roll crimp.

Crimp on a .40sw should be a taper measuring .420" at the leading edge of the case.

A crimp of .3785" works well on most 9mm.

.469-.470 crimp for .45acp

Use your calipers and carefully measure the crimp. You can re-crimp your problem rounds and see if that cures the problem.

[Jaggy13]

ok,
Finally got to measure my rounds and it turns out it was all crimp.
I am running 9mm and my over all length is 1.123 (max is 1.169) and crimp on most my rounds is .380.
The problem rounds are all around .383 and .384.
My crimp die looks like it had loosened up about 1/4 turn but I have already tighten 1/2 turn and its still not crimping the problem rounds down to spec.
I was able to pick up a Factory Crimp Die today but only have a 3 stage press.
If I have to I can run all of my ammo through a single stage with that, but would rather find a solution for my progressive...

Thanks for the input and especially for the help at the rang yesterday.

Gonna keep working on it, will keep ya posted.

[Jaggy13]

Turned out to be the crimp all along.
When I started reloading I started with factory ammo that I shot in this pistol, then reloaded the same brass over and over.
Since I had become more comfortable with the process I started working in a large bag of brass that I had picked up that mixed head stamp and not shot out of my pistol.
Long story short, my crimp die was not nearly tight enough to set a proper crimp on all brass.
All rounds that were worry some before are now falling right into the chamber.

Thanks again for all the support!