Reloading ? 40 S&W

[jlm223]

I purchased Lee 40 S&W die set, it has a warning in the instructions not to use reloads in Glock or similar guns with chambers that do not fully support the cartridge due to the intrusion of the feed ramp. I purchased this for the Glock is this going to be a problem ?

 

[kludge]

The Glock .40 does not have a fully supported chamber. Shooting a Glock 40 stretches the brass a lot more than in a chamber that is fully supported. Reloading works the brass, shooting stretches it. Eventually the brass is work hardened and splits (this will happen in any caliber shot from any gun by the way), or the repeated reforming will cause the brass to be thin in certain areas. With pistol brass this usually happens at the neck first. In a rifle it can happen at the neck, or it can fail around the case head. In a Glock this can happen at the rear where the feed ramp is, and when it does bad things can happen. If you're lucky it will just blow out the magazine. If you're not...

This is the reason why I usually avoid "range brass" for reloading in the .40 - a lot of the brass is police brass shot from Glocks... you never know what you're going to get...

If it's once fired most of it is going to be OK since I shoot my reloads with and XD and it's chamber is fully supported. The last 1,000 brass I bought, I probably threw away 5-10% of the brass for having too much of a bulge.

 

[jlm223]

I want to make sure I understand your process, you gauge the diameter of each piece of brass ? Does someone make a gauge for this ? I also own an XD-40.

 

[redneckmedic]

We reload both 9mm and 40 for our glocks. 19, 22, 27, 26. Have never had a problem. Be smart and be careful. Make small increases to your powder. I believe they call it the 10% of max rule. If you need a PM, hit up Indygunworks, he has reloaded several thousand rounds of 40 just for his glocks.

 

[jtmarine1911]

Glock or not it all comes down to close inspection and safe reloading practices! Everybody that dis Glocks generally always state the reason of them going KB on reloaded ammo. Generally every Glock that I have seen go KB(which is very few) was caused by a double or over max charge or extremely stressed reloaded brass. I have only ever seen one Glock go KB on a factory round and it was most likely a bad factory round, you get those occasionally.

I recommend close inspection of cases and as redneckmedic stated 10% below max is a good place to start and work up gradually.

The Lee dies are excellent dies, especially for the price. I use Lee dies for 40, 45, 9, 45Colt, 38, 44spec/mag, 357, and 41mag.

 

[2ridgebacks]

FWIW, there is a company that sells a modified lee sizing die that sizes the brass further down. If you put calipers on brass out of a glock, you can see the bulge where the brass is left unsupported. This modified die takes the entire bulge out. Yes, you are working the brass, but this is one more step toward successful reloading for the Glock. I am fortunate to have a tremendous amount of brass, so I don't know how many times I will load mine.

 

[kludge]

I want to make sure I understand your process, you gauge the diameter of each piece of brass ? Does someone make a gauge for this ? I also own an XD-40.

No, I just go by feel when I'm sorting the headstamps.

Also, when I'm decapping and resizing (same step), I go by feel. If a piece of brass goes into the die too hard, I pitch it.

Maybe someone with a Glock can post a pic of the difference between a new round and one that's been fired in a Glock - it's visible to the unaided eye.

 

[jlm223]

Hey thanks for the info, learn something new every day.

 

[BeeRian]

I also use the Lee set and I only use "range brass" for reloading .40 in my GLOCKs. I typically load "lighter" for target use, but when I load "hot" (155gr jhp at 1200fps +/- ~7fps out of my G23) I make sure to use once fired WW brass that looks in good shape. I dont use any corroded brass at all.

Even with my hotter loads out of the G23 or G27 I see no excessive buldge in the brass...but, as a safe measure, I mark those rounds and I dont load them that hot again...however I will use those cases again for light for target use and have not had any problems.

 

[chipdog4]

grx push thru die.html

 

[jlm223]

Thanks for the link, I plan to load a lot of 40 S&W I may end up with the grx just for piece of mind.

 

[slow1911s]

shooting supply gun accessory ar at evolutiongunworks.com sells a Lee U-die, which is a sizing die that has had 0.040" machined off of the bottom. Competition shooters have used them for years when loading for factory Glock barrels, among others.

I've also heard good things about the Redding X-die. On the more expensive end, there is the CasePro.

 

[Royal-1]

I use a Dillon Case Gage when I reload my Glock .40's. I had just started reloading and knew there was something about the unsupported barrel but did not know what it meant to me. Well after reloading some range brass I found that some of the finished rounds did not fit in the case gage like the others. I looked a lot closer at them and saw the bulge, and some splitting / cracked cases near the head. I know know what to look for and don't have to waste my time pulling bullets. I use the case gage every time with will all the rounds I reload, .40 or others. I use it as part of the final inspection making sure the primers are fully seated and if they fit in the gage I know they will fit in the barrel.

 

[jlm223]

Case gage sounds like a good investment. Thanks for the response.

 

[Split]

I went and took crappy cell phone pictures of a new .40 and one from the same box(WWB) fired from my Glock 23.

No visible case bulge or deformation at all.

 

[Royal-1]

OK my turn at crappy photos.

Here is a photo of two of the .40 cases that I found that started to split at the head. I found these by trying them in the case gage as seen later.

Next is the width of the bad one.

Now what the case gage looks like with the bad case in it, note that it does not drop in, it sticks out like a sore thumb, a good thing!:

And now for a good case:

And in the case gage:

OK now the numbers. The spec for .40 is .424" at the head area, and .423 at he neck. The bad ones have a bulge around the head as seen in the photos and measure, at least the ones I found between .426-.431. YMMV But I will say the case gage was a life saver for me, I think this one in the pictures had a very high chance of making my 23 go Boom!

 

[Royal-1]

Let me add that the brass was used in who knows what first, I bought it "Once used" also not all of them are this way, obviously. In fact I don't have any proof that my gun with my reloads do this. I don't load "Hot" loads. I just caught about 12 out of a batch of 100 I made one time.

My thinking is if I'm going to reload .40 for my Glock then I need to buy more brass to replace the ones that do show these signs of failure.

 

[jlm223]

Thanks for taking the time to post the pics. This has really helped a lot, I have been pricing the case gage in the 40 S&W like everything else out of stock on back order, I will end up with one and check each round for piece of mind.

 

[Royal-1]

Glad to hear. Sorry they are out of stock. Try Brian Enos. He is a great guy and helped me get my setup and get what I really needed. He is a dist for Dillon.

The cases that are right, drop in and drop out without any pressure at all. The bad ones stick like shown.

 

[aclark]

I have seen the bulge in pretty much all the brass I have collected out of my G22. I wasn't really sure what to do about it either, but I think I'll get a case gauge to check them as well. I have tried to take pics of them, but you can't seen the difference, maybe later I'll get out the calipers and take a pic with them around the bulge.