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thumbs
Starting Member
22 Posts |
 Posted - 05/17/2010 : 19:01:47
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I need some info from someone that can tell me about my .40 cases.
I have looked at both an unfired cartridge and my twice fired casings. First let me say I have placed both an unfired casing into the chamber of the Glock 23 barrel and also put a twice fired reloaded casing in the same chamber and they both feel to be about the same in regards to fit. Both feel to fit the same. LOL
Now for the casings. From the primer end of the casing toward the bullet.
primer end 1/2 to bullet casing at bullet
New factory ammo. .420 .418 .419
Fired twice reload .421 .416 .420
The reason I ask is I have seen no bulge in the fired brass. All the reloads look the same. The only difference I can see is a very slight difference between the center and the two ends of the case. Brass looks fine. Like I said just a slight difference in the middle of the casing between the primer end and the bullet end, and the difference isn't a bulge but it is very slightly smaller in the middle not fatter.
With my limited reloading exp I was wondering if this is normal for the brass after reloading. I really don't see any real difference except the .002 OD smaller in the middle of the casing.
I know about the bulging in the .40's but I have never seen it in this pistol. |
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Duffy
Average Member
USA
749 Posts |
Posted - 05/17/2010 : 19:40:43
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| Personally, I have never seen "bulging" in 40 cases that were loaded properly. I have seen bulging once in a 45 case. What happened was some guy had a smart idea to take a 45 acp case and trim it down to a 45 gap length. His gun was not fatally damaged but I think he learned a lesson. The case actually had a little bubble about 1/2 the size of a pea at the bottom side of the case wall. |
It's been a rruufff day.
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thumbs
Starting Member
22 Posts |
Posted - 05/17/2010 : 20:12:04
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| Like I said I fired them twice. Once as new ammo and once reloaded pretty light with 4 grains of winchester 231 with 180 grain bullet. I'm concerned about case failure. I have heard a lot about it but really don't know how often this really happens. I only plan to load my reloads light. I only want to practice with them. Anything that is serious I'll use factory fresh ammo. |
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lwknight
Senior Member
USA
1346 Posts |
Posted - 05/17/2010 : 23:37:33
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If you find bulged brass , there will no no questions left to wonder about.
It is obvious and profound.
Your brass is good. Just shoot shoot shoot till you don't even look at the sights anymore
and still hit your target. |
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Robert357
Junior Member
USA
232 Posts |
Posted - 05/18/2010 : 14:11:59
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quote:
Originally posted by thumbs
I know about the bulging in the .40's but I have never seen it in this pistol.
Sounds like you don't have a bulging problem and that the body of the case is well supported.
You didn't comment on case length which is another important measurements.
Some folks also will measure the diameter of the extractor grove and compare it to factory specifications.
The following is an interesting discussion on brass and how to view it http://www.laser-cast.com/files/Brass_Casings.pdf
I am also going to provide some links to Steve's Page, who is one hell of a reloading/firearms expert that you may or may not have visited.
You may or may not need to work your way into the front by starting at his homepage reloading page http://stevespages.com/page8.htm Then at the bottom go to Table 3 and Table 6.
http://stevespages.com/jpg/cd40smithandwesson.jpg
http://stevespages.com/caselife.html
http://stevespages.com/cases.html
While much of his information is for rifle cartridges, a lot will be applicable to what you are trying to understand. Look carefully at Table 6 and the factory dimensions. Based on your measurements and what is shown in Steve's Table 6 which is probably factory maximum dimensions, you may have a very tight chamber, which is good.
If you are good at metric conversion you can try the following for dimensions as well http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.40_S&W#Cartridge_dimensions
I would do a search and try to find the .40 S&W Minimum factory dimensions.
Good luck to you.
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thumbs
Starting Member
22 Posts |
Posted - 05/18/2010 : 17:03:20
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Thanks guys. I thought of the case length this morning when I got up. I took another look at the cases and it looked more like the case was stretched not bulged. All my cases have been reloaded so I really couldn't get as good a measurement as I would have liked but it seems as thought the case has stretched about .004. I haven't looked at the book yet as to the case overall size limit.
I'll have some reading material from the links you posted, thanks. I was talking to a guy I respect about reloading the S&W .40 and he said as long as the case looks good with no bulges reload it. He also said he had no exp with any of his .40's (in Glocks)bulging nor did he know of anyone that did. His thoughts were that because of the popularity of Glocks there are bound to be someone somewhere that has had a problem. Proper reloading with proper loads may have been part of the problem. He isn't saying it doesn't happen and you have to keep your eyes open for any irregularities but this was just his experience. I have no exp so I don't know. LOL
The other question is, have there been changes to the Glocks chamber in the newer models that may have done away with the bulging problem |
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lwknight
Senior Member
USA
1346 Posts |
Posted - 05/18/2010 : 22:57:19
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| Thumbs , the last few gererations of glocks do not have the non fully supported chamber that was a problem in earlier models. The thing that caused it in the first place was that the feedramp was too deep into the chamber. |
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thumbs
Starting Member
22 Posts |
Posted - 05/31/2010 : 12:37:59
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Thanks, I was hopeing they did something to correct the problem. Anyway as a follow up I have reloaded the same brass 4 times without any problems. I know that probably isn't much reloading but so far doesn't seem to be a problem. I am using reasonably light loads, 4 grains of 231 and 180 grain bullet. I plan to shoot the same caseings until I see a possible problem. I really don't know how many times a caseing can be loaded.  |
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lwknight
Senior Member
USA
1346 Posts |
Posted - 05/31/2010 : 22:35:01
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You never know what to expect from brass. Some of the same batch will split in short order and others will last and last.
Keep an eye on all of them for splits. I usually get less than 1% splitting even after several reloads. Some will just seem to go forever. You just never know till you get a noticeablr percentage of splits then its time to recycle the whole lot. |
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thumbs
Starting Member
22 Posts |
Posted - 06/01/2010 : 06:27:34
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| Does it seem one manufacturer's brass will last longer than anothers? You know, will you get longer brass life with Winchester than Federal or vis versa? Right now I am using Federals and so far no problems. |
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Jay Phillips
Starting Member
USA
12 Posts |
Posted - 06/01/2010 : 09:48:02
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| When we get range brass in you can see some with the bulge on the .40, it has the trademark rectangle firing pin mark on the primer that the Glock's have. Some of the earlier Glock's really bulged the brass even with factory ammo. I have a third Gen 23 that does it, so when I practice with it I use the Storm lake barrel I bought . |
Jay R. Phillips
Berry's MFG |
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G23 casing diagnosis
