.40 S&W brass

[Khornet]

Came back from the range with my scrounging booty: 533 .40 cases all in good shape. After sizing/depriming I began case belling, which I do very lightly with these cases. With my RCBS die I can usually feel the case rub the die walls as it enters (this is not the case with my RCBS .45 dies). I'm using a Rock Chucker single-stage.

As I went through the brass I noticed that every so often a case would feel tight in the die, and I began noting the headstamp when that happened and setting the case aside.

Reading on TFL so often about disasters with .40 reloads from case failure, especially in 'unsupported' chambers like my G22, I've been getting more finicky about my brass and discarding anything that seems odd.

Of 533 cases, 494 were Winchester, the remainder divided among headstamps FC, PMC, S&B, Federal, CBC, Speer, and RP.

44 cases were 'tight'. Most, 55% were FC; 11% each were Win. and Fed., 9% S&B, 7% RP, 2% each of the others.

Now I don't know how FC brass differs from the others--maybe you folks can tell me--but I've never had a problem with my Glock or any of the hundreds of reloads using Win. brass. But I don't intend to use these 'tight' cases. I sure don't need 'em, I have about 1500 Win. and why take a chance?

Anybody know anything about these other brass makes?

 

[sricciardelli]

I'll assume you did a full-length resizing first?

Measure the wall thickness of a case that is not "tight" and then one that is...

 

[Cheapo]

I've measured several brands of .40 brass after sectioning them, and found all but one or two were exactly the same thickness in the neck. The others were a whopping .001" thinner.

There's little difference I've seen in other dimentions as well--certainly not enough to make me suspect sidewall thickness differences as a real factor in .40 kB!s.

Now alloy content, work-hardening, metal fatigue and perhaps even clowns using Brasso as case cleaner--THOSE could be factors in the .40 problem. Yours could merely have been fired in a looser chamber.