Another crimp raising its' ugly head....

[margiesex]

You all know I've talked about finding crimped - mostly NT marked - cases in .45 and more recently in .40. Both Win. and Fed. seem to be quilty...

Now, I've run across yet another caliber. I picked up 500 rounds of once fired .380 ACP brass from www.firstclassbulletsandbrass.com - Bob Wise puts out some great product at an awesome price - those brass gleam, and I mean it!

Anyway, I just emailed him to be on the lookout for crimped cases from CBC (Magtech I believe), and also PMC. Out of the 500 I really only picked out 4, but I'm sure more passed me and were just tougher to prime, etc.

Anyway, thought you all should know if you load .380's you may want to double check the cases - and keep a stock of decapping pins on hand!

God bless.

Margiesex

And remember: Hug your God and your guns - 'cause he's coming for them both, and soon!

 

[Unclenick]

I can't recall if we commented on it before, but the priming mix in the NT cases is DDNT, which is much more prone to blow the primer out of the pocket backwards than conventional lead azide-based priming mix is. Hence the crimps, though usually they just open the flash hole up to drop pressure faster.

 

[jaguarxk120]

How right you guys are, just picked up a couple of 9mm NT cases. Won't even regester on my Herters flash hole gauge, checked with a wire gauge drill and it comes out at .097. Or for anyone using the goofy maesuring system 2.5mm.

I also picked up some Remington brass, it's flash hole is .082 and a mil. FC case from 96 was just a tad under .080.

 

[margiesex]

For the first time - well I was wrong (today that is!)

I had posted the first of this thread relating to some .380 cases that I had found (I thought) to be crimped, and therefore I wanted to let the forum know in case they ran into them.

However, after talking to Bob Wise, and the careful examination of those PMC cases that at first glance appeared to be "crimped" it really is not a crimp - but rather, the decapping pin blew through the primer cup - leaving a perfect ring around the pocket.

Now, I have found that you almost need a jeweler's loop to see the ragged adge left by the center of the cup being blown out - it really is that perfect with the naked eye.

As a result, since these are really in there, those cases I tossed. Neither Bob, nor I have any idea why this is happening - nor why only PMC seem to be effected.

I, for one, have loaded and processed thousands of PMC cases and have not run into this issue before. It also does not appear to be found in other calibers that PMC loads.

I felt I needed to correct this issue. Statistically, it added up to about 3% of the once fired PMC .380 ACP brass I was working with. All within the last month.

Thanks fellas and I hope this helps someone.

God bless.

Margiesex

And remember: hug your God and your guns - 'cause he's coming for them both, and soon!

 

[FrankenMauser]

I have had quite a few problems with the primers in PMC cases. (Both 9x19mm and .380 Auto, with my brothers having issues with .45 Auto and .357 Mag.)

When we investigated a little deeper, most of the "headless" primers were steel cups. The range brass was allowed to sit just long enough for corrosion to start. When we went to decap, the bottom of the cup got pushed out, but not the body.

I've had a similar problem with CBC and S&B, but those were brass cupped primers. I think they had just been sitting too long, and allowed to corrode the cup.



A couple months back, there was a similar discussion. In the end, someone started hypothesizing about primer sealant gluing the primers into the pocket, for that particular topic. It's here somewhere. I have not idea what the title was.