R*p brass

[hardworker]

Loading some 38 with 140 gr jacketed bullets. Seated one bullet and it felt wierd. Pulled it out and the bullet was very loose in the case. I could easily push it in. Checked some other loaded ones with similar results. Anyone else have this problem with r*p brass?

Now I have to figure a way to get the rounds apart for the ones i pushed too far into the case

 

[Beagle333]

Never had this problem. I have to assume that you have loaded this particular bullet into other brass, using the same dies and settings, and it worked fine?

 

[jag2]

Not suggesting you do this but I have had the same problem and just went ahead and shot them. My reasoning being that the bullet will surely head on out of that case with no problem. Now if they had been crimped, that's a different story. You wouldn't want to do that because of over pressure problems. I never really figured out exactly what was wrong but as I remember a lot of them were RP. I removed the depriming pin and resized them and that seemed to help but not 100%. My guess is the brass was thinner but not sure. I also have several 38s and pickup range brass so different cylinders could result in the OD differing some.

 

[hardworker]

Yeah I throw all my brass into a coffee can when I deprime it and use it all. I just was able to pull apart 10 or so 38 rounds loaded in r*p brass. None of the other rounds loaded had this problem.

I think that the brass is on the thin side. Might just save these for lead bullets for now in since they are .358 instead of .357 like jacketed bullets

 

[jag2]

That sounds like a good idea. I'm shooting more lead in my 38s than usual because of availability. Wondering, what kind of bullet was that? I see 125, 130, and 148 but don't remember seeing any 140 before.

 

[jamaica]

Hmmmm, weird. Did you re-size the brass and also use the inside neck expander? Did you flare the brass?

Were these loads crimped? An improperly adjusted crimp die can bulge the brass and actually loosen the bullets.

 

[hardworker]

Sierra makes a 140 gr jacketed bullet. And no crimp because it is a 38. And i did resize the brass with only a slight bell. Just enough to sit the bullet.

 

[jamaica]

The inside neck expander should set the inside diameter of the brass. The expander in my Lee set is at .355. Bullets at .358 should fit tight. However if it is thin brass it may not get sized small enough to start with. See if you can push a bullet in by hand after sizing.

We don't bell rifle brass for jacketed bullets, and possibly don't need to do so with 38s either. I would try not belling at all and see how it goes.

The reason for a crimp on revolver ammo is to keep the bullets from being pulled in recoil. If your bullets are loose and no crimp, you will have problems, I think.

Do those bullets have a cannelure? I like to crimp jacketed bullets in the cannelure if they have one. Of course the cannelure needs to be in the right place so the OAL will be acceptable.

 

[aiming fluid]

Big +1 on R-P brass being paper thin, especially in 45 acp. When I come across it I leave it lay. UMC stuff by RP is the worst, whereas their old stuff was actually quite good brass.

 

[hardworker]

Yeah they have a cannelure and if I ever need to use them I will try crimping. I crimp 357 but not 38.

 

[Unclenick]

I had so much trouble with this years ago in the .45 Auto that I started to leave R-P brass at the range. Two reloads at most, and rounds would start falling into the cases as they became work hardened and too springy for the sizing die to reduce. Back then I was using Lyman dies, which worked fine with all other headstamps. Since then I got Dillon dies with my Dillon presses, which seem to be tighter, small base types. They add enough extra squeeze to resize even the thin mouthed, springy R-P handgun brass and I haven't observed the loading problem with them since (this is in .45 Auto, again).

Whether or not buying a new die set is worth it to you depends on how much of the R-P you have. If you have doubts, call Dillon and ask them about their dies.

 

[martin1833]

Yep. I posted a couple weeks ago about poor neck tension in Rem 44 mag brass. Too bad. I had bought Rem UMC ammo thinking I could use the brass for reloading. Wrong.

And you need a bullet puller. I have the Franklin one and it is good.

 

[hardworker]

Yeah I do not have enough brass to make a new die set worth it. I will just regulste it to lead only from now on. But i was able to remove the bullet using pliers. The bullets aren't too messed up so I will reuse them.

 

[BigD_in_FL]

Been reloading RP brass for all my handgun cartridges for over 30 years and prefer it over anything else for its consistency and quality and have never had any of the issues being described. This are for 32SWL, 32ACP, 38, 357, 9mm, and 45ACP - for revolver cartridges, I found a good crimp has worked well

 

[Idaho Spud]

Remington brass is definitely the thinnest in 45 ACP in my experience, but I save it for cast boolit loads, esp. those from my own molds. Works great for that application, but as always, YMMV.

 

[Sky Master]

I've had similar problems with R-P brass. I'll either load the brass with cast bullets sized to .358 or resize the cases using my .380 die for jacketed bullets. Either way works for me.

 

[cheezhed]

I have had problems with R/P brass for .45 ACP if I was loading for jacketed
bullets but less with cast bullets and it varied with the lot numbers of brass that I used some lots were just fine and others were loose. I just try to sort the good from the bad.

 

[George4376]

I haven't noticed the problem in .38 brass,but have had problems in the past with .45 brass being too thin to properly hold the bullet.This was with R-P brass.Other brands were Ok as far as neck tension goes.

 

[Unclenick]

I should clarify that my .45 Auto R-P brass was not even good for lead with the Lyman carbide sizing die I had at the time (early 80's). It worked about twice, then became work-hardened enough that even the .452" lead was slipping in it, aided by its lubricant. The crimp die had to be set lower, too, as the springiness worked both ways.

Again, for me, Dillon dies fixed this. My Square Deal press, which is dedicated to .45 Auto, has no problem with R-P brass. I have a friend with Dillon standard size dies on his 1050 press, and it has no problem with R-P, either.

I want to add that the above does not necessarily mean you have to use Dillon dies to get the desired result. Other brands out there may also be tighter than average. Perhaps BigDinFL will tell us what dies he's using and if they are not Dillon, that should offer up another brand to try. Some die makers may also have changed their carbide ring specifications over time, so keep an open mind to other alternatives being out there. It would be nice if the inexpensive Lee dies turned out to be tight enough for the job, as most anyone can afford a Lee carbide sizer as an extra die. I haven't tried them with R-P .45 Auto, so I don't know. Maybe someone out there can say.

 

[Arkmaker]

Funny, I read this thread yesterday and then went and reloaded some 38 spl rounds. I have been hand priming and hand measuring powder for my 38's. Then I move to the press for taper, seating and crimping.

Well, long story short, I tumbled some brass a month or so ago that was not sized and it got mixed in with some that was. So I was in the hospital for a week (hip surgery) and yesterday was feeling good enough to load. It never occurred to me about those un-sized rounds until I started to seat bullets and they just started falling in on top of the powder. I looked at the bottom of the case and sure enough, R-P!! So this happens on a few more rounds and all R-P except for one Federal case. Since most (90%) of my cases are R-P, my first thought was oh crap! Then I remembered about not sizing the brass and accidently mixing it in with some others. Lucky for me there was only about 100 shells that needed to back through the sizing die. I just finished 100 rounds and all is well.

So, I don;t know about the OP, but in my case is was my own stupid fault for not paying more attention to what I was doing and for putting off (resizing) what should have been taken care of it right away when I realized the mistake I had made! Once resized, they all loaded like a dream.