.40 Sizing Problem

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BigV
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.40 Sizing Problem

Post by BigV »

I have sized and reloaded thousands of .40 cases in the last few years and never had an issue resizing.
Today I had several cases with Winchester headstamps that gave me problems. My press would not push the case all the way up into the sizing die. When I removed the case it had a definite line of demarcation about ¼” from the bottome of the case.

I encountered about 10 of these cases and all were Winchester. I did have lots of Winchester cases in the same batch that sized normally.
Any idea what would cause this problem? I was thinking that these cases were shot through a pistol with an unsupported chamber which allowed the cases to expand to much.

Any ideas??
Thanks

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JustaShooter
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Re: .40 Sizing Problem

Post by JustaShooter »

Your theory makes sense to me, nothing else plausible comes to mind.
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dl1911
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Re: .40 Sizing Problem

Post by dl1911 »

Definitely looks like "Glock bulge" or something else with a very poorly supported chambed.
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mreising
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Re: .40 Sizing Problem

Post by mreising »

Just an FYI, probably not related to your issue, but I've seen a a lot of Winchester white box ammo that looks horrible, almost like they are packaging floor sweepings.

For examples: 9mms that had the side of the cartridge ground flat like it was run on a belt sander; 380s, based on headstamp and the box they came out of, that were actually 9x19 cases and wouldn't chamber; mixed headstamps (Win, WC, WCC, NATO-crimped). These were in new, unopened boxes of 9s and 380s. We're shying away from the WWB stuff for now.
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dangerranger6100
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Re: .40 Sizing Problem

Post by dangerranger6100 »

mreising wrote:Just an FYI, probably not related to your issue, but I've seen a a lot of Winchester white box ammo that looks horrible, almost like they are packaging floor sweepings.

For examples: 9mms that had the side of the cartridge ground flat like it was run on a belt sander; 380s, based on headstamp and the box they came out of, that were actually 9x19 cases and wouldn't chamber; mixed headstamps (Win, WC, WCC, NATO-crimped). These were in new, unopened boxes of 9s and 380s. We're shying away from the WWB stuff for now.
I'd avoid Winchester, especially the white box crap. I've seen a lot of the mixed headstamp crap, no one wants to fuss with crimped primers when reloading 9mm. Such a pain to sort out all the WCC headstamps.

Most of the boxes I've opened have had 15-20 very discolored primers, some of them were almost black. It concerned me, but they all went bang.

I've also seen a couple people have serious malfunctions that completely locked their gun up caused by cases with no flash holes. The gas from the primer going off had no where to go other than back through the primer, partially ejecting the primer in the process and preventing the round from coming out of the chamber. I'd hate for this to happen in a SD situation. I would hope their QC is better for their self-defense ammo, but who knows. I kept one of the rounds, I'll post a pic of it. They were both WWB, not sure what the headstamp was on the other one.

Haven't personally seen any issues with their .40 caliber, other than the primers looking like crap.
Last edited by dangerranger6100 on Fri Mar 29, 2013 9:40 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: .40 Sizing Problem

Post by dangerranger6100 »

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mreising
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Re: .40 Sizing Problem

Post by mreising »

Didn't you know? That's O'Bama's new answer to gun control. We will be able to have all the guns and ammo we want but it will be illegal to put flash holes in the primer pocket. The Constitution says nothing about the right to a flash hole. :wink:
The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny

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