reloading "glocked" cases

[at_liberty]

I picked up a sizable bunch of .40 SW spent cases that were shot through a Glock. All the cases are ballooned. They sized up okay, but should I be concerned at all about using them? They are all "once-fired" to my knowledge.

[jocko]

ur asking us to guess???? not a good thing. If u reload you should know what is good, marginal or junk...

[at_liberty]

ur asking us to guess???? not a good thing. If u reload you should know what is good, marginal or junk...

Well, IF you know anything about reloading, you know that the fellas share their experience...and they do ask questions.

[jocko]

oops

Well, IF you know anything about reloading, you know that the fellas share their experience...and they do ask questions.

sorry about that

[Bawanna]

Well, IF you know anything about reloading, you know that the fellas share their experience...and they do ask questions.

I do enjoy sharing reloading ideas and such but at the same time I don't trust anyones recipe unless I can assure it's a safe one in a reputable reloading manual which of course has nothing to do with the question you ask. As a side note I never ever ever knowingly shoot anyone elses reloads. I offer mine all the time to friends and tell them not to trust me but they don't reload and mine are usually dirt cheap or free. I'm not sure I know what or how a case gets ballooned by a glock? Would like to see exactly what your talking about, perhaps at the case mouth, belled a bit? My 40 glock fired cases seem like any others.
In your situation I'd be extra vigilant with the visual case examination, I do this as they go into the tumbler for the first time, looking for cracks or signs of stress. To me I live by the credo, when in doubt throw it out. Brass is expensive anymore but cheap in the overall scheme of things.
One little trick to share since we're sharing ideas and I'm sure I didn't invent it either but I take a black felt marker and just put a line across the primer and case on rounds I shoot at a range. Fast and easy to do while they are lined up in the box. No guessing which brass is mine when I pick it up off the floor. A little extra attention is given any brass I end up with that isn't mine. Cant be too careful.

[wyntrout]

Do you number them sequentially? Color code for number of uses?

I thought the reloader's creed was "ONE more use and THEN I'll throw it away... maybe." The old waste not, want not idea. Just run it through the sizer after reloading it and it'll fire after it's chambered... right?
Wynn

[Bawanna]

Do you number them sequentially? Color code for number of uses?

I thought the reloader's creed was "ONE more use and THEN I'll throw it away... maybe." The old waste not, want not idea. Just run it through the sizer after reloading it and it'll fire after it's chambered... right?
Wynn

Actually the color code was the original plan BUT the best laid plans sometimes don't work out. You get a bucket of brass your anxious to get into the process and of course the tumbler does away with the color code system which I thought was ingenious in itself but unless you keep the same lots together they get all mixed up and pretty soon the color code is right out the window.
I'm still having issues with my boys realizing the importance of picking the stuff up too. Being a wheeled shooter picking up little stuff off the floor isn't easy, I use the old dust pan broom but that's not easy either, but I power whine. I pretty much run the life out of a case but don't take chances either. My reloads for 45 are middle of the road, cases last long time. I've built a few hot rod loads in my day but I like to think I'm a tiny bit wiser now.

[jeep45238]

Run an undersized die in station 2 after your standard deprime/size in station 1. You won't have an issue with chambering, just watch the brass like you would in any other caliber.

Just remember you're pretty much loading a factory cartridge that pushes +p pressures out of the box, on the low end.

[jocko]

Many years

Do you number them sequentially? Color code for number of uses?

I thought the reloader's creed was "ONE more use and THEN I'll throw it away... maybe." The old waste not, want not idea. Just run it through the sizer after reloading it and it'll fire after it's chambered... right?
Wynn

ago when I was reloading for my G19,,,I loaded them light and shot the brass until they started to split. Didn't know any better back then , I guess but never had one issue in my G19, but I started out with new brass and reloaded only my brass. It was merely range fodder rounds anyway..

[jeep45238]

I've seen plenty of folks shoot 9x19, and reload it 20+ times per case before a split, so I wouldn't fret.

Even without undersized dies, I never had issues loading for my T40.

[at_liberty]

Quote:

Originally Posted by D. Manley
Glock is first and foremost a combat handgun. As such, reliable function with any OEM ammunition design is of paramount (ed.) importance. It's widely known that many of the after-market "match" barrels can also very picky about what they'll eat without a hiccup. Various bullet shapes, a tad too much crimp, too little crimp, too long, too short, etc. and.....all stops. I have aftermarket barrels but personally, would never use one in my defensive weapons.

All that said, Glock most definitely has, at some point, increased their chamber support at the 6 o'clock position. I noticed it immediately on my G35 and mentioned it to a local dealer. We compared his new models in stock with a number of prior generations and the difference was substantial. One thing that has not changed however, is the fairly generous internal chamber dimensions...the new barrels still allow the brass to expand a bit more that most other chambers. This presents no particular problem other than, perhaps a bit shorter brass life for the reloader due to additional working of the brass.

Glock's decision to increase the chamber support at the 6'oclock position and fully support the brass where it expands is a good one. IMO, all new Glock models should be that way. I have a S&W M&P40 and a friend has a XDm40 and both fully support the brass where it expands. This is a good move by Glock.

The above comes from a thread on GlockTalk, admittedly where I probably should have looked initially.

Apparently, older Glocks produced more of a bulge than more recent production. The cases look to me like they are being ejected while still in very high pressure mode. The bulge is always at the rear. When you see cases like that, you just know it was fired in a Glock.

I have since sized and decapped that whole batch. Like everything else so far, this will all be range ammo with mild loads, actually subsonic with 180 gr flat nose bullets. I have a T40, a P40, and a PM40 and would prefer not to care which one uses the ammo.

Interesting and sobering to note that the pressure rating of the .40 S&W is about twice that of the .45 ACP. The .40 is descended from the 10mm, another hot cartridge.

[jlottmc]

I trust a very short list of people's reloads, and will not shoot any from off that list. Learned that one the hard way, I was building a 243 for some one, and he just had to have his buddies special reloads. Damn thing blew up in my face and took out half my sinuses. That very short list are people I trust my life to anyway, and without hesitation. Come to think about it, (that list is 4 people including me) most of the people on that list taught me what I know about it anyway. I would watch it like the good folks here have said, but you should be ok.

[burningsquirrels]

^^^ gizmo resizer, $75.


i loaded about 12k of 40 cal for uspsa in the past year and a half, and just about all was range pickups. lots of glocked brass there. usually after tumbling and lubing they go straight to the press. station 1 is size/deprime, station 2 is lee u-die/prime. this was on a lee load-master. this worked pretty good but at the end when it came time to case checking, i would run into glocked brass that couldn't get sized all the way. for me the rate was about 1.5%. i got a gizmo resizer as shown above, and my problems went away. basically it's a push-through sizer so that everything about the case in terms of diameter is perfect coming out. before loading i can look and feel for cracks. once you get into the swing of things, it doesn't add that much time to the whole loading process. on a 2-3 hour night i can lube, gizmo size, load, and case check maybe 600ish rounds. i definitely recommend the push-through sizer, there are a few out there. the one i see marketed heavily is the redding gr-x, but the gizmo is easier to use since you have a side window to pop the brass into rather than centering it on the ram.

i have a long write-up about shooting uspsa and reloading 40 cal over at the loadmastervideos.com forum.

should I be concerned at all about using them?

generally, no. just make sure you:

1. scan for cracked brass while sorting brass/sifting/lubing/etc.
2. have a good tactile feedback from your press, especially if it's progressive. overly bulged and cracked/split cases can 'feel' different than normal cases. stroke to stroke, mine is consistent, until that one case comes along, and it either needs a lot of extra effort or jsut feels 'funny'. the push-through solved 99.9% of this.
3. case check every round. if you shoot at least 1k-2k/mo, get the 50-hole checker at egw-guns.com. it's not cheap, but if you shoot in volume it speeds up the check process night and day. (and is nothing compared to what we pay in ammo annually anyways )

hope this helps.

[getsome]

I would like to cast a vote for a reloading forum on Kahrtalk...I don't know anyone personally that reloads so everything I know by now is from reading and or trial/error...I trust you guys and many of you have a great deal of experience in the hobby...I'll share one thing I learned the hard way, I have a .44 mag that I load for as well as a Cimarron cowboy peacemaker clone .45 colt that I also load for and I was always concerned that a mag load might somehow end up in the peacemaker and Ka-boom it so i borrowed some red nail polish from the wife and would paint a red stripe across the bottom of the case and primer on all .44 mag or .44 Special cases both new and reloads...When ever we would shoot both guns the rule is no red rounds go into the peacmaker and none allowed out of the box while the peacemaker was out of the bag...Now this worked very well at preventing a Ka-boom but while I thought the nail polish would if anything seal the primers on the .44 cases, it ruined most of them...I later found out that most of the several boxes of painted cases were duds due to dead primers...Had to spend way too much time pulling bullets and repriming/re assembling rounds due to my mistake...I now size and deprime the .44 shells and use a red sharpie to color the bottom of the cases then prime the cases without anything getting on the new primers...So far has worked just fine....Oh well, live and learn and when reloading always play it safe and triple check everything you do....

[wyntrout]

Getsome, I just had to ask... "Cimarron coyboy peacemaker clone", is that a "gay" gun?? LOL.
Wynn