Had my first stuck case with reloads, how to remedy?

[lucky strike]

I've been reloading 9mm for about 9 months (probably around 2k total) and just had my first stuck case. I've had the rare (maybe 5 or so total) FTF or FTE in the past with my reloads but these were quickly fixed by standard handgun malfunction clearing procedures.

With this one though the slide would barely budge when I tried to rack it, after 5 mintues or so of trying to rack the thing it finally gave way (the extractor finally deformed the rim enough to clear it) but the case was still stuck in there too good to try and pull it out with my fingers so I had to go home and hammer it out with a brass rod (only took a little force to get it out).

The brass was mixed headstamp range brass (this particular one had a S&B headstamp) and the round was a Montana Gold 124 JHP with 4.0gr Titegroup set at 1.100 OAL. The gun was an H&K P30 and this was my first time shooting the gun so it was pretty disappointing to have this happen. This was my first time using this particular load....I shot about 100 rounds through my XD and then about 30 through the P30 before having the issue.

Anyway just wondering what would likely cause this sort of thing so I can hopefully avoid it in the future.

[anachronism]

It sounds like you may have gotten a piece of Glock brass. Did it have a belt at the bottom of the case that your sizing die didn't remove?

[wide45]

Most likely the brass was deformed in a way that was not reshaped by your sizing die. There are a lot of idiots out there running overloads that ruin brass. You must inspect every piece of brass.

Most load first, then chamber check loaded rounds. I prefer to inspect brass before loading. I don't waste primers, and bullets on bad brass.

[lucky strike]

The brass didn't have a belt on it....I guess I just need to do a better job of inspecting brass that I pick up at the range. Since I'd been getting into the reloading groove I'd been lax in that area, just giving the brass a quick check for any splitting before throwing them on the 550B. What other types of things should I look for when inpecting brass? Odd type bulges?

I usually run every loaded round through a case gauge but with these particular loads I just checked every 5th round or so.

I was originally worried that it may be gun related (especially since i just paid $800 for this gun).

Edited May 16, 2010 by lucky strike

[dsmw5142]

If it happens again grab the slide over the top near the back firmly with your weak hand (muzzle pointed away from you of course) and use the heel of your strong hand to wack the back of the back strap/grip sharply and it will usually pop out without yanking on the slide for five minutes and deforming the case head or breaking your extractor.

It was probably a piece of brass that was weak in the web from an over-charge or something. Who knows. Glad you and your gun came out ok though.

[scap99]

I don't have a lot of experience loading the 9mm, but I toss S&B brass in the trash bin. It was giving my 650 fits, and wouldn't chamber into my XDM...even though it had been originally shot through my XDM.

Just my observation, your and others will differ.

[Guy Neill]

Not removing the mouth flare during crimping can cause such an occurrence.

Guy

[rbgaynor]

One thing to be careful of with S&B is they make a steel cased ammo called "Range Safe" that has a brass-like coating. Almost impossible to distinguish from real brass cases without a magnet.

[Bob DuBois]

Buy a Lee U Die from EGW, removes the Glock bulge.

[drodriguez]

I am using a Dillon resizing die in the first stagenof my 1050 and a U die in the Seaver stage or second stage. This seems to solve most of my problems with buldged brass

[drodriguez]

The U die is a lee undersized die but EGW makes a good one also

[CocoBolo]

Quilty control, the drop check should have caught a fat case. Your load with 4.0 gr of TG with a 124 still has room for a couple tenths, so its ok.

Saturday another Open gunner had 2 of the need the jack hammer to extract rounds. On close examination it turned out to be the bullet, it was shorter and fatter than the other JHP's he had, case in point you need to check for deformed bullets, they were MTG 124JHP s. A U-die will never replace the drop check and for match ammo don't take it unless it falls in and out, keep a practice bucket and if they are close throw them in the practice bucket. I run all my 9/38/40 thru a CasePro, but on occasion I still have a few rejects.

[calishootr]

for 9mm ammo i run it all thru a case guage, with the advent of major 9 and that coupled with guys running Glocks in open??? yeah all my 9mm gets run thru a case guage, i even had a bullet fall out of the case when i was tossin rounds into a box(not enuff crimp??) and that waswhen i was checking every 10th or so....now, afterthe batch is over i plop down in front ofthe TV and drop check every round, just as the kinetic hammer is the reloaders frien, so is the case guage tothe shooter

[Duane Thomas]

Second the recommendation for using a case gage. While some people will recommend using the actual chamber instead, under the theory "I want to be sure it'll actually go into the chamber, not a case gage," the fact is that the gage is considerably tighter than the Glock chamber. A round that's near-max size may fit into a clean chamber but not into on that's been fouled. But if it'll fit into the case gage it WILL fit into the chamber. Case gage. It's really the only way to go if you want to avoid your recent experience reoccurring.

[njl]

I've been reloading 9mm for about 9 months (probably around 2k total) and just had my first stuck case. I've had the rare (maybe 5 or so total) FTF or FTE in the past with my reloads but these were quickly fixed by standard handgun malfunction clearing procedures.

With this one though the slide would barely budge when I tried to rack it, after 5 mintues or so of trying to rack the thing it finally gave way (the extractor finally deformed the rim enough to clear it) but the case was still stuck in there too good to try and pull it out with my fingers so I had to go home and hammer it out with a brass rod (only took a little force to get it out).

The brass was mixed headstamp range brass (this particular one had a S&B headstamp) and the round was a Montana Gold 124 JHP with 4.0gr Titegroup set at 1.100 OAL.

That OAL seems kind of short. I posted about problems with that same brass/bullet combination a few months ago. I think the S&B brass is on the thick side, and if you don't seat the bullets level enough, it's easy to get a bulge in the side of the case. Round up the rest of your S&B brass cartridges with the MG JHP bullets and gage them. You might find that some of them won't go in or won't go in easily.

I was using S&B brass exclusively for a regular match I used to shoot and never had problems with it (using PD FMJ or MG CMJ bullets) until I started loading MG 124gr JHP. I was using the flat side of the Dillon seater which turned out to be a bad choice. Flipping the seater back to the FMJ side and not using S&B brass seemed to resolve the problem.