929 and brass......Why it should only hurt once......

[DougCarden]

I got to put hands on a 929 today and did some measuring.

Some of you already know this...bear with me....

I grabbed some once fired brass that is from unknown guns and pedigree.

Intial measurements were taken from just in front of the rim on the case

.

As you can see from the rear, the one case will not go very far into the chamber due to it being bulged.

.388 this is the bulged case that looks like it came out of an unsupported chamber

.386

.384

I then sized them in a dillon 9mm carbide die.

.388

.385

.384

I then rollsized them in the casepro.

.386

.385

.384

I then put the bulged case through a Redding titanium carbide die

.385

.384

.384

At the end I tried putting the bulged brass in the cylinder again, and it went in a little bit farther but that was as good as I could do to rehab the case.

As you see it will fit into the chamber just fine, but it is bigger than the other two cases and will contribute to the sticky extraction.

If you have decent brass, I would segregate it and ONLY use it in the gun.

I have mixed feelings about the U dies, as they really overwork the brass. A simple Lee sizing die will size down farther than the dillon and do the same work as the roll sizer or the Redding die, and is a lot easier on your elbow than the U die.

To each their own. If it works go for it.

It might be worth it in the long run to buy a couple of thousand new cases and use them for the gun, and use the ratty old range brass for practice or matches that won't hurt you. All the ammo I chrono'd and shot today in 28 degrees were 114 PF up to 123 and did not have sticky extraction. I am gonna bump up the loads and see what groups I can get, and check extraction.

I need to hit the range with it a little bit more before I give it back.....

DougC

[ffl]

Eric and Art Leach are having no problems with using once fired brass after they started using a LEE sizing die.

EDIT: LEE UNDERSIZE 9MM SIZING DIE.

Edited December 18, 2014 by ffl

[10mmdave]

Hi Doug !

For your next test, will you shoot only lots of a certain re-sized dimension brass ?

Maybe the .384/.385 stuff is good but a .388 size messes up the extraction,

maybe all .385's are sticky but .384's are g2g ?

The roll sizer seems to get down to no more than .384, if needed can a .001-.002 thk shim be put

in behind the roll dies to get a little more "squish" ?

And how far down does the 9mm U die size the brass ?

I guess what I'm getting at is what is the minimum a shooter needs to get reliable brass,

maybe there's a market for a new undersized round check tool for these 9mm revo's ?

Good luck with your testing, and thanks for sharing.

Merry Christmas if I don't talk wth you

[WheelGunHunter]

thanks for posting this,I have had some moons that didn't/couldn't drop all the way in because of bulged range brass. I have come to the same conclusion that it is best to buy brass specifically for the 929. It is nice to hear that someone else recommends the same thing.

[9146gt]

I haved put 1000 rounds before and after the barrel and cylinder replacement (929) by Smith and have not had sticky extraction using a Lee Sizing die with both one lot of Remington brass and misc range brass. Using TK stainless EDM clips with the Remington brass and TK standard stamped clips with the Misc brass. Some loads were in the 145 PF range. My 940 PC .356 TSW (9x21.5 ) has by far the tightest chambers I have seen in a 9mm.

Tom

[thermobollocks]

Any reason you wouldn't roll size your brass?

[Shadowrider]

If segregating brass for the gun it looks like one could run fired range brass through a U die on the first loading and then maybe just use regular Dillon/Redding/whatever dies afterwards. Might be a possible workaround?

[peterthefish]

Really no need to run a U Die - anything other than a Dillon should get far enough down on the case to size out any bulge that could cause chambering issues. I've sized mixed 9mm Major brass w a plain old RCBS carbide die and it chambers / extracts fine.

[ffl]

Would an undersize moon clip / chamber checker be of use?

[Gregg K]

I sort of already had that. My 9mm ammo would drop check in a 38 Super moon checker if it had been sized with a U die but once I quit using the U die I had to get TK to ream out the moon checker to 9mm. As far as I know, nobody makes a real 8 shoot 9mm moon checker.

[PJONES5]

TK has them now.

Pat

[3gunyotehtr]

Revolver supply has a 9mm checker now too

[Aglifter]

Revolver shooters, pretty much, always get heir brass back, don't they?

[seanc]

Revolver shooters, pretty much, always get heir brass back, don't they?

indeed they do, but the fantasy of this is for those of us that shoot this gun and also shoot auto's or have a spouse that shoots auto's, we can come up with a load that runs fine in both and just turn out buckets of same ammo and stop switching/segregating changing.

for me, this means I want something that will shoot in a CZ and the 929. Some headstamps will not fit moonclips very well(fall out) and that can just go in the other ammo bag at the range, no biggie.

for a major match, certainly a case of same headstamp is the order of they day, but for all the rest of the shooting done, I just want buckets full of the same load...

[PatJones]

I keep separate 45 brass for my 625 revolver. It's in moons, it's not that hard to keep separated.

[Baer45]

He did with the Case Pro...not needed with Lee Die...

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[in625shooter]

As far as any brass you pick up from unknown sources if it is fired from a Glock I would discard that. My reasoning is (yes you should resize anything no matter what) but besides the obvious Glock bulge and the elongated firing pin mark that sets Glock brass apart what gets re loaders in trouble with Glocks is their own cheapness. Why we all like to save a buck the shooters that try and get 5=10 reloading s out of their case in a Glock are the ones that have had the issues. Almost ever Glock that had a KB issue suffered a case separation at the back because every time the brass expands and gets resized it looses strength. It's fine for a couple times but much more than that reload and shoot at your own risk. Other designs that don't produce the bulge (especially revolvers) yo don't have that issue. I use to have a couple Glock 40's and once I fired or reloaded the brass a couple times I got rid of it and never had an issue. I truley believe that has more to do with the "No Reloads" statement from Glock than the Lead bullet issue does.

Myself I just run Brass I know where it came from in mine because if a hand loader like what I mentioned left it I would be weary. JMHO

[Tom Freeman]

I run all my pistol brass (9x19, 38 Super/Special, 40/10mm, 41/44 mag, 45 GAP/ACP, 45 Colt and 454 Casull) through my roll sizer before each reload no matter what gun they go in.

I have run my 929 with ammo up to about a 145pf and had no issues with sticky brass.

Edited December 22, 2014 by Tom Freeman

[JRB]

Hey guys.

I just bought a 929, have to wait for my permit to pick it up, but should have it the first week of January. YE / HAY.

I am lost, what is the issue Doug,? , the one thing I do know is that if someone tried to shoot 9mm major the brass is done.

Please advise me, so I don't blow up my new really cool toy.

Thanks for any help.

Russell.

Canadian AP / ICORE shooter.

[DougCarden]

Hi Russ, is it MAY yet...lol

Rest easy. I measured the charge holes.....SAAMI specs so any brass will work. As long as you roll size or use a decent die that resizes all the way down the case like the LEE or a REDDING then you won't need to rollsize. I think this makes a difference if you are using heavy bullet/fast powder combo and the brass is already been bulged a little and not resized back down. That would explain people using the U die having not problem. I think if you have decent brass to start with then you won't have any problems.....Enjoy your new toy!

DougC

[mikeAZ]

I've tried to make a few informative posts on the 929 since I got one of the 1st. ones and what I've learned?....check my posts ... I'm no gunsmith, but I tried to be as honest in my posts

as I could.... (differences in brass, "U" dies, forcing cone, moon clips, etc.). My main reason for the 929 is it's 9mm which I shoot a lot of. There is no real reason to switch to 9mm if your happy with 38 Special/short Colt.... OR unless you just want a new toy. I have 2 627's and was tempted to just see about getting them reamed to 9mm but never pursued that route..mikeAZ

[SauconValley Shooter]

Good Evening,

I bought a 929 and I am having problems with it. I shot three moon clips with 9mm reloads from my semi-auto "practice" bin, and 23 went off fine with no extraction problems. I bought 1000 Starline 9mm cases, loaded my standard minor load, 124 gr Berry's and 3.9 gr Clays, on a 650 with a Lee sizing die. After four shots you could not pull the trigger to rotate the cylinder. I could tap the moonclip in and finish shooting eight, but then I would have to tap the extractor with my brass squib rod to get the moonclip out of the gun.

I read on one of the other threads about 929 problems and ordered the EGW undersized sizing die. I loaded some more rounds and now I get five shots before the cylinder locks up. I am wondering if the new cases are the problem. My next step is to load a few rounds with my semi-auto brass and see if they still fire. I was also thinking of honing and polishing the chambers.

[MWP]

I experienced the opposite. New starline 9mm ran great, pressure problems began on it's second loading.

[seanc]

I experienced the opposite. New starline 9mm ran great, pressure problems began on it's second loading.

so new starline brass works, on the second loading it fails? This is with the Dillon sizing die?

[MWP]

Hornady. I loaded to 130pf it was fine. Second loading was sticky past 125pf. Just got a Lee U die as suggested above, haven't had a chance to retest loads.