Ruminations on case-gauging

[IDescribe]

Tanfarm, how many cartridges that fail the case gauge and go into the practice bin actually fail to feed in practice?

[CZinZA]

For me, only about 1 out of maybe 50 or 100, approximately

(Cases that fail the gauge and then also fail to feed)

But if they happen in a match instead of being caught by the gauge I'd be annoyed

Sent by Jedi mind control

[IDescribe]

Sounds like the gauge lets through ammo that fails anyway.

If your dies are quality and your set up is right, there should be zero without a gauge.

[Bkreutz]

The ones that fail the gauge get looked at closely, then checked in the actual barrel. I get a few that don't pass and I break those down and put the case in the recycle bin (after removing the primer) and reuse the powder and bullet.

[CZinZA]

Nothing gets through my gauge and then fails in the gun. I've had only two malfunctions in 25 000 rounds and those were rounds in training that i hadn't gauged (although i normally gauge training rounds too)

My press never causes failures. It's always one of two things - damaged rims on old cases, or range brass that is too bulged down near the rim (where my sizing die can't reach)

Sent by Jedi mind control

[warpspeed]

I haven't case guaged in a long time. I do box it to check for missing or high primers but that's about it these days.

Every once in a while I will check ammo for a match where I care how I do and for that I use an old barrel.

[tcoz]

I use a Sheridan slotted gage for all of my .223, 300 BLK and .30-06 rounds and I've had a few that have failed for whatever reason. I attribute it to differing quality of brass and different "spring back" characteristics. The nice things about the Sheridan gages is that they'll absolutely chamber if they pass the gage and if they fail, you can easily tell where the problem is.

I also drop each of my completed pistol cartridges into a case gage and I've had a few of them fail also.

Edited March 28, 2016 by tcoz

[ChemistShooter]

A-n-n-d predictably enough, I just had a round fail the case gauge.

There's this weird little circle around it at the bottom. In the beginning, I wasn't marking my brass, just picking up anything that said "Blazer."

This is probably one of those "Glocked brass" cases, I would guess.

Pull, recycle bullet and powder, squirt case full of WD-40 to dissolve primer, allow to sit for a week and discard. Right?

[Sarge]

I just throw them in the trash after pulling bullet.

Do you lube cases? I generally only get that ring if I hit a dry case in the batch.

[Miranda]

I am too cheap to toss out a good primer.

I save them and after I get 10-ish, I carefully remove the primers.

.... and save 34 cents...

I may rethink that.

miranda

[IDescribe]

Pull, recycle bullet and powder, squirt case full of WD-40 to dissolve primer, allow to sit for a week and discard. Right?

Wrong. Load in pistol and shoot. Chemshooter, look back through this thread. Most of the guys that use a case gauge still fire the ones that fail the case gauge. In all likelihood, they're fine.

FYI, the ring around the base can come from either you or previous reloaders sizing brass with carbide dies and no lube. Glocked brass looks like it has a blister, and you're likely to see it one out of about every never. You just broke down what is in all likelihood a perfectly good round.

[TANFARM]

This is a good thread....I do put my gauge rejects , within reason, in a practice bin...and to be honest have only had a few FTF or jam.

I guess it's just habit not to trust rounds that don't pass.

I once saw a relatively top shooter lose a match because of a bulged round...yikes.....one of my mental goals is a reduction of problem rounds to an irrelevant percentage......yea I've got some OCD hang ups....lol

Thanks to all for their responses!

[tcoz]

I do the same thing with my "rejects" and can't remember ever having one cause a malfunction in any way although the ones I do this with don't reject by much. The very few I've had that reject by a lot get completely deconstructed then I run them through the entire process again beginning with sizing. If they again reject by a large margin, I pull them again and toss the case, reusing the rest of the components including the primer.

[ChemistShooter]

Pull, recycle bullet and powder, squirt case full of WD-40 to dissolve primer, allow to sit for a week and discard. Right?

Wrong. Load in pistol and shoot. Chemshooter, look back through this thread. Most of the guys that use a case gauge still fire the ones that fail the case gauge. In all likelihood, they're fine.

FYI, the ring around the base can come from either you or previous reloaders sizing brass with carbide dies and no lube. Glocked brass looks like it has a blister, and you're likely to see it one out of about every never. You just broke down what is in all likelihood a perfectly good round.

Took no action until I got some feedback. I'll drop in my barrel. If if fits, I'll shoot it. It's quite likely to fit. That weird ring is right at the case head.

Edited March 28, 2016 by ChemistShooter

[ChemistShooter]

I just throw them in the trash after pulling bullet.

Do you lube cases? I generally only get that ring if I hit a dry case in the batch.

Not yet. I have some Hornady One-Shot but have not experimented with it. I'm working on getting Reloading & Maintenance SOPs down.

[ChemistShooter]

I am too cheap to toss out a good primer.

I save them and after I get 10-ish, I carefully remove the primers.

.... and save 34 cents...

I may rethink that.

miranda

I'm awful tempted to take an empty case with a primer in it somewhere safe and find some way to make it go bang from distance. I'd really like to know how much bang primers make.

[b1gcountry]

A fair amount

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

[Miranda]

loud like a good cap-gun.

or a starter's pistol.

put it in your pistol and point it some where safe and pop it.

miranda

[Bamboo]

A primer has enough bang to push a wax bullet fast enough to put a nice dent in a heavy card board box, or go though a light weight box - about 400fps.

Used to make them to practice PPC in the garage. Might do it again if my young'un wants to get into shooting.

[thermobollocks]

Primers by themselves are loud enough to make you wonder why the hell you thought it'd be a good idea to take one out back and whack it with a claw hammer.

[adamge]

I am about 30k into my 9mm reloading career and not once have I wished I had case gauged. I don't even own a 9mm case gauge.

My quality control is to lay out all the loaded rounds on a rag, look at them, then turn them a bit and look at them again. Then they go into a 10x10 ammo box, and when it is full I use my finger tips to check primer height and eyes to check primer condition (old primers, upside down).

Edited March 28, 2016 by adamge

[ChemistShooter]

loud like a good cap-gun.

or a starter's pistol.

put it in your pistol and point it some where safe and pop it.

miranda

Damn, yeah. Such a simple solution.

[Beastly]

I am about 30k into my 9mm reloading career and not once have I wished I had case gauged. I don't even own a 9mm case gauge.

My quality control is to lay out all the loaded rounds on a rag, look at them, then turn them a bit and look at them again. Then they go into a 10x10 ammo box, and when it is full I use my finger tips to check primer height and eyes to check primer condition (old primers, upside down).

What kind of 9mm gun(s) are you shooting?

[BeerBaron]

Pull, recycle bullet and powder, squirt case full of WD-40 to dissolve primer, allow to sit for a week and discard. Right?

Wrong. Load in pistol and shoot. Chemshooter, look back through this thread. Most of the guys that use a case gauge still fire the ones that fail the case gauge. In all likelihood, they're fine.

FYI, the ring around the base can come from either you or previous reloaders sizing brass with carbide dies and no lube. Glocked brass looks like it has a blister, and you're likely to see it one out of about every never. You just broke down what is in all likelihood a perfectly good round.

Took no action until I got some feedback. I'll drop in my barrel. If if fits, I'll shoot it. It's quite likely to fit. That weird ring is right at the case head.

Those 9mm with the bulge/ring in the bottom are from a combo of unsupported chambers and/or having been reloaded a number of times on a press with dillon dies. Because of the tapered mouth on the dillon sizer it can't size quite as low as say a lee die. After repeated firings and re-sizing this ring appears.

When I find cases like that during gauging I do 2 things. They go in my practice ammo but I mark them with a cross on the bottom. All my ammo that passes gauge gets just a stripe. That way I know to chuck it away if I pick it up or someone else picks it for me.

[wimms]

I see that people often just discard bulged cases. I used to also. But then I got myself Lee Bulge Buster. For 9mm. It's not officially supported due to 9mm taper, but the thing is - you don't need it to get back its perfect taper, you just need it to chamber and eject.

So the very very well working setup is this:

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/807734/lee-reloader-single-stage-press

http://leeprecision.com/bulge-buster-kit.html

http://leeprecision.com/carbide-factory-crimp-die-9mm-makarov.html

You basically push your 9mm case fully through 9mm-Makarov FCD. It is within tolerances of 9mm, including rim.

It goes and whatever there was with the case before, it is no more a problem. You can even push live rounds through it if they don't case gauge after reloading press.

Sure, caution applies and it is not recommended to load major into bulged cases. But if you load bee fart loads, a case will rupture on your press before it splits in your gun.

At some point I skipped gauging ready rounds, especially because I gauged them during the sorting process. But murphy never sleeps and I had a bad jam on the stage. So I stood there, nothing around for a leverage but the flimsy stage setup and tried to extract with my bare hands. Futile. I lost the stage, and had to give a pretty good smack to get the jammed round out.

This incident is always on my mind when I feel like skipping the gauging of my match ammo.

Other thing is that I pick up range brass and its often stepped on, run over, being dragged between a boot and a concrete. So I can't afford not sorting and checking them. For those who buy new brass this is all moot.

For me sometimes, depending on who has been before me, I can end up picking quite a batch of glocked cases, or even glocked NATO cases (these are pretty much loaded major). It's just a waste to scrap them all.