Once Fired Brass

[mmcnx2]

I'm going to start loading 40 for a Para 16-40, I considering purchasing once fired nickel brass that has been tumbled but not rolled. I'll be resizing on a dillion 650 with dillion dies. Should the cases chamber fine or do I have to be concerned about low case bulges?

[D.Hayden]

You'll get a lot of opinions on this is you search on:

Lee U Die (U = Undersize)

EGW U Die (the Lee die, but EGW sells it too)

Lee FCD (FCD = Factory Crimp Die)

grind (some people grind down the base of the die to resize lower))

I use the 'U' die, and case gauge 100%, others use the FCD, others the standard Dillon. I'd start with the Dillons, if you do get rejects AFTER the die is adjusted correctly, than try one of the others.

But in the end, once fired nickle brass is great..

[Sparky_NY]

I'm going to start loading 40 for a Para 16-40, I considering purchasing once fired nickel brass that has been tumbled but not rolled. I'll be resizing on a dillion 650 with dillion dies. Should the cases chamber fine or do I have to be concerned about low case bulges?

Just read your question and BerKim's reply... that reply is assuming you are talking about brass fired in a Glock. You mention concern about case buldges and that leads to the assumption you are talking about Glock brass. The low case buldge is something that is related to brass fired in a Glock pistol, it does not happen in other guns. Glock brass buldges are a well known problem and often causes chambering problems like your concerned about.

So if you are talking about once fired GLOCK brass then BerKim's reply is right on the money. If its not Glock brass then there is no worry. If your not sure then ASK.... the Glock brass is very common in the market. I'd pay less for Glock brass, more for non-Glock because of the extra problems and costs for special dies etc. to eliminate the buldge.

I just went through the problem with Glock buldged brass, it can be worked around but its a real pain.

[Merlin Orr]

"if you are talking about once fired GLOCK brass then..."

I would not take it if it was free. .40 once fired from other guns is cheap and plentiful. Glock brass in any other gun is a royal pain IMHO and should be avoided.

[38superman]

I have loaded range brass in my 650 and I found it to be a pain.

The headstamps were all WW but there was no way to tell what they were fired in.

What I discovered that some of them had enough of a bulge that they didn't want to fall freely out of the drop tube.

I spent a lot of time dislodging stuck cases.

The only way around this that I found was to prep them by running them through a sizer die on my single stage press.

Not fun.

However once you get them through a sizer die (either on the progressive or the single stage) they chamber and load fine in my SV.

Tls

Edited March 17, 2006 by tlshores

[Cameron]

Check out this guy for .40 brass. He is a local guy here in Michigan that has the cheapest prices on once fired Winchester brass I can find. Not sure what the price of .40 brass is, but I am buying Win 9mm, same headstamp, cleaned for $13.00/1000

Jeff Doolin

586-665-2000

[straightshooter1]

The Commercial Reloaders "roll-size" these 40s and that takes the "guppy belly" out of the Glock brass. My guy here in the TampaBay area charges me about $10 per thousand to do it so it means that the initial cost of the brass has to be cheap to be cost-effective.

However, once done, and unless fired in a Glock with a Factory Barrel again, you are done messing with it and can use it as long as you want.

My main concern was that the initial lot of brass be genuinely once-fired.

I don't know of any place to purchase once fired 40 that FOR SURE hasn't been fired in a Glock.

Bob

[Crusher]

I use .40 (once fired) and some of it comes "Glock Guppied", the Lee -U die from EGW on a 1050 removes the guppy part allthough the effort to run them through the first load is stiff. After that no problemo

I also use LE .40 brass (RP) fired through the 4006 S&W and it requires MORE effort to size than the Glocked brass, go figure?

[bulm540]

once fired is all I use, I get it for $25.00 per 3000. Iuse a EGW resizer die.

[JFD]

I think if you're going to use once-fired brass, and that's the best thing about the .40, you're going to run into Glocked brass. Best to already have the EGW U die. May as well get a FCD as well just to follow the path of the "better safe than sorry" club (I'm a happy member).

[palcapt]

once fired is all I use, I get it for $25.00 per 3000. Iuse a EGW resizer die.

where do you buy it for that price?

[Chris Keen]

These folks have been selling once fired .40 for $10 per thousand at Major matches I have been to (Area 5 / Indiana State / etc.)

http://www.tobyspracticalshootingsupplies.com/

And seriously ................. get the EGW "U" die. Best $22 you'll ever spend on your press. Solved all my issues with Glock .40 brass The LEE Factory Crimp die isn't bad either (for approx. $16) but you have to start with the sizing die first. Anything else is like icing on the cake ~ !

Edited March 17, 2006 by C.Keen

[Skywalker]

Been using once-fired brass (both brass and nickel cases) from The brassman since 3 years.

Many of them are Glock-fired brass.

Never, ever, had a problem with them: I use regular Lee 4-dies set (FCD included) in my 650, and all reloaded ammo gauges into the Dillon .40" gauge.

[A33435]

Been using once-fired brass (both brass and nickel cases) from The brassman since 3 years.

Many of them are Glock-fired brass.

Never, ever, had a problem with them: I use regular Lee 4-dies set (FCD included) in my 650, and all reloaded ammo gauges into the Dillon .40" gauge.

Same here,

Using Brassman's brass for some years but i use the EGW die for sizing

and reload on a 650.

Never had problems in my (Bar Sto barrel equiped) glock.

Greetings

Adrie

[Jasonub]

i never did buy brand new cases for my competition gun. no probs on once fired

[Ray_Z]

I always use once fired brass. I always resize in a seperate step when reloading. Then I check each piece of brass in a Dillon case gauge. If it doesn't drop in I drop it in the trash can. For the $350 it would cost to buy the roll sizer I can buy a lot of once fired brass. At $8/1000 I can throw a lot of it away and still come out on top. Yea, you heard me right, check it out, http://www.millseatcomponents.com/Index.html

[Sparky_NY]

I have loaded range brass in my 650 and I found it to be a pain.

The headstamps were all WW but there was no way to tell what they were fired in.

Tls

Don't all Glock fired brass leave the distinctive firing pin impression, looks like a ! shape rather than round? All the Glock brass I have seen is easy to spot by just looking at the primer impression. I am no expert though.... there may be aftermarket "trick" firing pins for the Glock that don't leave the telltale mark. I believe the flood of .40 Glock brass on the market is Police stuff and those guns would be unmodified anyways.

Curious... Do all Glocks leave the ! shaped firing pin impression?

[ihatepickles]

I buy same headstamp brass from Brassman Brass, which sell for $21/1000 and they offer a 10% discount if you purchase 10,000 at a time. Brassman buys their brass from police firing ranges.

I used to sort the Glock'ed brass out of my main stash but now I've changed my mind. Once I compiled about 1000 Glock'ed cases, I decided to do a bit of testing. I used the Dillion carbide resizing die, a Redding Comp seater, and a Lee FCD and this test was done with .40 S&W. I ran a batch of 1000 pieces of Glock'ed brass through my XL650. All 1000 pieces functioned flawlessly through the XL650. I shot these rounds through my CZ Tactical Sport, which has a factory chamber on the smaller side. The CZ TS chamber isn't as tight as a Bar-sto, but tighter than a stock Glock. I had 1 fail-to-feed out of 1000 rounds. The single FTF was from a burr on the case mouth, not the remnant of the Glock bulge.

I wouldn't call this test the end-all-be-all, but I feel it was a fair test using dies that many folks use with their XL650s. The Glock'ed brass didn't cause any issues for me. I'm going to stop sorting out my Glock'ed brass. I'm not convinced it's causing issues for me. Maybe the people specifically having lots of issues are running tighter chambers?

Oh, and Glock brass isn't the only offending brass. Factory Sig barrels have more chamber support than Glocks, but the Sig brass still has the bulge. Glocks generally produce the largest bulge, but other firearms and barrels have these problems too.

[JFD]

I've found I can get once-fired from e-bay for $10/1000 or less. Just got 2000 for $4.57 with a hair over $8 to ship it. I got 4000 for less than $20 the day before.

Most were not fired through a glock, but they will all get the U die treatment.

I can't sleep worth a darn and find all kinds of good deals on e-bay late at night.

[AWLAZS]

I would dare to say most once fired .40 brass comes from a glock range. Get the U die

[al503]

I would dare to say most once fired .40 brass comes from a glock range. Get the U die

I got a boatload of once-fired Rems and I'd say 30-40% are glocked. I use the dillon size, redding comp seating die and the Lee FCD. That combo gives me a failure to chamber about 1/500 in my gun. I tried the EGW U die and ended up crushing 2-3 / 500 rounds loaded because of the reduced funnel size. I ended up going back to the dillon as it wasn't worth the hassle of removing the crushed case, checking for a squib/dbl charge, etc.

I just shoot the first loading of the once-fired brass rounds during practice and whatever I pick up will be used for a match. As long as it went bang in the gun once, I figure it'll be fine the next time for a match.

[sargenv]

to get around crushing cases due to the U die on my 650, I use the dillon sizer on 1 to punch the primer and do a partial size and put the U die on 2 with the depriming punch removed and do a full length size there. I moved the powder drop to 3, seat on 4 and crimp on 5.

This won't work for the SDB or 550, but it's another solution. You could do this on a 1050 too.

Vince

Edited March 18, 2006 by sargenv

[bulm540]

once fired is all I use, I get it for $25.00 per 3000. Iuse a EGW resizer die.

where do you buy it for that price?

a local guy who gets it from the police or sherrif's dep't. INmates pick up the brass.

[Shipster]

Dillon Dies with a Lee FCD and no problems and 100% of my brass is range brass.

[ricciardelli]

I'm going to start loading 40 for a Para 16-40, I considering purchasing once fired nickel brass that has been tumbled but not rolled. I'll be resizing on a dillion 650 with dillion dies. Should the cases chamber fine or do I have to be concerned about low case bulges?

I purchased several thousand "once fire, processed brass" a few years ago. By "processed" I was told it was deprimed, tumbled, and resized. I was also told it was all civilian, and no military.

When my 9mm brass arrived, the first thing I noticed was that there was brass ranging from .380ACP to 10MM in the mix. In addition, there were military cases in the mix (quite a few), and the brass had not been deprimed. What was even more remarkable was that there were military cases which had had the primer crimp removed and expended civilian primers still in the pockets. (So much for "once fired".)

The tumbling also left a lot to be desired. The cases looked as if they were possibly thrown in a cement mixer for around 10 minutes. What amazed me most was there was no media present in the bags.

I notified the shipper (a supposedly reliable source for "once fired brass") and told him what I had received. He informed me that he had new help working and that his help wasn't "experienced".

He offered to send me 500 "real" processed cases. (I had ordered 5000, but when the smoke cleared there were less than 4600.) I took him up on his order, and I received exactly what I was supposed to receive when I placed the original order.

Have I ever ordered once fired brass since? No way!

If I need brass I order factory and make sure I specify that the brass be all from the same lot.