38 Super Sizing Problem

[newshooter]

Hello every one yesterday i decided i would sit down in the garage and reload some ammo since its our first day of cool weather down here in the rio gande valley. I was loading some 38 super and out of the 100 i loaded stopped after that cause i noticed that on the bottom of the shell there would be a crease and it only occurs on one side of the shell not all the way around. wasn't sure why it was doing this i figured my sizing die was not all the way down against the shell plate but it was. tried it again and it did it to a couple of them. I am loading on an xl650 press with dillon carbide dies every thing is brand new and i was wondering why it would be making this crease in the case during the sizing operation. here is a picture of a few that it did it to. tell me what you think the problem could be thanks for answering to another one of my million questions haha

Joey

Edited October 23, 2006 by newshooter

[al503]

how many times have you reloaded that brass?

[newshooter]

how many times have you reloaded that brass?

It was the first time for me it was picked up at an indoor range so i have no clue how many times it has been loaded. I was thinking it could be cause of loading to many times and the wall just becoming weak. I want to say the majority of it was on nickel plated and a few of them were brass.

[al503]

I'm thinking that it's just fatigue. That's probably the reason the original shooter didn't pick it up. If they pass the gauge, they'll probably be fine but you might risk a case head separation.

[moverfive]

That looks like what my brass used to look like a long time ago - in my old guns I had my chamber opened up a little in order to ensure ALL rounds would chamber. Unless you had your chamber opened up too and you didn't use a full length sizer.....you couldn't use my brass.

If the crease around the brass was consistenly around the entire brass and not just one side - then pressure might be a factor. But if the crease is primarily on one side, that is more than likely due to an opened chamber.

[newshooter]

That looks like what my brass used to look like a long time ago - in my old guns I had my chamber opened up a little in order to ensure ALL rounds would chamber. Unless you had your chamber opened up too and you didn't use a full length sizer.....you couldn't use my brass.

If the crease around the brass was consistenly around the entire brass and not just one side - then pressure might be a factor. But if the crease is primarily on one side, that is more than likely due to an opened chamber.

Hello thanks for the reply i have not fired this ammo through the gun yet. They are for my g/f new open gun that is being built right now and the gunsmith wanted me to make some rounds for functionability. Now if they came out of an opened chambered barrel im not sure. Thanks for the reply

joey

[XRe]

Make sure you're sizing die is screwed down all the way, too... If you're going to continue to shoot brass like that, an EGW U-die might be the ticket, or a Lee FCD...

[uscbigdawg]

My first response was, thank goodness I have a Casepro. My second was is your resizing die as low as possible?

Rich

[shred]

Could be that your dies aren't lined up with the shellplate if it's only on one side (did you do the final tightening with brass in the die?), but that's almost looking like Mech-Teched brass or something.

[newshooter]

After i saw that the rounds were like that i went to check to make sure the sizing die was all the way down and it was. When i tightened it wasn't with a peace of brass in the die maybe that could be a reason. i checked them with a gauge and 10 of them would not fall into the gauge. its just weird in how it will only do it on a few of them not all of them.

[10mmdave]

You could have brass that's been shot out of an old Colt that doesn't have a supported

chamber or as moverfive said, a modified chamber.

I any event, and I don't want to tell you what to do, but stop using this brass ! ! !

you have no idea what the last person used that brass in and to what charge level it was

loaded to ? Unless you know the history of any 38 super brass I would be leery of it.

Do yourself a favor, buy some brand new brass, or a case of 38 super Winchester or

Remington or whatever brand ammo and only use that brass in your press and gun.

You don't want to run the risk of a case head seperation, especially in your GF's new gun

[rks]

I started having this exact same issue a couple of weeks ago. I have been loading 38SC since about Oct 06, starting with new starline brass and only reloading my brass that I pick back up. It is only happening on reloaded cases, not brand new brass - I have verified that there isn't anything wrong with the brass before station 1 (decapping/resizing), and that the crease is being created in station 1. It doesn't happen with every case, but often enough (1 out of 10) to be disconcerting. I'd say the max # of times that any of my brass has been reloaded is < 5, and I've never seen any signs of stress or fatigue.

I have a Dillon XL650 (purchased new in Dec 05), and I'm using Dillon dies for everything except for a Lee Factory Crimp die in station 5. I've made sure cases are lubed with One-Shot, and the decapping/resizing die is spotless on the inside. I'm going to put everything back together tonight and make sure that the die is resting on the shellplate, and tightened while there is a case in it - but I was told today that I should just buy all Lee dies, and an EGW U-die and I'd be fine. Just curious to see how Joey or anyone else has resolved this issue.

Thanks

Rhonda

Edited April 2, 2007 by rks

[Ray_Z]

Joey

If I were you I would't use those cartradges. I think you will find that what you are looking at the the top of the web of the case. You would see this a lot with cases that have been shot in a Glock and resized. Because the Glock has an unsupported chamber the case head swells and it looks this way because the resize die does not resize this part of the case. The brass is pretty thin at the top of the step that you are looking at. You're looking at a good chance of a case head separation. With the pressures that are made to make a 38 super major you could have a real mess on your hands.

My advice is to pull the cartradges for the bullets and powder and chuck the rest. If you are going to use questionable cases in the future resize and deprime in a seprate operation, check each case in a case guage, then follow through with loading the cases. Also keep in mind that if you (feel) the primer go in a case easily you need to to discard that case. Loose primers lead to gas blowback. At the very lease you will end up with pitting on the face of the receiver from it.

I always resize and deprime in a seperate step. Then I put the cases back in the tumbler for a couple of hours to finish cleaning the cases and primer pockets. I then check each case with a Dillon case guage before compleating the loading.

[benos]

Joey

If I were you I would't use those cartradges. I think you will find that what you are looking at the the top of the web of the case. You would see this a lot with cases that have been shot in a Glock and resized. Because the Glock has an unsupported chamber the case head swells and it looks this way because the resize die does not resize this part of the case. The brass is pretty thin at the top of the step that you are looking at. You're looking at a good chance of a case head separation. With the pressures that are made to make a 38 super major you could have a real mess on your hands.

+1 to that.

If you have a new pistol coming, the last thing you want to do is fire brass of unknown origin in it. Start with new brass; the extra expense is well worth it.

be