40 S&w Brass Life

[TBF]

What kind of lifespan have you been getting out of untainted ( never been through a Glock )

40 brass?

Travis F.

[ErikW]

Indefinite. I lose it before I wear it out.

[DBChaffin]

I have to admit I'm surprised to hear Erik say it, but I completely agree with him. I haven't been able to get a completely accurate count because I tend to lose them before I wear them out. I know I have gotten 15+ loadings on some though (maybe 20+?), and this is with an "unpublished" VV N320/ 180 JHP major load. Every once and a while I'll find a piece that split, but it's pretty rare. I don't know if I've just been lucky or what but I don't really see any reason to change anything.

[madone]

Hey DBChaffin, is that "unpublished" major load in the 5.0 gr area?

[Patrick Sweeney]

"Untainted by Glocks" is a good way to put it. If they haven't been through a Glock, the useful life is similar to that of any other case. If they have, fuggedaboudit. When I encounter Glock brass now, I toss it. Not worth the hassle.

[A33435]

It should be in that area,

4.8 grains N320, Federal SP200, 177 grain copperplated Frontier bullet, AOL 28.65 mm

shot through my stockbarrel of the G35 gives me a 176 - 178 pf

Btw, i use 5.45 N340 because i like it and trust it more.

The brass i always resize with an EGW U-die.

After 8 or 9 reloads i lose the brass,(a lot of no-brasspicking and outdoorshooting)

About 20 out of thousand will be split by that time

Greetings

Adrie

[ErikW]

I'll be more specific...

Some once-fired/roll-sized brass I can't even load or it fails the gauge after I load it.

One batch of weathered nickel once-fired brass had a large percentage of splits while resizing.

Everything that has made it through my sizer, through my (SAAMI max) gauge, and through my guns just keeps on going and being reloaded. It never splits. It never separates.

[Paul B]

Haven't found out how many times I can load .40 brass either. It seems to last at least 10-15 reloads before it gets lost on the range. With slower powders like N330 or even WST I can shoot even ratty cases that have unreadable headstamps (salvaged from the range). With Clays or N310 this may not be as true.

The interesting thing I have found is that it doesn't seem to make any difference if it is glock brass or not. As long as you don't use Dillon sizing dies it will size down and fit in most any barrel and will last just as long. The Dillon just doesn't size them enough, but the undersize die really isn't necessary. Side note: I love just about everything else from Dillon, but they could redesign their sizing dies for us high volume users.

One thing I have noticed is that if you pick up a lot of orphan brass on the range you won't get quite the low standard deviations in velocity you can get with one type. It all works, though, and with a little cushion will all make major.

Another interesting thing is that when .40 brass does split it is very easy to pick out of a group because split .40 brass has the most distinctively different clinking sound of all.

[DBChaffin]

madone, sorry for the slow reply, but as A33435 stated, it is indeed in that area. When I say "unpublished", I mean in official loading manuals. It's all over the web and pretty widely used I think. I too use an EGW undersize sizing die, so although it can be argued it is working the brass more than a standard die, it sure doesn't seem to hurt case life much in my experience.

My load data for my SV (all usual "use at your own risk" warnings apply of course):

Mixed brass

Federal Small Rifle Primers (don't think they are needed but I use them anyway and no troubles)

180gr. Zero JHP

5.0-5.1 grains of VV N320

OAL approximately 1.190

Chronos between 171-174 PF in my gun depending on the day and the chrono setup. I have been really pleased with it for quite a while and don't have any reason to change. Lead or plated bullets would of course need less powder to make the same PF. And changing OAL would affect pressure/performance as well.

[TBF]

Thanks for all the replies.

I am fairly new to 40 ( under 3k so far )

I have loaded 45 for quite a while and other than a few splits in really old brass never have had

any problems, thought 40 might be a little more particular being 50% higher press.

Any comments on once fired Glock that resizes properly? it's damn cheap, and so am I.

But to be honest it bothers me that the ones I have picked up on the range are so blown out.

I have not encountered any that won't resize to case ga. spec. with a regular die.

But geez, the Glock brass LOOKS huge and you can see it's not straight.

Travis F.

[a-44978]

After 2 years and 30k through my 650 here is what i do.

If its .40cal it goes into the tumbler .I started with a glock but now have an sti,and have had good luck with any and all brass.If anyone has a bunch of glock brass i'll take it,my lee die eats'em like candy.

I do have a few on occasion that fail the case guage,i think the factory crimp die will help that.

I could not find the EGW U die so i got a regular lee resizing die about 20k rounds ago.

Use At Own Risk.........5.5g Titegroup 165g Mg. 1.225 oal [1050 fps in Florida]

I do still have a very annoying problem My decapper won't push a 9mm case out through the bottom of the .40 case i'm trying to decapp!Dammmmitman.Oh yea and my Sti mags won't go in the gun sideways, no matter how hard i push.The wowes of a B.

Thanks for all the cool tips in here to everyone.

[dajarrel]

a-44978,

I too use a lee decapper/sizing die in my 550b. I think the reason it helps is that it doesn't have as much bevel in the mouth that the dillon die has. The bell sometimes makes starting a piece of brass in the die easier (a dillon selling point) , but it just doesn't go far enough down to complete the sizing, IMHO. I shoot all .40 brass (glock fired included) and the only brass I avoid is S&B which I avoid like the plague. It seems to be thinner at the web and in my machine about 1 in 10 won't fit in my guage.

I think I am like most in that I lose the brass before I wear it out.

Dennis

[charles]

Does anyone else full length size the cases by pushing them completely through the sizing die? I just started doing this and all of the bras now checks through the gauge built first as well as base first. The only brass that does not size well this way is S&B it comes out oval instead of round.

[texasag93]

I get around 10 reloads from my 40 cases. I use RCBS resizer and Lee FC die to finish. I reload mostly once-fired Glock brass from a local police range. I have no problems with bulges. Stay away from that S&B garbage. It is the devil. Primers don't seat, doesn't resize well. Nickle brass seems to have half the life of regular. I shoot them till the neck splits belling it. I bell my mouths a little more than normal. Figure if it splits it, its time to toss it. I have shot tens of thousands of 40 and only had one case rupture. I knew it when I pulled the trigger. Just sounded funny. P16 kept right on running. I clean about 2000 cases. When they are all fired. I clean them again. It makes it easy to keep up with how many times they have been fired.