40 Ammo Issues

[Spiffy]

I have been having issues with my 40 minor Glock load. I was loading OAL between 1.1250- 1.1300 with brass I bought on line and plated and lead bullets. Everything was doing good then I started using range pick up brass and only lead bullets. Started to get several that wouldn't fully chamber or were sticking at ULSC so I got a EWG 7 hole case gauge. My old clays load (before I changed brass source) all gauged just fine but my new loads (e3 load) failed about a 1/3 of the time with bullet in. Those that failed passed about 90% with bullet up. 

 

At yesterday's match I had a couple of stoppages with the KKM barrel so I changed back to my Glock factory barrel and only had 1 sticky round at ULSC but didn't have to bump the slide any to get it into battery. So today I took the ones that failed and took my seating depth down to 1.1175-1.1200 and turned the Lee FCD down a little bit and 2/3s of those round passed the gauge bullet down. The 1/3 of those that failed after the adjusting measure the same OAL and when I measure the case diameter at different places along the length of the brass nothing measures larger than the holes in the gauge.

 

If I haven't totally confused you all as bad as I'm confused and lost as to why I get some that wont function in the gauge or the barrel when they measure out the same, does anyone have any ideas I can try?

 

 

My reloader is an old Lee turrent with Lee U sizer, expander/powder, bullet seating and then Factory crimp die.

 

[Raoul]

What kind of lead bullet? I have a Sig in .40 and it really doesn't care for the flat nose lead bullet. The feed ramp is maybe too steep to handle the friction of the lead and they will not chamber reliably.

I need to go back and play with the OAL and see if I can tweak them a bit.

[Garufa]

What is bullet up and down?

 

More importantly did you measure length of  the empty cases?  Sounds like some trimming is in order.

[Spiffy]

When you put the cartridge in the gauge with the bullet pointed down/base up  or put the cartridge in base down/bullet up. 

[RED333]

Sounds like the case might not be debelled.(SP)

You bell the case mouth to get a lead boolet

to start and then crimp back to a straight case.

If there is any bell left it wont chamber.

[Spiffy]

Sounds like the case might not be debelled.(SP)

You bell the case mouth to get a lead boolet

to start and then crimp back to a straight case.

If there is any bell left it wont chamber.

 

I took the OAL and crimp down a little more but I'll check this out.

[deerslayer]

Lose the factory crimp die, crimp with a standard crimp die (whatever flavor you like), and resize with a U-die.  Sold by Lee and EGW, one U-die sizes a little smaller than the other one (forgot which one is which).  Either one will all but cure your problem. 

[Ray Z]

Lose the factory crimp die, crimp with a standard crimp die (whatever flavor you like), and resize with a U-die.  Sold by Lee and EGW, one U-die sizes a little smaller than the other one (forgot which one is which).  Either one will all but cure your problem. 

 

+1

[Guest SavageOne]

I load lead only in .40. Although I load on a 650 Dillon, I use standard Lee dies including the Factory Crimp Die. Properly adjusted, of course. Whatever dies you use, be sure to crimp as a seperate operation from seating. Critical factors that cause chambering problems are: OAL, crimp, and sizing. Kinda overstating the obvious, but I've see one or more of these factors overlooked many times. It's rare that I get a cartridge that doesn't chamber easily. I have loaded a 1000 rd lot without a single one that wouldn't chamber in my tightest barrels.

I think the "U" die is a great idea, I use it when loading 9mm. i find lot of 9mm brass that has been loaded to Major PF, and have the bulge that used to be so common with early chambers and .40.