.40 Glock reload data

[jells]

A friend and I just returned from our local range. We swapped pistols and I fired his Glock. The first round did not chamber fully, so I dropped the mag and tried to cycle the action but it was stuck. The range supervisor came by and managed to get it unstuck (I'm a wimp). Loaded the mag and same issue except this time I bumped the back of the slide and it went into battery. Several rounds did this on me. Unfortunately the friend later fired the first round I was saving.
In thinking about this, I plan to look and see if his reloads are sized the full length. I plan to look at the press set up, and possibly may need to dissemable the Lee sizeing and depriming die and measure the dies themselves.
Is there a reference where I can find the dimentions? Can you suggest another possible cause? The gun is only 4 months old and probably has only 400 - 500 or so rounds through it.

Thanks
John

[jepp2]

You didn't say the origin of his brass. Several 40's have a sizable portion of the chamber at the feed ramp that isn't supported. With the high pressure, the brass tends to bulge near the head. I always check my resized 40's in a cartridge gauge to make sure I have removed any bulge.

Do you have access to a gauge? You can also remove the barrel from the pistol and use it. I load for various 40's, so I want my loads to fit them all. Redding makes a die specifically designed to pass the brass through to remove any bulge present.

That is where I would start.

[Steviewonder1]

I use a chamber check guage on all of my bullets I reload. With the .40 reload the Glock factory barrel will bulge the brass a bit and it may not re-size properly in some presses. I got a GR-X die from Redding which is a push thru die that will full length size the .40 brass. I run a thousand thru at a time prior to reloading them. Almost all will chamber check after reloading. The one or two that don't have other issues not corrected by full length re-sizing. An aftermarket barrel can fix that situation. I use one in my G-35 and have no bulge issues.

[Doby45]

Your a Glock Armorer and you make a blanket statement like that? Not ALL factory Glock 40 barrels will bulge brass like that. The older 1st Gens can and will but from 2nd Gen and forward it is a non issue.

So from the top:

IF you get bulged brass it COULD be from a 1st Gen Glock 40 or ANY other model of 40cal handgun with a slightly unsupported chamber. Like my H&K USP40.

PS: If your friend has the FCD just tell him to take the guts out of it and push his brass through the die. You don't have to have some special "Gut Buster" or "competition this or that" die. That will fix any of that possible 1st Gen Glocked brass.

[Don P]

When decapping and sizing you have to make sure you run the case all the way to the top that should cure any bulged cases.

[Doby45]

G23 barrel on left, Storm Lake barrel on right

[bullspotter]

First thing i would check is the die, make sure its touching the shell holder while sizing, some loaders will adjust the die down to touch without a case, then assume its good, but then when you size it, their may be some press flex, and the shell holder and the die wont be touching, need to move the die down a tad more if this is the case. I would also chamber check a few brass after sizing only, dont flair. I would think that for a stock glock to not chamber a round, that rounds got to have a pretty good bulge in it as the factory BBLS are alot bigger then some of the aftermarket ones ive seen. I have a gen 3 40 with a lone wolf barrel in it, the support looks the same, but its about 6 thousanths tighter then the factory, ALL my brass is range pickup, loaded with rcbs dies, and i have never had an oversized round, Ive ran about 7K rounds of reloads though the gun.

[scsov509]

Can you suggest another possible cause?

Check the crimp on the completed cartridge. Too little and the flare won't get removed which won't allow the round to drop freely into the chamber, too much and you can develop headspace problems or even loose neck tension and start experiencing setback. Either of the two could cause feeding problems and can be checked by placing a completed round in the barrel you intend to use to make sure it is dropping freely and headspacing correctly.

[jells]

Thanks to all for the suggestions.

The die set up for all operations will be checked, the dies are in a breech lock type holder from Lee. It may be creeping up.

Can the current round be resized without buying a new "something" or disassembling the round and will the procedure be safe ? We'll check the current inventory with the .40 barrel. I also have a micrometer and we'll check the case dimention at the base above the extractor.

Thanks again
John

[katana8869]

Did your friend's Glock have an aftermarket barrel in it? If so, was it a Lone Wolf brand barrel? The reason that I ask is that my .40 reloads are made to spec, work fine in my Glock 23, Glock 27, XD40 and XD40sc, but when I fire them through glocks while using my Lone Wolf barrel about 1-2 failures to feed per 50 in the manner that you described.

Lone Wolf barrels are TIGHT in the chamber. Too tight IMO. I am planning on sending the barrel back to Lone Wolf and asking them to ream the chamber a bit. Do a search on Lone Wolf and you will see that this condition is not uncommon for them.

[jells]

First, it is the original barrel.

I did find the problem. I took the barrel out of the gun and used it as a gage. A factory round seated at the extractor ring. The reloaded was tall. I micked the round and found it replicated the factory round until I got to the crimp. It was minimal, you could still see the flare. We'll reset the bullet seating die to add more of a crimp. I don't recall if he has a factory crimp die, but we'll get it fixed.

Thanks to all for the help.

John