9mm reloaded round mistake?

[dehughes]

Hey all,

Got some reloaded 9mm from an acquaintance and noticed one round looked like this:



I'm guessing I probably shouldn't risk shooting this round, huh? I don't know too much about reloading, but this gave me pause...

[BigJimP]

No, do not shoot it....

The crack probably opened up as he was seating the bullet ..... although he should have probably found the small crack in that case before he loaded it.

If you were to shoot that round... / or try to load that round into a chamber...my hunch is, it would jam in the chamber prior to it firing or seating in the chamber...

Your buddy could have found that finished round with the crack ....if he had "case gauged" his finished rounds...it would not have passed thru a case gague ...so he could have rejected it.

Inspect the rest of the rounds..../ take the barrel out of your gun .... and drop each of the rounds in and out of the chamber of the barrel....they should "plunk" into the chamber...and when you turn the barrel upside down ..they should drop right out.....if they don't, then reject those rounds as well.

[JefferS]

I would agree that you should stay away from that one.

In fact, if your acquaintance missed this during the reloading process, I would seriously pause before shooting any rounds he gave you. How many cases are almost split?

Much of the reloading process is about quality control and (IMO) this should have never got by.

[BigJimP]

On my reloads.....

I clean and inspect cases....prior to running them thru the press.

On finished rounds...I case gague each finished round as I'm boxing them up. I reject maybe 2 or 3 rounds per 1,000.....with an occasional crack showing up in case ( especially nickel plated brass ) because it seems a little more brittle / or sometimes a small burr on the base of the case caused by extractors on some guns .......

( its part of the process for most of us ). Guys that do not case gague ....often have some feeding issues on their loads...

[serf 'rett]

Absolutely DO NOT attempt to shoot that round.

If you think the split is bad, just wait until you get set back of the bullet when it's chambered. Over pressure and a split case

[T. O'Heir]

One of the many reasons not to use other people's reloads. The guy pick up his brass from the range?
You know the entire world has your finger prints? snicker. You take a really good picture.

[BigJimP]

Return the round to your buddy ...and ask him what he thinks.../ see if his comments mirror our responses...( if he's too cavalier about it ...I wouldn't accept any more of his ammo either ..).

[kilimanjaro]

That round is not a mistake. It's the result of inattention, lack of quality control, and negligence. Your buddy is going to keep producing time bombs like that until he gets told to get his act together.

[dehughes]

Cool. Thanks guys. I got some rounds from him incidentally as part of a pistol trade, and never fired them. I'd considered using him for reloads as he does a lot of them, but I've always used factory ammo and never got around to shooting the 32 rounds he gave to me. I had my P239 out today and contemplated shooting these rounds but something told me to stop and take a look at these. Thank God for trusting one's intuition, huh. :-)

This was the only one that was split, and the rest looked fine. I'll probably just discard the rest...only 32 rounds and they didn't cost me anything, so I'd rather be safe than risk one of my SIGs.

Thanks again!!!

[Tony Z]

Question about gauging: I check my 9mm & .45 ACP after sizing, prior to priming (Lee auto hand primer), using Lyman headspace gauges. In reading this thread, should it be inferred that in the sequence of reloading, I should be checking after seating the bullets?

My question is more of curiosity than anything, particularly after reading an article in Aug. 14, "Handloader", titled "Case Trimming and Other Onerous Chores", alluding to many of these steps as almost superfluous for most of us. Opinions greatly appreciated and I have no compulsion to do away with checking brass length for my semi-autos, though I will listen to reasoned arguments to check after bullet seating.

Thanks!

T.

[Daffy]

Simply a lack of quality control with something that demands no mistakes. Very few folks that reload that i'd trust their ammo. After getting something like that from somebody I'd give it all back and stay away from them at the range.

On a side note the person that gave you that needs to know about it.

[polyphemus]

I'm guessing I probably shouldn't risk shooting this round, huh?

Good guess.
But the question here should be:Seeing as you had no trouble spotting this scrap reload,why didn't the re loader notice it?
Take this as a valuable lesson.

[MarkGlazer]

Tony Z... the answer to your question is "yes." Everyone has their own routine but you can't inspect your rounds enough times. Here is an example of my own process;

1. After returning home from the range, I sort and inspect every case.
2. Dirty brass goes into a bin where it will be deprimed, sized and expanded later on, then into a vibrating cleaner.
3. Cleaned brass gets inspected and then into another bin marked "ready to load" with the caliber on it.
4. When it comes time to load, I scoop out brass into a plastic container and inspect every case before moving it on to my bench for priming
5. Each round is loaded, inspected, then measured for OAL and dropped into another plastic holding container
6. Finally, each round is inspected one more time, plunk tested with the barrel then placed into box for a trip to the range.

I've only be loading for a year and a half and I have found defects at each stage of my process over time. Did I miss a bad round on step one or did I create one during the process? I don't know, can never be 100% certain. The only thing I can be is overly cautious. (a slight sense of paranoia doesn't hurt either .... but that's a different thread)

Be safe. Good luck.

[polyphemus]

though I will listen to reasoned arguments to check after bullet seating

A picture is worth a thousand arguments,it would be fair to assume that a simple
visual would have prevented OP's defective round from leaving the reloader's bench.Not checking your work is negligent.

[GJSchulze]

Tony Z., check your finished rounds with a case gauge. There is nothing to be gained by doing it before that. Seating the bullet can cause enough bulge that it won't fit. Usually the problem is a burr that can be rubbed off with 400 or 600 grit sandpaper or by placing the round in head first and giving it a spin. If you have a lot of such cases than you can get a Lee Factory Crimp die that will remove most slight bulges.

Most pistol reloaders only clean their cases and a few don't even do that. Nothing more is necessary for pistols. I've head that pistol brass gets longer, unlike rifle brass, so there is no need to check length other than as the last step with your case gauge.

Whenever anyone gives you advice about reloading you need to know if they are talking about rifle or pistol.

[nixpap]

Toss'em all. I wouldn't shoot anything he reloaded.

[33GURK]

Op

If you are thinking about reloading, pull the bullet and save it, then toss it.

If you are just asking the general question to shoot or not to shoot it, like everyone else said, toss it.

[Tony Z]

I'm not the OP, but posed a question about checking case length after reloading. I've been reloading since the late 70's and in the last couple of posts, I've seen enough reasons to change to checking case lengths after bullet seating.

I'm pretty fastidious about my practices, including being very anal about inspecting visuals pretty closely upon completion. This will be a change of where in my sequence something happens. Thanks one and all to those who commented to my post.

On another note, I learned a long time ago to not "share" reloads. Very early in my hobby, my now deceased father and I were both at hunting camp with our .270's. He forgot his ammo and asked to try mine. I gave him a few rounds of my handloads. I was shooting a Model 700 BDL and he had a pre-64 Model 70 (now in my cabinet). My loaded rounds that worked fine in my rifle wouldn't even permit the bolt to close on his rifle. We never went any further with the trial, simply finding a store that had factory ammo for him. In the same era, I shot a lot of trap and loaded my own 12 ga. It started slowly, but increased rapidly, that I was asked by other shooters for boxes of shells. that ended after a few weeks, as I wasn't getting hulls back and the cost of powder, wads, shot, primers I was giving away each week would have bought my multiple boxes of new AA trap loads.

If you're going to reload, do it for the guns you know and if for others, only on the dependent on you, mainly so you are very aware that what you do can harm them if you don't use the utmost care.

[skizzums]

obviously I would never shoot a round like that, but out of curiosity, what kind of risk would that pose in a revolver?

[polyphemus]

I've head that pistol brass gets longer, unlike rifle brass,

Doesn't sound right.

[mikld]

Well, you've already heard "Don't shoot it!" so I'm just gonna say inspection is absolutely necessary!. Some progressive press users will just dump cleaned brass into the hopper without much more than a glance at one or two cases and start pulling the handle (nope I'm not anti-progressive!). My reloading method differs (nope, not anti-progressive) and I inspect each piece of brass I process, and I have caught cases like the one pictured waaaay before the case is cleaned/reloaded (nope, I'm not anti-progressive). I have the time and I think if I were ever in too much of a hurry to inspect, I'd just buy factory ammo...

[mchapman]

Straight walled pistol brass doesn't grow usually, BUT bottlenecked rifle brass does. I have never had to trim my pistol brass even after reloading the case 10-15 times, but every third time reloaded I find I have to trim my rifle brass back down.

[snuffy]

I've head that pistol brass gets longer,no, it gets shorter! unlike rifle brass, so there is no need to check length other than as the last step with your case gauge.

When mentioning case gauges, you should be talking about this;

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/888...ProductFinding

If your ammo slips into and falls back out of one of those, then that ammo should work in any standard chambered pistol. Using [I]your[I] barrel as a case gauge means that your ammo should work in your gun, but may be too big/long for another pistol.

Some progressive press users will just dump cleaned brass into the hopper without much more than a glance at one or two cases and start pulling the handle (nope I'm not anti-progressive!).

Yes you are! I can load ammo for my 9, 40, 357 sig, and 45 with my 650 dillon that's just as good as anyone with a single stage, just a lot faster. I take a good look at every shell as I'm dropping them into the shell boxes bullet down, so I can check for a possible high primer or an occasional missing primer. I only have a case gauge for the 40's. Back when I was competing in IPSC I gauged every one.

That shell was likely cracked before it was loaded. A cracked case makes a different sound when poured in mass with other cases. The normal sounds of brass is a tinkling sound. A cracked case would make a dull sound. Listen to those cases. Use all your senses!

If that round was to be fired,(assuming it would chamber fully), it would allow hot gasses to escape against the chamber wall and most likely past the case head to the breach face. NOT a good thing!

[dehughes]

Thanks all. Yes, I'm going to toss it, along with the other rounds. And good idea about letting him know about the bad round. I'll have to find his info in my deleted emails....was a straight across pistol trade last year. Super nice guy...I probably found his one and only error. :-)

[mikld]

Yes you are! I can load ammo for my 9, 40, 357 sig, and 45 with my 650 dillon that's just as good as anyone with a single stage, just a lot faster. I take a good look at every shell as I'm dropping them into the shell boxes bullet down, so I can check for a possible high primer or an occasional missing primer.

Well Snuffy, NO I"M NOT. If you'll read my post you'll see that nowhere did I say progressive presses produce inferior ammo. I have reloaded mebbe a few thousand 45 ACP cartridges on a friend's Dillon (a couple guys were shooting competition) and for my needs a progressive is just too much.

But I did notice you say you only inspect your cases/ammo when it's done. How many times have you dropped a small primer 45 ACP case in your hopper and had it jam up the machine?