October 15, 2014, 10:57 AM | #1 |
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How could this be?
So one of my shooting buddies shows me a round of commercially remanufactured 9mm that "won't work" in her gun. Her XDM will not go into battery with it. I measure it and the length of the brass is.770!! Good thing it wouldn't chamber. This is supposed to be once fired and the case does look to be that but I wonder how a case this long ever got fired in the first place and how did it make it through the reman process? I can't imagine how the crimp die didn't bulge it and how the QC didn't catch it anyhow. Have any of you ever seen one like this? It was headstamped WIN 9mm LUGER just like millions of others so it's not a freak 38 super case. Glad she didn't beat on the slide and force it to chamber.
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October 16, 2014, 04:23 AM | #2 |
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I've not experienced it myself, but you aren't the first person to report on out of spec ammo not chambering.
Sometimes QA/QC just fails. Jimro
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October 16, 2014, 01:24 PM | #3 | |
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October 16, 2014, 04:52 PM | #4 |
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Hadn't thought of that. Thanks. As an aside I contacted the outfit that reloads the ammo and they could not have cared less-I offered to return it so they could see it and they blew me off. Maybe I'm expecting too much but thought they would be interested. Oh well. I will continue to happily load my own stuff.
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October 17, 2014, 04:07 AM | #5 |
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This is the kind of thing that gives reloaded ammunition a bad name. If care is not taken a lot of problems can and will arise. I will keep loading my own knowing that my ammo is better than factory, because of the care I take.
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October 17, 2014, 09:01 AM | #6 |
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I use to help a commercial reloader.
Range brass as one stated may have been fired from a gun not intended for that round (Moon Clips – pistol round in a rifle chamber) On pistol brass you don’t use small base sizing dies but standard full length dies. So it can happen but should only be an odd round in 100’s of rounds if not thousands of rounds. One thing to consider is dies do wear out and in a commercial reloading operation dies wear pretty fast. Their dies may have reached that point where they size fine for most guns but those with tight chambers just will not go all the way into battery. Any commercial reloader not concerned about a full box of ammo not chambering I would never buy their ammo again.
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October 17, 2014, 09:25 AM | #7 | |
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Then someone assumes the brass is once fired, measuring the length of a case does not require time, there is speed measuring in thousandths. It always happens like suddenly, without warning and all at once and no one saw it coming. F. Guffey |
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October 17, 2014, 11:03 AM | #8 |
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Guffey . . . I'm one of those guys that never trims his pistol brass as well and all I use is "range brass" . . . BUT . . . each casing is run through a FL sizing die and as it comes off the press, it goes in to a cartridge gauge before it goes in to a box. And, I do randomly check case length. So far, my trimming dies remain NIB in my die storage chest . . . just in case.
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October 17, 2014, 11:40 AM | #9 |
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Beats me.
I found an over length .45 ACP this summer, a finished round wouldn't gauge. I didn't trim it, I shot it in a gun loose enough to chamber it and discarded it. A Wilson cartridge gauge will eliminate such oddballs. |
October 18, 2014, 08:56 AM | #10 |
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October 18, 2014, 09:31 AM | #11 |
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.77 is about 19.5 mm.
Could be a .356 TSW What is the headstamp? |
October 18, 2014, 11:49 AM | #12 |
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That was my thought, too. Check the headstamp. A 9 mm Browning Long or some other variant on 9 mm could actually have shortened in a tapered or loose chamber and given that result. I also wondered if it might have originally been the hotter sub-gun ball load fired and stretched in a full-auto weapon.
Also, tolerances on outsourced ammo is sometimes just odd. I've run into .45 Auto cases with necks so thick than no bullet over 0.450" could be seated and still have it chamber in a match barrel. Anyway, if you tell us what the headstamp says, it may at least serve as a heads up for others loading range brass or once-fired brass.
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October 18, 2014, 11:55 AM | #13 |
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October 20, 2014, 09:00 AM | #14 | |
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quote from a quote:
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I got help with sorting, by the time we finished we had found three cases that were Berdan primed. After placing the cases in boxes we could not find the 3 Berdan primed cases. The rest of the cases were 30/30, 223, 38 Special+p and 10mm. No burs, no hanging chads. F. Guffey |
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October 20, 2014, 02:07 PM | #15 | |
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In that case it's likely just a straightforward manufacturing defect. I once bought a box of 1000 Winchester .223 cases and found two with no flash holes. It happens. It's one reason commercial ammo can have some kinds of problems a handloads don't. Machines spitting them out so fast, some errors get by that simple visual inspection catches.
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October 20, 2014, 06:00 PM | #16 |
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Interesting that the case was almost 20 thousands too long but the crimp die didn't bulge it. My shooter's XDM was about an eighth of an inch from going into battery. Oh well. I like my ammo better. More quality control.I shoot a lot,but have resisted the urge to go with a progressive press because my old RCBS Jr press setup gives me real top quality results. Thanks for the input folks.
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October 20, 2014, 11:50 PM | #17 | |
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