Please help with 40sw loading problem

[BajaJames83]

What is your OAL?
It does look a little long.
Also looks like you may need a little more case bell as you might be shaving the plating off the bullet as you are seating it which would cause the problems you are having.

[noylj]

Per Ramshot:
"SPECIAL NOTE ON CARTRIDGE OVERALL LENGTH “COL”
It is important to note that the SAAMI “COL” values are for the firearms and ammunition manufacturers industry and must be seen as a guideline only.
The individual reloader is free to adjust this dimension to suit their particular firearm-component-weapon combination.
This parameter is determined by various dimensions such as
1) magazine length (space),
2) freebore-lead dimensions of the barrel,
3) ogive or profile of the projectile and
4) position of cannelure or crimp groove.
• Always begin loading at the minimum ‘Start Load.’"

Your COL (OAL) is determined by your barrel (chamber and throat dimensions) and your gun (feed ramp) and your magazine (COL that fits magazine and when the magazine lips release the round for feeding) and the PARTICULAR bullet you are using. What worked in a pressure barrel or the lab's gun or in my gun has very little to do with what will work best in your gun.
Take the barrel out of the gun. Create two inert dummy rounds (no powder or primer) at max COL and remove enough case mouth flare for rounds to chamber (you can achieve this by using a sized case—expand-and-flare it, and remove the flare just until the case "plunks" in the barrel).
Drop the inert rounds in and decrease the COL until they chamber completely. This will be your "max" effective COL. I prefer to have the case head flush with the barrel hood. After this, place the inert rounds in the magazine and be sure they fit the magazine and feed and chamber.
You can also do this for any chambering problems you have. Remove the barrel and drop rounds in until you find one that won't chamber. Take that round and "paint" the bullet and case black with Magic Marker or other marker. Drop round in barrel (or gage) and rotate it back-and-forth.
Remove and inspect the round:
1) scratches on bullet--COL is too long
2) scratches on edge of the case mouth--insufficient crimp
3) scratches just below the case mouth--too much crimp, you're crushing the case
4) scratches on case at base of bullet--bullet seated crooked due to insufficient case expansion (not case mouth flare) or improper seating stem fit
5) scratches on case just above extractor groove--case bulge not removed during sizing. May need a bulge buster.

After seating in a blank (inert) case, pull bullet and inspect for damage and change in diameter and correct things.

[NeilMo]

^^^
He doesn't need a separate roll crimp/FCD die if he will take the time to properly adjust his current die. And .010" is prolly not enuff on reduction of OAL from his pics.

But...thankyou Captain Obvious for chiming in!

Lighten up Francis. .010" is probably a good place to start and see if it's enough.

[pacmule]

[Sharkman1959]

You've already got a number of excellent responses here.

I reloaded 40 SW for quite a long time and used .401 plated bullets most often. I found that I needed to use an expander and I also got into the habit of using both a seating die and also a crimping die separately. It took care of almost all of my issues.

I check my cases carefully and I tend to toss anything that is even close to questionable. I use Lee dies and RCBS dies and I have very good performance from my reloads.

Good luck!

[sofbak]

Lighten up Francis. .010" is probably a good place to start and see if it's enough.

Sorry Alice. I thought u were tuff enuff to take it.

Guess not.

[richken]

I had the same problem when I started loading 40sw. Not saying the other responses are wrong but for me it was the case bell that was causing the problem. I tried the other fixes. But nothing worked until I backed off the case mouth bell to the absolute minimum. Like magic they started to fall into the gauge. Some bullets are a little tighter than others but overall so much better. Start from almost zero belling to just a tiny bit. It will help.

[bruce381]

some brass wall is thicker by a thousands that with the 401 bullet makes a bulge longer length may get you away from thick part of brass.
I think it is federal in 45acl that sometimes does that, but if it plunks shoot it.

[ysr_racer]

Hard anyone suggested the crimp die yet?

[bruce381]

I had the same problem when I started loading 40sw. Not saying the other responses are wrong but for me it was the case bell that was causing the problem. I tried the other fixes. But nothing worked until I backed off the case mouth bell to the absolute minimum. Like magic they started to fall into the gauge. Some bullets are a little tighter than others but overall so much better. Start from almost zero belling to just a tiny bit. It will help.

try this first may work

[not-fishing]

Years ago while reloading for two of us shooting IDPA I started using two step bullet seat and factory crimp then test the loaded round with:



In all my calibers, 9, 38, 40, 45 and it ended my loading problems.

[tawadc95]

Do you own a good dial/digital caliper? Measurements can answer/prevent a myriad of reloading problems.

I have to disagree with your assessment of plunking ok, they aren't ok if the headspace is incorrect, even if they are falling out, plunking "ok" is what happens when everything is proper.
The fact that they fall out of the barrel's chamber would seem to indicate sizing being ok, calipers would take the guess out of that.

I tend to agree with others that it is the seat die set up improperly, my guesstimation is the die is adjusted to crimp to early and shaving the plating off, therefore a headspace problem is the result.

Calipers will allow you to measure case mouth o.d. without any guess work while adjusting the crimp phase of the process, after seating to proper OAL prior to any crimp.

One other quick idea, is it a roll crimp on the seat die? Some combo seat crimp
dies have roll crimps rather than taper crimp. I've never loaded .40 S&W so I'm not sure if that can be the case with a die for that cartridge?

[aguynamedbryan]

Hey everyone, I just wanted to follow up and give an update and say thanks for everyone's input and help on this. It's been way too hot to be reloading lately so I only got to the point where I think the problem is relatively solved, but I'll find out for sure once it's cooled off.

In the end, like many have said, my seating/taper crimp die was just not set up right. I started from scratch multiple times and finally got a relatively consistent, better result, than I had been getting. I'm not sure that the problem is completely solved, but I was getting a much better fit in the Wilson case gauge than I was before. I foresee a separate crimping die in my near future.

I also ended up buying a shock bottle hundo case gauge and used that to pass all but 18 rounds that I made - so that was a bit of a relief. I still need to go through and confirm my OAL is acceptable since others pointed out some seemed long (but that might have been due to photographing test rounds where I didn't focus so much on OAL... I don't remember).

Anyway, thanks again for everyone's help!