Having problems loading 38 special full wadcutters...

[Lambchop]

I am having some problems loading 38 special with 148 grain hollow base wadcutters. I have a set of rcbs carbide dies that I bought used at a gun show, they worked fine until I messed with them one day. The problem I am having is the finnished rounds wont chamber. Also there is what looks liek a buldge right below the top of the case. I was just on the rcbs sight re-reading the instructions and setting up the dies like they say and now it seems that the brass is not crimped enough. Please help!

Sorry, I forgot to add that I am using a rcbs rock chucker press.

[-hanko]

I am having some problems loading 38 special with 148 grain hollow base wadcutters. I have a set of rcbs carbide dies that I bought used at a gun show, they worked fine until I messed with them one day. The problem I am having is the finnished rounds wont chamber. Also there is what looks liek a buldge right below the top of the case. I was just on the rcbs sight re-reading the instructions and setting up the dies like they say and now it seems that the brass is not crimped enough. Please help!

What did you do when you "messed with them one day"??

How far do the finished rounds go into the cylinder before they get too tight to chamber.??

Bulge just below the top of the case should be the bottom of the bullet, put an unloaded bullet next to a loaded case & check it out.

Some suggestions...Follow rcbs' instructions on setting up the sizing die.

Set the expander die to the minimum depth necessary to allow you to start a bullet in the cartridge without shaving lead when the bullet is seated.

Seat and crimp in separate operations; takes twice as long but gives you better control of both seating depth and crimp depth.

One of the few good products Lee makes is what they call a Factory Crimp Die, it will both crimp the bullet in place and resize the loaded case. You can resize shells that need more crimp, no big deal.

-hanko

[Lambchop]

If the case mouths are flared too much could this be the problem? The completed rounds go 1/8" or less into the chamber. I will take some pics to hopefully help.

[Lambchop]

Maybe this will help....

[Mr. Beretta]

Lambchop

Check this out. This guy taught me everything I needed to know about reloading 38's. Good Luck!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98I1i8Toj8E

[PLINK]

I was running into the same issue with .40 S&W (bear creek bullets) and a Glock 35. I found that I was belling the case way too much (may or may not have cause my issue but I corrected it anyway). I beleive I was getting some crimping of the case in the seating die. I use the Lee FCD. The rounds would chamber cycling the gun but would not hand chamber without force. The rounds would pass the Dillon case gauge though. Keep in mind that the Glock chamber is very loose and this should not be happening. I beleive that I was not crimping enough. Now that I have this resolved I hope my random keyholing will go away.

I am using a Dillon 550.

[yoteassasin]

what is happening is your seat and crimp die is crimping before you are done seating so it is pushing the case and creating that bulge back off your seat/crimp die and bring down the seater to get the case out of the crimp area but still seat to proper depth also you can probably fix those cases by taking the decaping pin out of your sizer and sizing the loaded rounds

[Lambchop]

Thank you all so much!!! It turns out I was flaring the cases way too much and my dies were adjusted wrong.

[tzahoy]

Looks like you've gopt things figured out. I thought I'd post my unsolicited experience for your benefit, as I've learned a lot about these loading them for my S&W 52. This is not easy information to find, but very valuable! Hopefully this helps.

HBWC's are a finicky thing to reload. They are actually made to go into match brass which is very difficult to find now. Modern 38 brass has a short section of uniform wall thickness at the top of the case, and the wall thickness increases as you get closer to the base. The match brass has a uniform wall thickness further down the case. Your expander die is designed for shorter bullets, so it only goes partway into the case and when you seat the bullet the case actually squeezes the hollow base slightly. This is a killer. It allows the hot propellant to leak around the bullet and doesn't let the pressure expand the hollow base to seal the bullet against the bore properly. The result can be leading even at low velocities. There is a fix though!

RCBS makes a special expander for HBWCs. It is longer and expands the case the full length of the bullet, so the case doesn't squeeze the base of the bullet. I had to turn the diameter down slightly to work properly with the bullets I was using, but I'm having great success with these now, and no more leading!

Trim your cases to uniform length and seat the bullet about .010"-.015" below the case mouth and use a healthy roll crimp for uniform ignition. If you don't have a good crimp you will see a large velocity spread, and even feel differences in recoil from one round to the next, and accuracy will suffer. I assume you are using these because they are very accurate, follow these steps and I think you'll find an improvement in your accuracy.