Bullets will not chamber in .40 s&w

[mookiie]

I was testing out my first batch of 40 s&w and had some issues. The first round chambered and fired normally, however the gun would not close on the second round. The rounds seem to go 2/3 to 3/4 the way in and just stop. Not sure what is causing this issue? Thanks!

[Dusty Bannister]

Remove the barrel and clean and check it for debris from the first round. Then try dropping each of the remaining test loads into the barrel chamber when held vertical. "Plunk test", and if they do not drop freely and fully chamber, make an inspection of the rounds to see why. Let the forum know what your investigation finds.

OK, you mentioned "had some issues", what else?

[AggieEE]

Was the case fired in a glock? It is sounding like the base was not sized enough. Lee has a buldge buster that works well. Another thing to check is how much crimp you put on the case. Too little and the belling isn't removed and too much and you can buldge just below the crimp line. BTW if it is a glock problem the buldge buster will work on loaded ammo. I don't know it it will make the bullet too small or not I learned the hard way to run brass through the buster first. Final thought, what size are you sizing your bullets to? Much over .401 and you may have changering problems also. Let us know what you find out.

[Ed_Shot]

What boolit are you using and what OAL are you loading to? What weapon are you using? How much crimp are you using?

[mookiie]

Was the case fired in a glock? It is sounding like the base was not sized enough. Lee has a buldge buster that works well. Another thing to check is how much crimp you put on the case. Too little and the belling isn't removed and too much and you can buldge just below the crimp line. BTW if it is a glock problem the buldge buster will work on loaded ammo.


Aggie I think you hit it on the head with this reply. I do not own a glock, however I bought the brass used from a gentleman that has a contract with a police range, so they very well were fired from glocks! I ordered the bulge buster, hopefully that will correct the issue. I sized to .401

[Ed_Shot]

You can check you sized and unprimed brass buy using your chamber as a chamber gauge. If the sized/deprimed empty brass won't fall into your chamber then you need the bulge buster. If your sized brass fits your chamber then there is another issue.

[WILCO]

What boolit are you using and what OAL are you loading to? What weapon are you using? How much crimp are you using?

Basic questions. Great place to start. Do you have a manual Mookiie?

[dakotashooter2]

Sometimes the bulge is enough to effect how they feed from the mag even though they may have enough clearance in the chamber. Once I ran mine through the bulge buster my problems went away.

[mookiie]

Basic questions. Great place to start. Do you have a manual Mookiie?

Yes of course.

[500MAG]

Get yourself a headspace guage. I routinely check every 15 to 20 rounds while loading.

[Oreo]

Are these the first lead bullets you've used in this gun? Lead bullets are larger in diameter then jacketed and as such if the chamber is a little tight lead rounds won't drop in all the way freely. This is a typical problem with lone wolf brand barrels.

[mookiie]

What boolit are you using and what OAL are you loading to? What weapon are you using? How much crimp are you using?

Bullet is Lyman 401638 175grn. OAL is 1.20. My firearm is a "baby eagle" or Jericho 941. Crimp is firm but not heavy.

[mookiie]

Well looking at the bullets with the drop test it seems that they are being stopped or hung up by the bullet/case at the front of the chamber. It seems that they maybe need to be sized more than .401? or would a heavier crimp be the best option?

[mookiie]

Sized/unprimed brass slid in fine with no trouble.

[NSP64]

OAL may be too long and the bullet headspacing.
I load the rcbs 180 gr TC boolit and load the first drive band even with the case mouth.

[Ed_Shot]

What is the diameter of your loaded round at the case mouth?

[mookiie]

Right at the edge of the case reading .423

[Ed_Shot]

The Lyman 4th Ed. call for .423 but for the Lee 401-175-TC I had to go .421 and shorten the OAL by .01 to get them to fee in my LW 40 SW barrel. The Lyman manual calls for an OAL of 1.10 with their 401638. That doesn't mean that your weapon won't like an OAL of 1.20 but you might try dropping the OAL to 1.10 and trying a crimp of .422~.421.

[deltaenterprizes]

Did you taper crimp them?

[Oreo]

You may need to have your chamber reamed a little larger, or purchase an aftermarket barrel. Sounds like your ammo is assembled ok, the bbl is the problem.

[robpete]

I had this same problem with an older hi-power. It has a very tight throat and I had to seat a cone nose very deep for the weapon to function properly. I was concerned about excessive pressure and ultimately ended up going with a round nose design. Was easier to change the boolit than to modify the gun.........

[popper]

Seat deeper until they chamber fully. Use the bbl to check. Make sure no lead shavings are at the mouth.

[ku4hx]

Was the case fired in a glock?
With the exception of a couple hundred rounds, all my 40 S&W have been fired in Glocks: model 22, model 23 and model 27. Those three guns have each digested several thousand rounds and not a single case was ever a problem even after several firings. I suppose maybe a hundred of them were max or nearly so. But even then, no problems and some of my cases were acquired in the last century.

Not all sizing dies are equal, that's a natural fact, but those I have (Lee, Hornady and one other I can't remember) all resize the case properly. By properly, I mean such that all rounds pass all "plunk" tests all the time every time. Don't automatically blame a whole population of guns because of one chambering problem. My overwhelming experience is more often that not, the reloader needs to adjust his protocols ... not to mention his dies.

Assuming you resize the case properly, you have to get cartridge OAL and neck diameter to where it needs to be. In that regard, Ed_Shot has some very sound advice. But, if all else fails ... try a different boolit.

[DukeInFlorida]

I have had a few S&W M&P 9mm guns where the chambers were tight. Even after I did everything otherwise correctly, the assembled rounds would not chamber. The fix was to use a Lee Factory Crimp die on the tapered pistol brass. The Lee die fixes the slight bulge that the installed bullet causes. And, the amount of the fixing is adjustable for any tight chamber.

If all else fails try the Lee Factory Crimp Die for .40 S&W.

[popper]

OP said sized brass chambers OK so cases have been sized all the way, no FCD needed. Really hard alloy can coke-bottle the brass and cause it to hang.

[RobsTV]

The Lyman 4th Ed. call for .423 but for the Lee 401-175-TC I had to go .421 and shorten the OAL by .01 to get them to fee in my LW 40 SW barrel. The Lyman manual calls for an OAL of 1.10 with their 401638. That doesn't mean that your weapon won't like an OAL of 1.20 but you might try dropping the OAL to 1.10 and trying a crimp of .422~.421.

After loading, pull some boolits to confirm how small they are getting to be.
Here the 40S&W brass seems to be about .012 thick, .024 total, subtracted from .421 leaves internal case size of .397. I must keep my seated 40's at .423 max to chamber in a S&W, and that still shrinks the soft lead down a tad.

[RobsTV]

Well looking at the bullets with the drop test it seems that they are being stopped or hung up by the bullet/case at the front of the chamber. It seems that they maybe need to be sized more than .401? or would a heavier crimp be the best option?

Use a sharpie on mouth and seated boolit to determine exactly where the contact is occurring. It is not uncommon to need to ream throats in some 40S&W pistols that shoot lead.

[mookiie]

OK sorry lost track of this thread, have four month old keeping me pretty busy. So I took the advice above of Ed_Shot and made 4 test rounds and seated the bullets to 1.10 OAL and crimped them to .420 at the rim. I also had to remove some lube that had caked up at the rim. It seemed to be sticking them up during the drop tests into the chamber. Anyway that all seems to have solved the issue. I was able to manually work the action to get them to chamber with very little force. I feel 100 percent confident these would cycle under recoil. Thanks for the help everyone!

[fredj338]

Make sure the OAL is correct. Some guns have min spec throats, XD is one, so that specific bullet may need just a little deeper seating. Of course you may have to adjust the powder charge. OAL is always gun & bullet specific, regardless of what the data says.

[mikeym1a]

Sometimes the bulge is enough to effect how they feed from the mag even though they may have enough clearance in the chamber. Once I ran mine through the bulge buster my problems went away.

Not trying to hijack the thread, but, If the case if full-length sized, doesn't that take away the 'bulge'? Or is there something here I don't know?:?:

[mookiie]

Not trying to hijack the thread, but, If the case if full-length sized, doesn't that take away the 'bulge'? Or is there something here I don't know?:?:

Look up glocked brass on Google images. You will see the bulge they are referring too.

[RobsTV]

... I also had to remove some lube that had caked up at the rim. It seemed to be sticking them up during the drop tests into the chamber. Anyway that all seems to have solved the issue....

40 S&W chambers and throats can have very little margin for gunk. If I shoot w231/HP38, I can only shoot about 10 boolits before they no longer chamber due to gunk (my technical term). But if I use WSF, or similar slower powders, then 100's of rounds can go through error free. If you are having issues with lube preventing boolit from chambering, you might also have issues with powder coming up.

[mookiie]

I am using unique, not usually an issue with jacketed bullets, but these are my first cast loads. I cannot say how it will work anyone else have experience with unique in 40 s&w.

[mookiie]

Make sure the OAL is correct. Some guns have min spec throats, XD is one, so that specific bullet may need just a little deeper seating. Of course you may have to adjust the powder charge. OAL is always gun & bullet specific, regardless of what the data says.

Well I do not think OAL was the issue the real hang point seemed to be that the crimp was too lose at .423. I just wanted to be on the safe side and shorten the OAL to make sure that did not have anything to do with it either to not waste two trips to the range.

[mikeym1a]

Look up glocked brass on Google images. You will see the bulge they are referring too.
But, isn't full length resizing supposed to take care of that?

[Oreo]

Just be careful that the crimping isn't squeezing the boolit smaller. Keep a close eye out for leading till you're sure you're not getting any with the extra crimp.

[Ed_Shot]

But, isn't full length resizing supposed to take care of that?
I use only FREE range-pick-up brass for 40 SW and others. I have only found glocked-brass issues with 40 SW. I size/deprime and clean and then check each 40 SW in a Lyman chamber gauge because its tighter than my LW barrel chamber. I check the brass holding the case mouth and try shoving the rim end 2/3 way into the chamber gauge. Perhaps 15% fail this test. Those that fail the chamber gauge I try dropping into my barrel's chamber. Perhaps 2% to 3% fail to chamber and I trash them. The others that failed the chamber gauge I run thru the Lee Bulge Buster.

[jonp]

Early xp's can be a bear to get to feed lead boolits and you may have to switch types to get it to work. I had to seat some of them deeper and switch powders to get them to work. You have the best gauge right in your hands. Take the barrel out of your gun, get a bullet puller and make some dummy rounds up and plunk test them.

[brown bass hunter]

Simply put "Glock fired brass"....i sort before sizing. firing pin looks like a bowtie compared to others.

[Iron Mike Golf]

Simply put "Glock fired brass"....i sort before sizing. firing pin looks like a bowtie compared to others.

Nope. I have a 941 and it has a tight chamber. I shoot .402's and some case have a thick enough wall that the .402 expands the forward portion of the case to be too big for the chamber. More taper crimp or judicious use of the Lee FCD (just the forward 1/8 inch or so) is likely what's needed.

[Iron Mike Golf]

Simply put "Glock fired brass"....i sort before sizing. firing pin looks like a bowtie compared to others.

Nope. I have a 941 and it has a tight chamber. I use the Bulge Buster on brass and what the OP says still happens. The brass passes plunk test until a .402 is seated. I shoot .402's and some case have a thick enough wall that the .402 expands the forward portion of the case to be too big for the chamber. More taper crimp or judicious use of the Lee FCD (just the forward 1/8 inch or so) is likely what's needed.

[MCochenet]

Hey there,
I reload .40 S&W for my Beretta 96a1. I had the exact same problem. My cast bullet was .401 and EVERY measurement(OAL,bullet width and case width with bullet seated) matched the Lyman reloading book. reloading into a nickel plated case chambered perfect, but the same bullet loaded into a brass case would not. I measured and measured each case and compared it to a factory bullet...I do have to use the bulge buster from lee on about 50% of my brass. I check every case in a case gauge. the empty case passes the barrel plunk test empty but once a bullet is seated/crimped that is when it will only go in about half way before it stops. My solution, I ran the case WITH the bullet seated through the bulge buster die once loaded and BINGO the bullet chambers and ejects perfectly. This seems like a super easy thing to figure out but it took me a while eliminating every possible thing that could have been wrong. I am relatively new to reloading (reloading since 2012) but I have mocked up about 12 dummy rounds using the extra step of sending the bullet through the bulge buster at the end seems to have worked. Im not sure if you have figured out this problem since you posted but I figured I would give my side of the story having the same problem.