My .40's don't fit well into a Lone Wolf barrel

[ghh3rd]

I reloaded 50 of my first .40 cal. that I cast in my Lee 90431 175gr TL. mold.

I ordered a Lone Wolf barrel in order to use them in my Glock. My barrel hasn't arrived yet, but I just experimented with my friend's Lone Wolf.

I slid each round (50 of them) into the new barrel and was surprised at two things:

1. About 1/16" more of the case protrudes from the chamber than they do in the factory Glock barrel, even though the over all length of the rounds are the same as commercial round that I copied.

2. About 1/5 of the rounds bind and only fit about 2/3 of the way into the chamber of the Lone Wolf barrel.

Not surprisingly, all of the rounds slide in and out of the Glock barrel easily (and completely).

Any tips will be greatly appreciated.

Randy

[mooman76]

I had problems with mine too. The Wolf chamber is tighter so you may have to size the bullets some. Mine fit when sized to 401 but whould not shoot as cast and I kep having jams.

[ghh3rd]

mooman - do your fit all of the way into chamber -- mine stop at about 1/16" from being inserted as far as they go into the Glock chamber.

[jhrosier]

Guys,
Cases fired in a Glock get a bulge near the rim from the oversized and unsupported Glock chamber.
The bulge is too close to the rim to be resized with a normal sizing die.
Find some brass fired in any gun other than a Glock and you will be good to go.

Jack

[exile]

This will not help now, and maybe will not be welcome, but I have a Jarvis barrel, a Storm Lake barrel, (both nines) and a factory Glock barrel in .357 Sig. In each case, I put my first rounds into the barrel before I load a batch to make sure they will fit. The Jarvis barrel is MUCH tighter than a factory Glock barrel, the Storm Lake somewhat tighter, and the 357 Sig just a finicky cartridge to begin with. Doing this, however, I have had no problems. Come to think of it, I do the same with my revolvers and factory Glock barrels. So, my advice, (too late) would be to check your first few rounds in the firearm you plan to load them in before you load a batch. Each firearm and each barrel (particularly after-market barrels) are different, so this helps alleviate problems. Sort of shutting the barn door after the cows are out, but that is what I do. Good luck.

exile

[exile]

Jhrosler, I have found that to be the case with .40 S & W, but not with 9 mm. or .357 Sig. I hear it is also true of .45 ACP and 10 mm. though. I think the chamber is more supported on factory Glock barrels in nine and .357 Sig than .40 S & W but that is just my experience.

exile

[sleeper1428]

I reloaded 50 of my first .40 cal. that I cast in my Lee 90431 175gr TL. mold.

I ordered a Lone Wolf barrel in order to use them in my Glock. My barrel hasn't arrived yet, but I just experimented with my friend's Lone Wolf.

I slid each round (50 of them) into the new barrel and was surprised at two things:

1. About 1/16" more of the case protrudes from the chamber than they do in the factory Glock barrel, even though the over all length of the rounds are the same as commercial round that I copied.

2. About 1/5 of the rounds bind and only fit about 2/3 of the way into the chamber of the Lone Wolf barrel.

Not surprisingly, all of the rounds slide in and out of the Glock barrel easily (and completely).

Any tips will be greatly appreciated.

Randy

My first question in attempting to figure out the problem would be to ask if you are using new or previously fired cases. My guess is that you're using previously fired cases and that the previous loads were hot enough to have expanded the cases all the way down, beyond the point where your sizing die is capable of reaching (depending on your die manufacturer, approximately the last 1/16 to 1/8 inch). As you've discovered, LW barrels are cut to much tighter specs and this means you'll have to resize many of your cases all the way down in order for them to chamber properly. I've put LW barrels in both my Glock 20 (10mm) and Glock 22 (40S&W) and while I haven't had a problem with any of my 40S&W brass fitting into the new barrel, I did run into this problem with many of my 10mm cases. Somewhere in one of these discussion groups is a link to a description, complete with photos, of how to take care of this problem. What it basically involves is mounting a Lee Carbide Factory Crimp die with the sleeve and adjusting shaft removed and then using a 'pusher', in this case one taken from a Lee boolit sizing set, to push each case through the carbide die from the bottom to the top of the die. Not having the necessary 'pusher' available, I just turned a piece of cold rolled to the appropriate shape and size and although this system was described using the 40S&W as an example, I did the same thing with my overexpanded 10mm cases and it worked like a charm. Do a search on sizing 40S&W cases and you'll probably turn up that reference.

As far as the second group that you had trouble with, my guess is that they are simply overexpanded even more than your other cases, probably due to even 'hotter' loads being used in the more generously cut Glock barrel. Again, these cases will likely need to be full length resized as described above before they will fit the LW chamber.

I'll see if I can come up with that link and if/when I find it, I'll post it here.

sleeper1428

---------

Okay, here's the site I described above:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-PszuLwEu8


Hope this helps ...

sleeper1428

[ghh3rd]

Excellent information sleeper - greatly appreciated (and everyone else as well). If a picture is worth a thousand words, that video is worth a million. I'm trying to figure out what that 'pusher' rod is from that he is using as I would certainly like to try that method out.

Regarding my problem #1 -- since the cases on these extend out of the chamber so uniformly (about 1/16" for all of them), I wonder if the boolit is actually touching the forcing cone (if that is what the ridge inside of the chamber is called). Perhaps I could push one boolit in a little more (3/32") and see if the case slides the rest of the way in. However, this would make the round about 3/32" shorter than the commercial round that I copied the length from. I wonder if that would cause feed problems.

By the way, I found a thread on another forum http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-268022.html that mentions using a Max. Cartridge Gauge to see if a case will fit into chamber, which looks just like the guage in the video link you provided.

Randy

[StarMetal]

How about sizing a case and trying that in the chamber with no primer, powder, bullet in it. Should have been done first. Then size the rest of them if it fit well. Next, like the other poster said, load just one and try it. This is pretty elementary stuff and you never assume anything when reloading.

Personally if I had any case that expanded past or into the web area where a sizing die can't size it I wouldn't want to use it anymore because it's weakened and the 40 S&W is a pretty high pressure round.

Joe

[ghh3rd]

never assume anything when reloading.
I am learning that...

I was thinking of doing the same thing with a 9mm barrel for my Glock .40 cal. Do the 9mm have the same problem with bulging due to the unsupported Glock chamber?

Randy

[HeavyMetal]

That Pusher rod is probabley from a Lee sizer set up!

I didn't have one but turned some 3/4 inch stock on my lathe to make a rod that works great!

Pushed about 100 rounds throuh a 40 FCD with a little Imperial sizing die wax and the went right through just like the video! Be sure your press is secured! Lots of grunt going on here!

I saw my press flex a little so refastened it with a second c clamp!

[sleeper1428]

That Pusher rod is probabley from a Lee sizer set up!

I didn't have one but turned some 3/4 inch stock on my lathe to make a rod that works great!

Pushed about 100 rounds throuh a 40 FCD with a little Imperial sizing die wax and the went right through just like the video! Be sure your press is secured! Lots of grunt going on here!

I saw my press flex a little so refastened it with a second c clamp!

The 'pusher' rod is indeed from a Lee sizer set up. But as I mentioned in my reply, I didn't happen to have one of those items so just like you, I just chucked up a piece of cold rolled in my lathe and turned myself a 'pusher' rod that worked just fine. And you're sure right when you say that a lot of 'grunt' is involved when doing this sort of sizing. My little back up Lee Challenger just grunted and groaned while attempting to do the sizing without lubricant but with a squirt of Dillon case lube, they went through without an excessive amount of force.

I do have to agree with the gentleman who said that he'd be wary of any case that required that sort of sizing so close to the head of the case. That's why I still segregate those cases and make sure that they are used only for minimum power reloads. But since I'll be using them in my LW barrel rather than the stock Glock, I do feel that the added support and tighter dimensions will help to limit any further overexpansion of these cases.

sleeper1428

[arcticbreeze]

ghh3rd,

I had the exact same problem in 40 when I went to a LW barrel. I found I had more than one problem. I took a few loaded rounds and completely colored them with a Sharpe marker and then tried to chamber them in the barrel (with it not in the gun). What I found was some of them were touching the rifling so I corrected that by going to a slightly shorter OAL. Then I still had the problem with about 1 out of 10 so I did the maker thing again with those rounds and found that every case I had shot out of the original Glock barrel had the bulge/ring around the bottom. Once I discarded those. I would still have problem but not as often. I finally did the right thing and slugged my barrel just to be sure and yep, .401. Then upon closer inspection of my sized boolits they were coming out of the .401 sizer at .403. After sending it back twice I gave up and bought a .400 sizer die. Then they came out at .401 -.4015 and now I have 100 percent reliability even pushing the OAL out where it originally was.

Hope this helps some

Marc

[cbr]

I have been there done that. I contacted Lone Wolf, they said send it back with a couple dummy rounds. I sent it back to them, they opened up the area right in front of the chamber to fit my rounds. Works great now, and it only cost me the shipping to them. Contact them and I bet they can help you out, they were great to me.

[ghh3rd]

I fired the 42 rounds that did fit the LW barrel after seating them a bit deeper. I had feed/eject problems about every 4th round.

I ordered Max cartridge guage to check each case in the future, and a digital caliper so I can understand exactly what changes I'm making to OAL and so I can slug the barrel and see what size boolits my mold is actually dropping.

I'll be trying the technique described to push each case completly through the sizer to "de Glock" any cases that need it -- I imagine that will be a one-time process for each "Glocked" case.

I guess it would have been pure luck if I didn't have to do some tweaking to get it all together and have smooth feeding boolits.

Having fun, and learning more every time I come back to this forum.

Thanks everyone!

Randy

[truckmsl]

Ditto for me. I beagle and size mine to .402 and had the same problem. Lone Wolf opened it up a tad, problem fixed. Accuracy unaffected and quick turn around time. Cheers for Lone Wolf!



I have been there done that. I contacted Lone Wolf, they said send it back with a couple dummy rounds. I sent it back to them, they opened up the area right in front of the chamber to fit my rounds. Works great now, and it only cost me the shipping to them. Contact them and I bet they can help you out, they were great to me.

[ku4hx]

First post here guys after lurking for a while. I've been a reloader and caster for over forty years and now that I'm retired, I plan to have to do a lot more of both.

As to the Lone Wolf barrel. Call then and ask to speak to Dan (armorer) and explain to him what your problem is. I did that and before I could finish, he finished for me and described my problem precisely. His offer to me was to reduce the angle where the feed ramp meets the chamber, polish the chamber, and test fire after the work was done. Cost: $0.00. I did have to pay shipping to them but that was slight.

That was a 10mm Glock 20 LW barrel and I'm having the problem all over with a Glock 23 LW barrel. From my experience, I believe Dan's fix will work.

One thing I believe to be very important is to hold case diameter to .421" with .401" cast bullets in both calibers. Overall length will depend on the bullet being used, but Lone Wolf does recommend a slightly short round than what you might call normal.

Anyway, great site guys and it's so nice to find so many people who enjoy my kind of obsession.

Btw ... ku4hx is my ham radio call sigh, name is David.