.40 caliber and Lee Bulge Buster

[opos]

Old man proceeding with caution..need some input.
I have been loading for a long time and still have all my digits, hearing and eyesight. I'm about to take the leap into .40 cal reloading and have a question or two...I've not shot nor reloaded for .40 and recently received a new 75b CZ in .40 cal. About the same time a man I've bought brass from many times advertised some police range 1x fired Winchester brass so I bought a thousand pieces..it's beautiful stuff but it's got the square "Glock" firing pin indentation and I notice some mild deformity near the head end of the brass....I got a feeling it's suffering some Glock deformity but I'd heard this was not an issue any longer and just to load reasonable loads with the right powders and no issues...I have a set of Lee dies I just got and ran several through to see how they looked...I don't have a Wilson gauge so I used the barrel of my CZ..After full length sizing he brass it is marginal as far as a decent fit in the barrel...some is dead on and some has a bit of a reluctance to drop in. The "deformity" I've mentioned looks like the sizer "ring" that I have gotten in the past from a sizing die not going all the way to the rim..but this stuff has not been through a sizing die as yet.

I have done some reading and some folks said to get a Lee Bulge Buster and run the brass after resizing and it should take care of the issues as long as the brass does not have obvious defects, etc...I have not ordered the bulge buster as Lee's written material says (in bold letters) if the brass has been fired from a Glock and has the bulge..that if you used their buster to straighten out the brass you stand a good chance of it blowing out...and they do not recommend it.

I know the .40 is high pressure but this brass is brass that looks wonderful to the eye..it does have some deformity (slight) near the head end but I've loaded and shot an awful lot of brass over the years that had much worse 'eyeball" and chamber fit than what this seems.

I don't like to go against what a manufacturer has to say but has anyone else had questions or experience along these lines? I know Lee had an issue with Federal Primers (I think it was) for years and it turned out to be some reason not involving danger...Again, I just don't have any prior experience with a .40 and I really want to reload for this CZ as my other CZ's (a 9mm and a 45cal)both love my reloads with pc lead projectiles. This is not "old brass"..it's from a current range session at a police range...and I do trust the brass supplier..these have been cleaned beautifully so I can really get a good look at the brass...no issues except as I've noted..no "smiles", no extractor nicks, no splits, cracks, etc...just nice clean once fired brass...but for sure a Glock firing pin mark and the little bit of deformity down low.

Appreciate any comments..
Thanks
opos

[308Jeff]

Here's my advice, based on my experience:

Go ahead and buy a case gauge. Run everything through the sizing die, and then check it in the gauge. If it doesn't plunk, toss it.

The Bulge Buster is essentially a gutted FCD, a push rod, and a cup to catch the brass in. I've made my own using my FCD and an NOE push rod. For me, and this is just my personal conclusion, 40 S&W brass is so cheap and plentiful that it's not worth the extra effort. You can pretty much sell the scrap brass for what you'd pay for more cases.

My very humble opinion...

[opos]

Here's my advice, based on my experience:

Go ahead and buy a case gauge. Run everything through the sizing die, and then check it in the gauge. If it doesn't plunk, toss it.

The Bulge Buster is essentially a gutted FCD, a push rod, and a cup to catch the brass in. I've made my own using my FCD and an NOE push rod. For me, and this is just my personal conclusion, 40 S&W brass is so cheap and plentiful that it's not worth the extra effort. You can pretty much sell the scrap brass for what you'd pay for more cases.

My very humble opinion...

Many thanks....I had sort of figured to do that but tried the "plunk test" in my CZ barrel rather than lay out $20 for the gauge (I only have the one .40 cal pistol).....but in reading Lee's caution about any formerly bulged brass being subject to failure even if "ironed out" with the bulge buster...it sort of spooked me...sounds like he's saying anything ever shot in a Glock or other large chamber dimension pistol should not be messed with..and I think lots of folks have loaded Glock fired brass (from the later model guns)...I get confused with advertising..

[country gent]

I agree with above but for a slightly different reason. Recovering brass that's been fired in a "large" or unsupported chamber with a bulge is 1) an extra step in the prep process. 2) puts added wear and tear on the press being used. I did this years ago in a homemade die when 40 brass wasn't as plentyfull or abundant. Depending on brass, the bulge, and press it can take some force to do this. The case gage is a good thing to have next is using the actual barrel disassembled from the pistol.
I would recommend measuring the case head with a set of mics and then some sized brass that's good and last if you have them some new factory unfired rounds where the problem is on the brass and compare the numbers. This will give you an idea how much you have to put back in place.

[Kevin Rohrer]

1. The .40 S&W is no more a "high pressure" round than the 9mm.
2. I put all sorts of once-fired brass thru my BHP w/o a problem after loading it using Dillon dies. I use Longshot, which requires full-power loads.

[Ole Joe Clarke]

I have loaded and shot a lot of .40 cal without problems from Glock "grins." I did have a few that had the grin, but I ran them through the regular sizer and loaded and shot them without a problem. They are not loaded to the max pressure levels though. My last operation is/was, (don't have a .40 any more), the plunk test on all tapered crimp pistol loads.

Just be careful and load a few test rounds, shoot and examine them after firing.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

[flashhole]

I use the Lee Bulge Buster on all my 40 S&W brass. Cheap insurance that everything will cycle through the gun w/o incidence.

[Mtn Biker]

I also run all my 40 and 10mm brass through the Lee BB. I start by visually inspecting for smileys and toss those. Everything else goes though the LBB. I then size and load normally.

VL

[Caliboose]

I don't know what those 'smileys' look like, but all 40 cal goes through the Lee bulge buster even if it was from my own Sig before sizing. If it resists the BB, I trash it.

[fcvan]

All of my once fired brass was shot through a Glock. The twice, thrice, etc. as I own a couple of Glocks. Granted, my reloads are not barn burners. Plunk test. If when sizing it seems resistant more than others, in the scrap brass bucket. Eventually I will run it through a forge and make my wife a nice buckle.

[Gtrubicon]

I use my lee factory crimp die, with the guts removed. I made an extended push rod with a piece of round brass stock that is tightly fit in a 357 case. I insert the 40 brass, mouth first over the brass and run it through the die upside down. It cleans up my glock fired brass nicely. I usually load 2 or 3 times before I toss em. I only load them for target loads. I f I’m concerned I will plunck test them in the barrel or a Wilson case gauge.

[sparkyv]

1. The .40 S&W is no more a "high pressure" round than the 9mm.
2. I put all sorts of once-fired brass thru my BHP w/o a problem after loading it using Dillon dies. I use Longshot, which requires full-power loads.

What he said, but I use 40SW Lee dies and use a cartridge gauge on every round I load. Bulge Buster for the few gauge no-gos. Yes, I Bulge Bust on loaded rounds. Lee used to state that was OK on the instruction sheet, but no longer do. Probably the lawyers removed it. Never had an issue in my Brn Hi Power or CZ P09 in four years of hand loading. I toss cases with pronounced "smiles", significant extractor nicks, splits, cracks, etc., but I don't get many of these.

[Lloyd Smale]

i run all once fired brass I buy through a bulge buster. I figure a lot of it is hot factory stuff. When I reload it I don't push it to get the last fps so it usually doenst need to be repeated.

[W.R.Buchanan]

De-bulging is a case prep operation that is, in my opinion, necessary for any brass you didn't shoot your self. This is also a round that requires extra care when loading and you should inspect every case for signs of weakness or to weed out any bad head stamped cases. The bad ones are still out there.

This makes the brass into something that you know the status of.

OF all pistol rounds the .40 S&W is the most critical to load and should be treated as such. Attention to Detail is key here. Hot rodding this round is asking for trouble and is down right dumb. All your Reloaded ammo should be considered practice ammo and loaded that way. If you actually need some hot ammo for defensive purposes go buy some new Factory PD Ammo, it ain't that expensive and you aren't going to shoot that much of it anyway.

.40S&W brass made now is not going to have the problems that brass from 15 years ago had. All brass manufacturers have increased the height of the web of the case so that the areas prone to blow out are reinforced to the point that they are strong enough to not fail in looser chambers. Even 1st Gen Glocks.

Got news for all of you who think that Glock chambers are the only ones that have unsupported areas. My CZ40P had a chamber that was bigger than my G35 and had the feed ramp entering the chamber farther forward than the Glock as well.

Pretty much all recent Kabooms can be attributed to hot reloads and subsequent case failures of those rounds.

Glock revised their chambers with the Gen 2 guns so they aren't the problem. They are no larger than anyone else's chambers, They are to SAAMI Spec.

The problem with Kabooms was largely attributed to early Federal Cases marked "FC" and "FC10" The web of the case was only a little higher than the extractor groove on those cases and if they didn't fail on the first firing (many did!) they would certainly fail on the second if the bulged area (where the feed ramp intersects the chamber wall) wasn't pushed back to it's original position. That severely weakened area also had to line up with the unsupported area of the chamber when the round was chambered for the subsequent firing. This, and fools trying to hotrod this round, accounts for the random nature of Kabooms.

When I first became aware of this (buy finding a blown out case in range pickup) I went back and sorted all my brass by MFG and Headstamp. I found 10 or so FC and FC10 cases in my inventory and they were removed. Luckily this was done before I had ever actually loaded any.

DO NOT LOAD ANY FEDERAL BRASS MARKED FC OR FC10 !!!

I push all my Range Pick Up OF brass thru a stripped Lee FCD then the brass is cleaned and bagged for future loading. I have been doing this since I started loading .40 S&W in 2003.

The loading operation must include F/L Sizing !!!! just like you would normally do.

Bulge Busting is not a Loading Operation,,,, it is a Case Prep Operation.

Randy

[anotherred]

I use the Lee Bulge Buster on all my 40 S&W brass. Cheap insurance that everything will cycle through the gun w/o incidence.

I do the same. If I get one that pushes really hard, I'll inspect and sometimes toss. They get debuldged after tumbling. Little tip is to use some Hornady One shot case lube. Make the process sooo much easier even with stainless tumbled shiney brass. Then when loading loading they got a light amount of case lube and are all ready to go.

[Bayou52]

All the brasses I load and shoot are range pick-ups with unknown histories. I run all of them through the Lee BB die. I look upon this push through die as a "uniforming" die that consistently uniforms the web area/base and rim of the cases where the sizing die cannot reach.

Without using the Lee BB, a good number of the sized brasses would not fit flush in the case gauge. The push through die allows all of the brasses to slip in and out of the case gauge like butter.

In fact, I've not had a single failure to return to battery since beginning to use this BB die. Based on my experience, I'd say it's worth both expense and effort. Certainly, it has been for me....

Bayou52