Blazer .380 Brass

[giz189]

As I was preparing my .380 brass to reload my new Miha HP's into, I ran into a slight problem. As I was belling the case mouth on the first 4 or 5, I noticed the cases crumpled in the middle. Looked at die first and it had a small ridge just before the case slid up on the 'belling' part. Smoothed that up. Next 3 or 4 went fine, then crumpled another case. What the he!!? After looking at the case, I could see a ridge inside the case about half way up. Upon further investigation, I discovered it was only Blazer .380's that had this ridge. So, I just belled the case mouths on those cases a different way. Just thought I'd pass this along if you did not already know it.

[MtGun44]

cannelured brass to keep the bullet from pushing back during feeding is very common.

Bill

[deltaenterprizes]

I thought "Blazer" was aluminum cases.

[grages]

They have a brass line called Blazer Brass.

S

[giz189]

These cases were not cannelured, as what we normally see on a cannelured case, there were no markings on the outside of the case as usually appears on cases I have seen with a cannelure. The ridge was on the inside and the brass was thicker all the way to the case head it appears. Not a real problem just have to bell case mouths with a pointed punch I have.

[monadnock#5]

I ran into the same thing with BLASER cases. Also: SPEER (both brass and nickled); FEDERAL (both brass and nickled) and *I*. RCBS expander's in .380 and 9MM both bulge those cases. FC cases are no problem, go figure.

I like the tapered expander idea. I wonder if a tool like that could be chucked up in a mini drill press so that it could be used like an arbor press? No powered rotation, it would have a depth stop and not much torque required.......hmmm........

[340six]

I had that too, but measured the brass after being sized by the RCBS die.
It was smaller than a new case was so the belling die made it bell out to what was needed to incert the new bullet.
{ie} the case was really undersized by the RCBS Carbide Die.
I used them{as 380 brass is hard to come by}die and sized after done with a LEE factory die and they worked in both my 380's
It is a case of the RCBS die resize them past what was needed.

[Adam10mm]

.380 will crush easily. Go easy with the expander.

[MtGun44]

So if I understand this correctly, there is a step in the interior but none on the exterior,
so the wall thickness suddenly changes.

Very weird.

Bill

[giz189]

MtGun44 That is what it looks like. I was looking at some more of them today. The first ones I found, I tried to sand it out as I thought it was just a small ridge about middle ways of the case, but couldn't do it. Hunted up a blunt nose punch that fit just right in the case mouth and belled the case with that.

[deltaenterprizes]

Could it be .223 Rem brass that was cut and reamed to create .380 ACP brass?

Got pics?

[grages]

Could it be .223 Rem brass that was cut and reamed to create .380 ACP brass?

Got pics?

Interesting thought. When I bought the shell plate for my Load Master, it wasn't listed but I looked in the parts files on the lee site and the holder was the same size as the one for the .223.

Shawn

[Adam10mm]

The case head for the .380 and .223 are identical, that's why.

[David2011]

Maybe they're using the increased thickness as a cannelure. It would save the manufacturing process of running the brass through a canneluring step since it could be incorporated in the drawing dies.

I've seen the same thing in my old military .38 special brass from when the MPs carried revolvers. They size and bell normally but you can't load wadcutters in them (not semi-wadcutters). They swell below the cannelure ring so much that the OD is too big to chamber a WC after you push it in so deeply.

David

[Gee_Wizz01]

I have also seen this ridge on Federal and Speer cases. I started using my Lee Universal case expanding die to bell the mouths of these cases after I run the normal expander in stopping at the ridge. The Universal expanding die is tapered and doesn't hang on the ridge.

G

[giz189]

Could it be .223 Rem brass that was cut and reamed to create .380 ACP brass?

Got pics?

Don't have pics, but head stamp said blazer 380 auto on it.

[MtGun44]

Interesting. It sounds like a way to make the cannelure effect (prevent a bullet
pushing into a case, which is dangerous pressurewise and on a self defense caliber like .380
could be very bad) without the cannelure processing, apparently incorporating it into
the case manuacturing process.

New technology.

Bill