Whoops

[domainfitz]

So i was cleaning my .40 seating die cause it was leaving lead on my jacketed boolits. and out came 3 metal rings. little rings. did i mess something up?

[PS Paul]

Sounds as if you were getting metal shavings while seating boolits. Not entirely uncommon when seating and crimping cast boolits using dies designed for jacketed bullets........

Can you tell if the rings are lead?

[sparky45]

Probably not. Are the rings brass or Lead? If their Lead you need to open up the case mouth enough to seat the Lead boolit without shaving off the sides.

[domainfitz]

It looks metal. and hard. perfect circle. i just popped out 18 rounds and it's no problem. But i just got a case gauge and some go through good. some don't, seems like my resizing/decapping die doesn't go all the way to the bottom of the case when resizing.

[David2011]

Sounds like shaved lead. Like Sparky said, be sure you're flaring the cases (just) enough. Excessive flaring will shorten the life of .40 brass which doesn't last like .38 or .45 ACP or Colt anyway. Inadequate flaring will cause shaving. Been there.

Does the sizing die touch the shell holder to the point that the press cams over? Most die manufacturers recommend setting up for camming over on straight cases. Actually, many recommend camming over on bottlenecked cases as well but it's best to set up bottlenecked sizing with a case gage. Verfy that you're full length sizing and rest some sized cases in your gage. This is a common problem with .40 that was fired in an unsupported chamber like Glock factory barrel.

There is a modified Lee carbide sizing die available that sized farther down the case. It helps some but still is not a true full length resizer. Several companies have introduced push through sizing dies for .40 S&W in recent years to solve this problem. I run every .40 case that didn't come from my gun through a full length sizer before reloading. All of my loaded ammo get my mark," a colored stripe around the case just above the extractor groove, before it goes to the range so I know it's mine and everyone else at the match does, too. Saves the time of running them through the full length sizer again the next time. They still need to go through your regular sizing die when reloading to restore the neck to the correct size.

David

[WILCO]

and out came 3 metal rings. little rings.

What color are they?

[domainfitz]

I don't think i'll be reloading lead boolits for awhile. It takes to much to clean my gun after firing lol. The cases that don't feed through the gauge still works fine in my gun. and go into the barrel just fine. It's just annoying that it doesn't go through the gauge lol. I've seen the bulge buster. Considered getting it. I probably will. As far as the flaring is concerned, it doesn't take much as i'm loading .400 dia. I barely flare the case and it goes it great. But isn't the seating die supposed to crimp also? I cant seem to get it to. Well wasn't that a ramble. Sorry