Got a surprise the other day....

[scattershot]

I have been reloading for 40 years or better, and I started with the .38 Special, so I've loaded a few of them. The other day I was reloading a general purpose load using lead SWC boolits. I was just about done when I noticed that I had several WCC military cases, so I thought I'd load them, too.

Long story short, the loaded rounds wouldn't fit in any .38 or .357 revolver I tried them in. I think there's a term in engineering called "tolerance stack" or something similar, which made the loaded rounds too fat to fit in the chambers.

Just something to be aware of, that military cases are apparently thicker than commercial cases.

I have never chamber checked revolver rounds, but I'm going to start.

Hope this saves someone some grief down the line.

[John Allen]

Thanks for the heads up. I was not aware myself.

[john hayslip]

I'd check the length of the brass. If it's too long the crimping shoulder can bulge the case where the bullet is. I used to load a lot of it without problem

[FLINTNFIRE]

I load mine and have not had that problem , although I run into brass like herters and some other that will not fit the square deal b shell plate , always good to check rounds for fit depending on application , plinking or informal target shooting not so much.

[scattershot]

Thanks. FWIW, the rounds in question were loaded in WCC 94&95 cases, and the loaded rounds measure .382 at the caseneck. Commercial rounds measure .378 at the same point, as do my other reloads. Anyone have the chamber dimensions for .38/.357 chambers?

The boolits are .360 cast SWC.

[AABEN]

My powder throw die will expand the case about .0002 Th That way the bullet will go in easy and when setting the bullet it crimps the case back

[fecmech]

The WCC cases are thicker and I think that coupled with your .360 bullets would cause problems. I started with about 2000 wcc 72 cases back in the mid 70's when I was in the Guard. Down to about 1300 now and love them for light bullets in .38 spl loadings. With the shorter bullets (Lee 121 TC) I get good bullet pull and more uniform ballistics than commercial cases. My guess is Winchester used their .357 mag brass specs for the military 38's as Win .357 mag brass is the thickest I've seen.