Problematic 9mm brass with cast boolits.

Loading up 9mm with Lee 356-120-TC from a bucket of prepped 9mm brass of assorted headstamps.

Using a CZ-75B barrel for the "plunk-test" (Tight chamber and short throat), I had some aggravating problems with several brands of brass that don't work well with 9mm cast bullets sized to .356" and some sized to .357". Also, the new Gen 5 9mm "Marksmen" barrels are as tight and short-throated as my CZ barrels, As I have a Glock 48 and a Glock 19x also.

Brass refusing to pass the plunk test; SVT, Red Army, CBC, and Aquila. Each of these brands had what seemed to be thick walls that didn't allow slightly oversize cast bullets to work well in the "plunk-test." The cast bullets apparently bulged the thickened brass, making the cartridge oversize.

Not every piece of brass in the above brands proved "unusable", but enough in number to make their use with .356"-.357" bullets unwarranted for me. (They may work perfect with jacketed .355" bullets, I don't know)

Brands of brass that worked great for me in 9mm with cast; Win., Remington, USA, S&B, PMC, Speer, Federal, Blazer, Ammo Inc, PMP, PPU, Browning, Sig, Norma.

Not a complete list,...there may be others.

Just my experience, in two brands of 9mm's I own with tight chambers and short throats....others may be different.

If my loads pass the "plunk-test" in my CZ, they work in my Sigs, and Glocks.

Lee has a carbide sizing & crimp die that resizes the loaded round to SAAMI dimensions.

CBC is very tight, so is S&B for me. I size mine to .356 and have no difficulty with any of the multiple CZ barrels I have used them in over the last ten years or so.
Brass I won't even allow in my workspace is AMERC and Perfecta.

I use the same mold for my 9mm……Used in several Glock pistols. All go kerplunk and shoot without issue. RCBS carbide dies.

My list of acceptable brass, hi to lo;
Federal
Winchester
Speer/Blazer
Starline - Have not used it in 9mm yet. Great stuff- 10mm all day! Just don’t have experience with 9mm but I’d use it.
SIG - Have not used in in 9mm; great in 10mm. Just don’t have experience with 9mm, but I’d use it.

These are the only ones I’ll use.

I do not use CBC or any ‘stepped’ brass. Stepped brass has a raised edge inside the case to keep bullets from set-back during chambering. It can cause bulges in cases should you seat your bullet to deep.

Good post for those who have chambering issues. I don't happen to have the problem but then I only use Remington and Winchester brass. The issue I think of regarding wall thickness is neck tension between loads with a thick wall vs a think wall when both cases were resized with the same sizing die. I think accuracy is affected, have test loads assembled, but haven't shot them yet.

I will usually discard all Aguila brass. I have also found magtech(cbc) to be tight. Works fine for fmj though ��.

I need a 0.358” bullet. I sent my barrel to DougGuy and I haven’t had any more issues using any brass.

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Originally Posted by Hickok

Loading up 9mm with Lee 356-120-TC from a bucket of prepped 9mm brass of assorted headstamps.
...

Brass refusing to pass the plunk test; SVT, Red Army, CBC, and Aquila. Each of these brands had what seemed to be thick walls that didn't allow slightly oversize cast bullets to work well in the "plunk-test." The cast bullets apparently bulged the thickened brass, making the cartridge oversize.

Not every piece of brass in the above brands proved "unusable", but enough in number to make their use with .356"-.357" bullets unwarranted for me.

>>>SNIP

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Are the bulges on one side? or all the way around?

Before I got a custom made 'oversize' 9mm case expander spud, I'd get some cast boolits (I size .357) to seat slightly crooked due to the pressure needed to seat in a undersized case (especially with Lee seater dies, as they are more sloppy). They would bulge on one side. Sometimes those one side bulged cases would fail the chamber test. I think the brands you list aren't necessarily thicker, but are actually softer, making a crooked seating more likely to bulge with undersized cases.

JonB, I use the Lee universal-expander die and NEI expander plugs for my 9mm Loads.

I have the .355" x .359" and the .356" x.360" plugs, and I use them for .356" boolits and .357" boolits.

You could be right about the softer brass, as I found out that "SVT" and "RED ARMY" are both the same maker of brass in Czech Republic. The problem area is right at the bottom band of the boolit, as the cases show a bright mark where contacting the chamber wall.

I have been throwing the SVT, RED ARMY, CBC, and Aquila in the trash can. Had to pull too many boolits,....saved and re-used the primers and powder, and slugs.

I will say I had a Beretta 92FS that liked .358" cast boolits, and would feed any case that I put in it!:cool:

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Originally Posted by deces

Lee has a carbide sizing & crimp die that resizes the loaded round to SAAMI dimensions.

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Doing so would take away the benefits of using a slightly oversized boolit.

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Originally Posted by lancem

Doing so would take away the benefits of using a slightly oversized boolit.

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Then again, he might be able to chamber a round. I wonder if the ogive is out too far.

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Originally Posted by deces

Then again, he might be able to chamber a round. I wonder if the ogive is out too far.

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The ogive is just barely out of the case. I finally arrived at an overall cartridge length of 1.05" for total cartridge length. (I was using 1.06" but went shorter,..powder charge worked back up and OK)

The Lee die swages the boolit down.

The problem headstamps are rejected.

The Winchester, Speer/Federal products, Remington, and others on the "good to go" list all work perfectly!

Just a heads-up to be watchful of the different brands of brass that may be a problem with oversize cast boolits.:groner:

Getting 9mm rejects is the norm for me when using free mixed range brass.
I decap, wet tumble, and roll size my brass. It gets sized again on the reloading press and then an oversized powder thru expander.
I loaded 400 rounds last month with my hitec coated MP 147g bullets sized to .3565". 17% reject rate with a match ammo gauge. 99% of the rejects shoot fine in my Glock for practice. I just need quality reloads when shooting USPSA.
I think my reject rate is so high because of the mixed random brass. There is no telling how many times range brass has been fired. I can't even imagine how much case hardeneding is happening with all the sizing, expanding, crimping and firing. I forgot to mention case splitting when seating a bullet.
If I was rich, I'd buy new brass, but that ain't happening.

Same here Valley Shooter.

If I had a bunch of "dead presidents" in my pocket, I would buy Winchester 9mm brass in 5 gallon buckets!:bigsmyl2:

I crank down on a taper crimp die.

Some head stamps have thinner side walls. Some manufacturers may hold to tighter tolerances whatever thickness they nominally use. I find the US brands of brass mentioned above, especially the Federal and Blazer I use the most, to be the thinnest and most consistent, so they load my .357” 147’s with the least Coke bottle bulge, the least swaging down on pulled bullets (though I don’t use the Lee FCD), and they still chamber easily in my Glock factory cut chambers and shoot with good groups (2-3” at 25 yards) and very consistent velocities (single digit SD’s for 10 shot groups using once fired brass).

I shoot USPSA too, using Glock based platforms and Glock factory barrels in Production and Carry Optics. Brass for both practice and match ammo is all roll sized, with single head stamp for match ammo and single head stamp and once fired for major matches, again all US brand brass. I might case gauge match ammo for the Nationals, to catch that 1 in a 1000 rounds that made it through the press without having the flare removed (I’ve yet to find it), but I’ve given up gauging otherwise because the ammo, using the brass chosen and processed as described has never failed to drop into the chamber of the gun it’s meant for, even though all will stick in a gauge because of bullet profile and OAL (no leade in my gauges).

BTW, an M style die will reduce swaging down, and a bevel based boolit design may help with scraping off of the coating and also base bulging near the web.

TL;DR: roll sized, single head stamp, thin walled US brass is your friend.