Debulging 9mm with a Lee 9mm Makarov FCD -- Good Idea Or A Worthless Step?

[Liberty1776]

I set up a Lee 9mm Makarov Factory Crimp Die (FCD) in the Lee APP's lower mount and placed the debulger's ram in the upper mount (using the shellholder that's normally in the lower mount).

I then fed cleaned, deprimed brass, head up, into the press and rammed a couple through the Makarov die. It was very difficult, so I lubed the remaining test shells. They "debulged" easier, but still with effort. It did go quickly, like most processes on the APP.

I then cleaned off the lube and loaded about 25 cartridges on my Dillon 550c, running them through the Dillon 9mm sizer on the first stage.

I could see exactly ZERO difference between the "debulged" reloads and a normally reloaded cartridge.

Neither my "normal" 9mm reloads nor the "debulged" 9mm reloads fit perfectly into my tight-tolerance case gage. You can see the rim of the 9mm slightly protruding above the stainless case gage below.



They do fit into a Lyman case gage. Looser tolerances, I guess.

That said, every 9mm reload I've ever made has functioned flawlessly in every 9mm gun I own.

In your opinion, does "debulging" help you make more perfecter 9mm ammo or is it a nonessential step? Personally, I don't think I'll debulge in the future.

[nhyrum]

Color the round with sharpie and twist it. My bet is it's over crimped and it's bulging around the bullet area

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[BK7saum]

I have to de-bulge some 1x fired 9mm cases in order for then to chamber in my 1911 Ronin. RCBS carbide dies do not size thecases enough to chamber.

[ioon44]

Your loaded rounds need to fit your barrel not a case gauges. I load 9 mm on my 550 using Hornady dies, no problems with or any need to debulge and I have no use for a Lee FCD die.

[Old Caster]

Your loaded rounds need to fit your barrel not a case gauges. I load 9 mm on my 550 using Hornady dies, no problems with or any need to debulge and I have no use for a Lee FCD die.

Agreed

[Horn Ridge]

In your opinion, does "debulging" help you make more perfecter 9mm ammo or is it a nonessential step? Personally, I don't think I'll debulge in the future.

I'm on the fence with debulging 9mm, but I "think" it's a time waster. I've loaded quite a lot of 9mm that I didn't debulge - only ran through sizing die and never had a single issue. Debulging .380 I think is semi worthy of my time as I have had a few not chamber in my LCP II.

Another issue I have with debulging is, some brands of 9mm brass (Speer for example) the rim is slightly larger than say Winchester brass. So, you end up sizing the rim down or cracking the carbide ring. I suppose if you mic each brand and know for sure the rim is ≤ to the carbide ring you'll be fine.

If you go at debulging whatever cartridge, a dose of lube makes life a lot easier.

[Taterhead]

Some of that resistance is from sizing down the rims a bit. It seems inconsequential. As far as the utility of pass through sizing, I've abandoned it for my purposes.

Most of the problems I've encountered with 9mm failing to gauge are not bulges, but expanded brass right at the web. Mostly that's from brass shot in 9mm major power factor, and my range is riddled with it. It is easy to detect by inserting the case backwards into a gauge. If it gets hung up on the web area (immediately above the extractor groove), I toss it.

No sizing die sizes the web, and the passthrough die would clean it up, BUT I consider that case to be too overworked to he salvaged. 9mm brass is too plentiful to be that miserly.

[bbogue1]

My first step in reloading 9mm is to make it a practice to check the case size by doing a plunk test in my barrel or my case gauge. If they pass then on to depriming and wet tumbling. If they fail it is usually because it is “new to me” brass with a swollen case near the web. I’ve never had a 9mm Luger case be too long. The next step is to lube the case and resize the case. If there is significant resistance to resizing I stop before the case gets stuck. Sometimes I measure the width of the case, but, if it didn’t plunk, it is larger than the Luger standard of .391. Then I switch to my 9mm Makarov crimp die. Makarov case width is .392, so, I can size to a case size manageable by my 9mm Luger decap / resize die. Usually if it goes through the Makarov push through die it will plunk in my Lyman 9mm case gauge. If it gives me trouble there it is tossed out. (Not as rare as you might think, it does happen). If no trouble is detected it is placed in line to be with other dirty cases to be decaped and resized and tumbled.
The issue I have found is the Makarov die does not like the base of the 9mm head and rim. The SAAMI measurements show the 9mm is larger at .394 than a Makarov at .392. In reality I find the 9mm to be .386-.387 and the Makarov to be .385-.386. This does cause some resistance during the push through. With the rim reduced in size to .387 I have not had any problem extracting a fired case.
How common is this process? I just went through 58 range pick up 9mm cases I’d saved that did not pass the first plunk test. 37 were corrected by the factory crimp die 21 were not. That’s about a 56.7% rescue rate.

[Handloader109]

I use a dillon 650 for 9mm loading. I have had some bulge, but I think it was mainly heavy PC and poor sizing on my part. I've a glock that will take anything, but my two 1911 from Rock Island are a bit finicky with a round every now and then and my Walther ppq and ppx are way worse. So I got a case gauge that holds 100 rounds from a czechoslovak company that is as tight as my tightest gun. Ran my multitude of 9mm rounds through it and resized all but about a dozen which I had to break down. I check all new rounds now. No bulge buster, just lee die in SS press

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[mdi]

Don't have an answer, but I too, use the barrel as my gauge. When I got my first 45ACP, I thought I needed a cartridge gauge. At first I fought my handloads to get them to fit the gauge. I tried case sizing twice or three times, sorted brass and bullets, and a few other "fixes". I measured case after each step, but the handloads all stood a few thousandths tall (.005"-.008"). As a last resort I asked on a forum (CMP reloading forum) and one member aske me "Do they fit the gun?". Well, I plunk tested my loads in my 2, 45 ACPs and all plunked quite well. I fired about 50 of my "bad" rounds, all fed, fired, ejected perfectly. I still have the Wilson gauge, in a drawer somewhere, but I now plunk all my semi-auto handloads...

[kevin c]

I roll size my 9mm brass that comes off an action pistol range where a lot of shooters shoot custom overpressure rounds in already once or multi fired brass. That brass may have the problem Taterhead described.The roll sizing gets to the web where sizing dies don’t reach, and may also help recondition the rim and extractor groove if needed.

BK7saum’s 9mm 1911 maybe has an unusually tight chamber? My Glock OEM chambers have always easily chambered any round I’ve made with once fired brass, provided I set the right OAL for the bullet used, and excepting thick walled brass brands loaded with .357-.358 boolits. That was even before I started roll sizing.

I still roll size out of habit and for extra ammo quality assurance for major matches, but I’m not convinced that it’s a must do for good quality (US made major brand) once fired brass from commercial ammo shot through factory spec guns, and, once reloaded, shot through a chamber with SAAMI spec dimensions.

[Brassmonkey]

I've found Dillon dies I'm using give the 9mm a slight hour glass shape, I don't compete and they function fine, using once fired brass from institutional ranges.

[jmorris]

You can see the rim of the 9mm slightly protruding above the stainless case gage below.

Will the rim drop in if you insert the base first?

[Jbiker]

Just for the sake of discussion ....I use to own an tec-9 , in 9mm caliber. One of the constraints the manufacturer had on it's preferred ammo was use of only FEDERAL ,FEDERAL AMERICAN EAGLE , WINCHESTER , AND REMINGTON 9MM, the reason being that the gun needed a case wall dimension of .027 ....over the last 3 decades I've noticed that there is very little incidence in case bulge in those 4 mfg ammo , but many of the other brands with thinner walls do bulge after the first factory load and subsequent reloads around the hot factory spec. I'd suggest micing the bluged cases to get an idea on which are causing problems ~