Bent/bulged cases after bullet seating

[Insanity Required]

So started reloading .38spl this morning and ran into a problem i have not seen before (9mm and .38s&w). First two stages went fine but i had 7 (out of 43, wanted 36 loads.) Where they came out of the seat/crimp die with a bulge out the side of the case. Thinking that when things were being compressed the case colapsed and hench the bulge. One was so bad the case cracked.

Am I correct in my thought and is there any way to prevent this¿

Also a few (and same with the other 2) some seem to have a balloon at the bottom, they still chamber with a bit of a nudge usually. is there a way to prevent this¿

 

[bigedp51]

Seat the bullet and then crimp the bullets in separate operations.

Seating and crimping in the same operation can cause the case to bulge.

 

[OldDude]

A couple of potential causes come to mind: maybe too much of a crimp, possibly due to the errant cases being longer than the one you used to set up the crimp? Maybe the bullets being too large a diameter or being seated sideways?

A couple of pics might help with troubleshooting.

 

[Insanity Required]

View attachment 608290

The left is one with no bulge and chambers fine. the middle has a small bulge and will not chamber in the mod 10 but will in the 1873. the right is one that will not chamber in either. I am thinking this is because the cases are so long and hollow (3.4 gr) there is nothing too support it (unlike a 9mm or .38 s&w) when the pressure is put on it. or cause they are of unknown history and could just be worn out from previous reloads.

 

[Insanity Required]

upon looking at the pix there is no crimp on the centre one (slight bulge). and both bulge's are at the same line as the ring which is making for a weak spot possibly.

 

[gmcoltech]

I have had this happen to me, intermitant bulged cases. If you are buying bulk & lubed cast bullets, the lube the manufacturer uses is typically quite hard.
Of course this happened over quite a period of time, and a lot of rounds going through the dies, but excess lube scrapes off the bullet and eventually builds up in the the die.
This can cause the case to not being able to push to the top of the die and collapse. I cleaned all the old lube out of the die; problem solved.

 

[Bassmaster]

If you're using a progressive press, uniform case trim. Clean up your dies from boolit and case lube. As mentioned, perform seat and crimp separately....back to reloading and shooting

 

[Janeau]

Not enough flare. The middle case show the problem : your die start to close in on the bullet while you try to seat it.
Best is to seat and crimp separately or take the time to adjust your die properly.

 

[sailor38]

So started reloading .38spl this morning and ran into a problem i have not seen before (9mm and .38s&w). First two stages went fine but i had 7 (out of 43, wanted 36 loads.) Where they came out of the seat/crimp die with a bulge out the side of the case. Thinking that when things were being compressed the case colapsed and hench the bulge. One was so bad the case cracked.

Am I correct in my thought and is there any way to prevent this¿

Also a few (and same with the other 2) some seem to have a balloon at the bottom, they still chamber with a bit of a nudge usually. is there a way to prevent this¿

Check to see if the cases have grown too long. That can cause the exact situation that you are describing.

 

[mac100]

As stated by Janeau, not enough flare at the mouth. You should be able to start the projectile by hand without interfering with the case mouth. Then seat bullet then back seater out and keep turning die in until it gives a slight roll crimp, then set the seater to original position.

 

[OldDude]

I'll put in my vote for not enough flare as well.
I totally forgot about that possibility, since I've usually ahd other problems causing bulges.

 

[Insanity Required]

I have moved the die to give a little more flare. And i took apart the seat/crimp die and ran a rag threw it and wiped it down. Little bit of crud but not much, backed out the crimp a bit as well. Also measured a couple hand fulls of cases and they all were between 1.14 and 1.15 most 1.142 to 1.147. So fairly consistant. I ran another dozen threw and had no problems. So either fixed or going to just be a random problem bassed on random cases.

 

[Meroh]

As stated by Janeau, not enough flare at the mouth. You should be able to start the projectile by hand without interfering with the case mouth. Then seat bullet then back seater out and keep turning die in until it gives a slight roll crimp, then set the seater to original position.

^^^
This!

 

[Meroh]

I have moved the die to give a little more flare. And i took apart the seat/crimp die and ran a rag threw it and wiped it down. Little bit of crud but not much, backed out the crimp a bit as well. Also measured a couple hand fulls of cases and they all were between 1.14 and 1.15 most 1.142 to 1.147. So fairly consistant. I ran another dozen threw and had no problems. So either fixed or going to just be a random problem bassed on random cases.

The cure was backing the crimp up a bit. If the bullets are not backing out from recoil, you have enough crimp. It does not take a lot of crimp to achieve this, and consistent crimp assures consistent pressures. Glad you got it working!!

 

[jim drury]

You can easily see the difference in case length in the picture. I’d say you need to trim your brass and re adjust your dies.