Kinking 9mm brass when seating bullet

f_armer

f_armer

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I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I reloaded 100 rounds of 9mm with Hornady 124gr XTP bullets, and I kinked the brass on almost 1/3 of them!
I'm using rcbs dies and the expander die is the stepped one.
It almost seems the bullet is getting caught on the step.
After putting powder in I am careful to insert bullet in straight before I press
Hoping someone has some advice, thanks
 

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to start fixing your problem, take a caliper or better yet a micrometer and measure the inside of the case mouth on several cases vs the size of the bullet. my guess is that the neck expanding die isn't set quite deep enough to flare the case mouth enough or the expander button is too small. the one third of the loaded rounds being creased makes me think those cases are a bit shorter and aren't being flared enough. that's my guess.
 
I'm seating and crimping at the same time
I think I'm over crimping. I should've double checked my crimp depth. I measured my taper and it's around .005 apparently it should be .001-.002
So now I'm unsure if I should fire the "good ones" as they are the ones i measured the taper on, which are 5 thou
 
Looks like you’re coming down real hard on the case mouth with the crimp die.

Get yourself a Lee Factory Crimp Die and use the seat/crimp just for setting the projectile.
 
f_armer said:
I'm seating and crimping at the same time
I think I'm over crimping. I should've double checked my crimp depth. I measured my taper and it's around .005 apparently it should be .001-.002
So now I'm unsure if I should fire the "good ones" as they are the ones i measured the taper on, which are 5 thou
Click to expand...

I’d probably pull them, what was the powder charge? If it was on the low end of the scale I might consider shooting some but would likely just pull and re process them with the proper crimp/seating. Not worth potential over pressure issues if your crimp is heavy and powder charge is mid to high range.
 
If you are going to bother crimping and seating in the same step it should only be the bare minimum to remove the flare. As mentioned it's less headache to just do each step separately.
 
f_armer said:
I'm seating and crimping at the same time
I think I'm over crimping. I should've double checked my crimp depth. ...
So now I'm unsure if I should fire the "good ones" ...
Click to expand...

You got it.

"Probably" fine to fire, but those look like fancy bullets so I'd probably pull them. (you might have feeding, headspace and light strike issues firing them anyway)
 
Right! Your seating die is not set up correctly. Remembering that 9mm Luger headspaces on the case mouth you really only want to take out the flared case mouth, it does not require a significant crimp. Adjust your bullet seating depth after setting up the taper crimp. You'll use up a handful of rounds until it's set perfect.

This video explains it better than me h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DWPtf2zjJY
 
Butcherbill said:
I’d probably pull them, what was the powder charge? If it was on the low end of the scale I might consider shooting some but would likely just pull and re process them with the proper crimp/seating. Not worth potential over pressure issues if your crimp is heavy and powder charge is mid to high range.
Click to expand...

4.9 gr cfe pistol
 
You don't really crimp 9mm, flare just enough to fit the bullet and return the case mouth back to .379ish.


Untitled.png
 
I've got things sorted out, my die was too far down. I thought it was set properly and I did a bunch thinking it was some other reason.
I pulled the kinked ones, they pull fairly easily, so I'm guessing the straight ones will be OK.
Now to find more primers! I'm getting really low.
 
1) That powder charge might be a little light for that bullet but your chrono will tell you. Don't get me wrong, they'll definitely work but they might be travelling a little slow???

2) How did you determine the OAL? Did you plunk them in every barrel you're going to use? I like to load all my ammo to fit the shortest chamber/bullet combo. For me that means 1.09 with a 147gr CamPro because my Shadows are the shortest. Remember, you need to determine the OAL with every new bullet you use.

Determine-OAL.gif



CZ-OAL.jpg
 
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4n2t0 said:
1) That powder charge might be a little light for that bullet but your chrono will tell you.

2) How did you determine the OAL? Did you plunk them in every barrel you're going to use?
Click to expand...

I used the Hornady charts for that bullet (124gr xtp) cfe pistol 4.2 gr min 5.3 gr max COAL 1.06"
I did not chrono
 
f_armer said:
I used the Hornady charts for that bullet (124gr xtp) cfe pistol 4.2 gr min 5.3 gr max COAL 1.06"
I did not chrono
Click to expand...

Don't use charts for OAL (even though that OAL might be ok). Always determine your own OAL. Plunk and spin those rounds in all your barrels or the ones you know for certain have the shortest chambers.

Again, as an example:

147gr CamPro in my Shadow = 1.09 but the same bullet in a Glock Gen4 might be good out to 1.15. If I only tested that bullet in a Glock those same rounds wouldn't work in my Shadow.
 
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