I’ve been told that for reloaders it’s not if you get a stuck case, it’s when. Thus it’s good to have a stuck-case remover handy for when that happens.

Thing is, as I read the reviews of most commercial stuck case pullers, they’re all decent enough but eventually seem to all break. That’s why when I found this article on a DIY stuck case remover, I thought how awesome!

An article on swaging military brass to remove the primer crimp.

A second article continuing the discussion.

The first round tests of my .223 hunting load resulted in one big issue: the primers were backing out.

foo.c‘s guess is it’s the brass, which was brand new Remington.

So I hit Google to see what I can see.

It seems that Remington brass isn’t regarded as the highest quality brass (not like Norma and Lapua), but it’s generally regarded as good brass. So maybe it’s not the brass?

Some things I’m finding in my reading:

• Too short for the chamber. Could be excessive headspace, could be the cases were sized too short for the chamber.
  • Hrm. I’m loading to .223 Rem specs, but the Bushmaster is 5.56 chambered. Could it be things were sized just a wee short for that chamber since a 5.56 chamber (compared to a .223 chamber) has a longer leade and headspace dimensions?
• Too low a pressure.
  • This might go along with the above. The chamber was slightly larger, thus when the case expanded it didn’t expand
• Chamber wall cling. That is, there’s enough pressure to expand the case sideways to cling to the chamber walls, but because there’s more free space along the axis running through the bullet from primer to tip, coupled with less pressure, now there’s not enough to fill things backwards including pushing the case back against the bolt face so as a result the primer can back out a bit.
• New brass. It just may be formed to “conservative” tolerances and/or have case uniformity issues. Debur the flash hole, uniform the primer pockets, etc.. to help.
• Full length sized brass, similar issues to the above.

This was a useful resource.

Check out this PDF showing the dimensional differences between .223 and 5.56.

It sounds like the primers backing out may be normal for my situation.

If the loads are very weak, unlikely to see primers backing out as there’s probably just not enough pressure.

If the load is perhaps just under max, that’s enough pressure to cause things to back out.

If the load is max to hot, it’s probably more than enough pressure to cause things to sit tight.

What could cause lower pressure? Well, I’m loading a .223 Remington and shooting from a 5.56x45mm NATO chamber, which is going to be just a hair longer. It could also be due to the shape of the bullet (the ogive on the Barnes TSX). It could also be the length at which I loaded the cartridge really putting the bullet off the lands.

This is all just hypothesizing.

The bummer? After talking with foo.c I had resigned myself to just switching to NATO brass (Lake City, WCC, whatever I happened to have). Thus I took all of the Remington brass from yesterday and threw it with some other dirty .223 brass into the brass tumbler to get cleaned up and put in the bucket for reloading at some future date. Thinking about it now, I should have kept that brass: 1. to measure it and see how the size changed after shooting, 2. to go ahead and reload it and try again. Now that it was fired in that chamber, it may have taken on a different and better shape.

So I’m tempted to keep my NATO brass in reserve and continue with the Remington brass. I will pick up a few more dodads at the store, like something to debur the flash holes and to uniform the primer pockets. No harm in that. Then see how it goes. But this time, I’ll reload that same Remington brass and see how it goes. If I still have primers backing out, then I’ll look at other options.

I might even consider doing a test-run of brass this way. That is, instead of using the Barnes TSX bullets, I’ve got some 55 grain Winchester FMJ. I could work up a quick load with some of those to preserve the Barnes bullets.

Ah, so many things to consider. 🙂

As a follow-up to my asking if reloading is worth it, check out foo.c’s cost savings on his zombie load.

Quite an impressive savings!

… so to speak.

Due to some wonderful gift cards I received for Christmas, I decided now was the time to get the Hornady Lock-n-Lock AP. This should allow me to churn out 9 mm and .38 Special reloads at a good pace. Right now I’m only going to focus on handgun reloads for such quantity. Eventually I’ll sink the money for rifle-based things (e.g. shell plates to hold .223, etc.).

The press and various supporting parts are all on order, thanx to foo.c checking my shopping list.

foo.c also recommended I check out powderfunnel.com’s Powder Through Expander die. Supposedly it’s universal and much easier to use.

Can’t wait!

Of course after I order a can of Trail Boss I learn that you shouldn’t use Trail Boss with anything other than pure lead bullets (no jacketed, no plated). I can’t find the official statement from IMR/Hodgdon but it is implied in their Trail Boss description and some things I found online reinforce that Trail Boss should not be used with any sort of jacketed/plated bullet: all lead only.

I wanted it for .38 Special loads, but the only bullets I have right now are Berry’s plated. I guess I’ll have to pick up some cast semi wad cutters from The Bulletworks. I got to meet Jimmy Mitchell last year at a KR Training class. Great guy.

Just did another round of .38 Special reloads.

Recalling the results of the the last batch, I had a tough time inserting the rounds into the chambers of the cylinder. I wondered if I belled the case-mouth too much, or if it could be from lack of crimp.

It was over-belling.

This time I did the smallest expansion I could. I could barely feel the difference in the case mouth. Measuring with calipers the mouth
expanded about 0.002″. But that’s all that was necessary, the bullet balanced just fine and seating it went smoothly. After seating, I dropped the round into the chamber and it went in and out without a hitch. Cool!

A few days ago I did pick up a Lee Factory Crimp die for .38/.357. Since I’m using these Berry’s plated bullets and given what I was told by the guy that consults for Berry’s, if any crimping is done it should be a light roll crimp or better would be a taper crimp. So I figured why not try the Lee Factory Crimp?

I loaded 30 rounds total. I used the same recipe I’ve been using (Berry’s .38 158 grain RN DS; 3.5 grains TiteGroup; Remington 1.5 SPP; CBC (Magtech) brass case; C.O.L. 1.510″). I left 15 uncrimped and I used a “light crimp” (1/2 turn, according to the die’s directions sheet) on the other 15. Let’s see how that goes. Not sure when I’ll get to the range to try this, but of course I’ll report the results.

What next?

Thinking out loud….

The goals of this .38 loading are two-fold. First, to just experiment and learn about reloading. Second, I’ve got a snub-nose class with Claude Werner in February 2010 and I’d like to have 400 (reloaded) rounds for that class. I’d like to do it because it sets a goal for me for my reloading work, plus shooting 400 rounds out of a snub over the course of the weekend… not sure how much that will beat up my hands. Having some sort of “mouse phart” load for the class wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.

I’m not going to change the bullet or the primers, and I’ll probably go with the same cases for now. Regarding cases, I don’t have 400 of the same case, but I do have over 400 cases. I understand the issues of how cases can vary, but my hope here is to keep the load mild. The gun is +P rated, so I think once I get a basic formula down the case variation ought not matter. So only thing I can think to vary would be the powder (type, amount) or the cartridge overall length.

I was thinking about the C.O.L.. I was trying to remember how I arrived at 1.510″; it might have been looking at the .38 Special “38 LRN 158 grain” data in the Speer #14 manual, as that’s listed as 1.510″. The Magtech 158 grain LRN that I have measures at 1.530″. The Remington UMC 130 grain JFN is I think 1.490″. Books say the maximum cartridge overall length is 1.550″. Other bullet shapes list lengths of 1.4xx”, usually in the mid-to-high .400’s. I might try some different lengths just to see the effect. For instance, try the max length of 1.550″. Try 1.490″. I know I could risk some higher pressures here so I want to keep things light in the powder end of things and not go too short. But I’d like to see how it changes the dynamics.

I’ll probably also try varying the powder. The lowest powder charge I saw for pure lead 158 grain was 3.2 grains of TiteGroup. That may not be enough for the plated Berry’s bullet (especially since I’m also loading with a longer COL and perhaps a light crimp), but I think it’s worth a try. Hodgdon’s data for TiteGroup says using a 158 grain Hornady XTP and COL of 1.455″, .38 Special max load is 3.9 grains of TiteGroup, .38 Special +P is 4.3 grains. Given that, I may try going up to 3.8 grains of TiteGroup or maybe even 4.0. We’ll see. Much to think about.