"Bulge Buster die" vs. fireforming brass?

[mokin]

This is sort of a hypothetical journey onto thin ice...

While picking up my empty 10mm Auto brass I noticed someone else had left quite a bit of it on the ground before me. I picked it up along with the cases I had just shot and threw them into the bag to take home. After tumbling them I noticed some had faint smiles. These went into the scrap bucket to be taken to the salvage yard someday. Anyway, what I am wondering is, as my pistol has a fully supported chamber, would it be possible to reload these cases? I haven't sized them, and don't know if they will even chamber, but it seems to me, if you can get that far into the process, after the case has been used again, the case should be pretty much like any other previously fired one. Could anyone with more metallurgical smarts / handloading experience tell me if this is so or not? At this point I'm just curious. I thought this might make for some good discussion. FWIW the cases were marked A-USA which I believe is Armscor.

 

[flashhole]

Not sure I completely understand your question. What brass are you concerned about, ones fired from your gun or other range pick up?

I shoot 40 S&W, Taurus PT-140 Special Edition. I pick up all the brass I can find whether it came from my gun or not.

Every piece goes through a Lee Bulge Buster and every piece is uniformed before I reload them.

I also sort them by headstamp but have never found that to mean anything when shooting.

 

[jaguarxk120]

Please note that George Nonte had said to push straight walled case's through a sizing die long before that company

came up with their wiz-bang tool.

 

[ants]

You have to use your own judgment, mokin.

Once-fired 'smilie' brass with only a slight bulge, when sized through the push-through die, is likely to be good if it passes all other inspections.
Keep an eye on it, it will have shorter life because it has been non-elastic (no spring back) at some time in its life. Just keep an eye on it.

But did the previous shooter leave it on the ground because he already did that 14 times and started to get blow outs? Maybe, maybe not.

You examine the brass carefully and use your own judgment. I'm sure you'll make the right decision. If any doubt, recycle it.


p.s. There are those who say all bulged brass is a nuclear explosion waiting to happen. Not true, but we respect the very conservative approach.

 

[Englishmn]

I think the main possibility is that weak area getting lined up again in unsupported chamber and rupturing.
I run all my 40 and 10 through a bulge buster.
A faint smile I don't worry about.
I kept one as an example the bulge sticks out .007" I toss ones like that.

 

[Rule3]

The real question is "how does one know how many times that range brass has been reloaded or fired" Sure you can smooth out the bulge or smile but has that been done before?? The spot may be weak already. Resizing does not make that area strong again.

For the few cents worth of brass is it worth it? Mark your own brass with a sharpie and just pick up yours.

 

[243winxb]

I remember this on the Hodgdon reloading website in 2012. Its not there now. Wonder why?

 

[mokin]

Thanks for the replies. I guess I was just wondering what the difference is between running a case through a bulge buster and just shooting it, provided it looks safe and chambers in a pistol with the fully supported chamber. I get the concern about not knowing how many times a piece of range brass has been fired. I'm not too worried about that as it seems the primer pocket expands or the case neck splits before worse things happen.

Just for fun, I made a batch of 150 or so rounds, not quite full power 10mm Auto, but as fast as I could get the bullets to go before they started to keyhole. A 180 grain bullet at around the 1200 fps mark, shot over my chronograph, not using theoretical published velocities. I measured and Dremeled two cases after each shooting to look inside. I gave it up after 14 shootings. While most of the primer pockets were still tight and I had only a few neck splits, I figured I'd got my moneys worth. It was fun.

 

[jmorris]

Thanks for the replies. I guess I was just wondering what the difference is between running a case through a bulge buster and just shooting it,

Maybe nothing, maybe the difference between it working or not.

Push through dies and roll size dies are intended to size the portion of a case that you can't size with normal processes.

The part of the case that is in the shell holder obviously goes untouched as does any area below the limits that the size die is in contact with the case.

That is not necessarily the bottom of the die either, lots have a radius at the bottom to help the case enter, you have to include that part too.

In short if there is a ding in the rim from the extractor/ejector that might get Hun up entering the breech face or the OD of the case is too large below the point your die can resize to, then a base size die could help. If there are no issues to address, then it won't do a thing.

 

[scythefwd]

fire forming and bulge busters work opposite eachother. Fire forming expands the brass to the chamber. Bulge busters compress the brass to get rid of the guppy belly on the brass that comes from firing it in an unsupported chamber.. One is expanding the brass to fit a chamber, the other is compressing it back into specs..