RE: Reloading Glock-fired brass
Hey all,
I am glad to contribute to this conversation with everything I have learned thus far. It may help offer some explanation.
Here's my scenario. I shoot a Glock 23. The day I bought it I also bought two boxes of white box Winchester .40 so I could start right out and shoot. I went through almost a full box and kept my brass.
I currently own a Dillon SDB and bought the .40 dies for reloading. Then, based on the advise of a good friend, I ordered the Lone Wolf barrel. This would allow me to shoot with my unsupported Glock barrel, then reload that brass and fire it again with my Lone Wolf barrel, which is fully supported. As I continued shooting, I just made it a practice to target shoot with my Lone Wolf and carry with my Glock barrel.
Recently, I loaded about 1000 rounds of 165gr CMJ to practice with the same weight as my carry ammunition. Yesterday I was target shooting through a hundred rounds and my gun started jamming. I was completely stumped and feared my gun was damaged somehow. (Astonished someone could even BREAK a Glock) My problem was every other magazine I would have a few bullets jam 3/4 the way into the barrel. At that point I stopped and headed inside to investigate.
What I found was exactly the images posted. I'll see if I can post some tonight so folks can see this close up. Now I've seen pictures of the infamous "Glock bulge" left behind on brass and was convinced that I was not a victim of this problem. Yet, it seemed as though I was left with a couple dozen bullets ruined because the press/die left a hairline ridge on the brass half way around near the base.
I pulled the bullet on one round, deprimed it, and ran it through the resize again. No change. Still that ridge. Now time to re-create this problem to see if my fears are realized.
I took 4 rounds of Winchester white box and my factory Glock barrel. Went outside, fired off all four rounds, then picked them up and returned to my shop. I then removed the decap and ran all four through stage 1 resize. Of the four, two sized without a problem, two left the ridge.
My conclusion is that it will be by a random condition that any brass fired through a factory Glock barrel with a partiall unsupported chamber will create a micrometer size weakness near the base of the brass. During resizing, a standard vertical press die will not be able to recompress that small portion of the brass and will instead leave that ridge which will jam your rounds. As this is random, I can say that of my 100 rounds shot, I only had about two dozen create this crease. Because this is permanent, I have to find some free time to knock all the bullets out, reclaim the powder, and decap the primer, then discard the brass.
Lesson learned: If you fire brass in your factory Glock barrel and you reload them, be ready for these failures. Target shoot as much as possible with a fully supported barrel such as Lone Wolf. Practice your defense and carry with your Glock barrel.
I guess that's the price of "Glock ownership".
Regards,
Dan