Hornady HAP in Federal and Win NATO brass

[cwsanfor]

I've been loading 9mm 125gr HAP at 1.10 or 1.09 COL in Federal brass with the Redding taper die that comes with the Competition Pro set. The finished round has a diameter of .377 at the mouth, which I take to be a normal crimp. All is well with this round. Hornady loads the same bullet in their Steel Match round with a .376 crimp, which I assume to be due to steel cases being thinner than brass.

So I decided to try the HAP in some swaged NATO WCC brass with no changes to the dies, and I get a .379 crimp (NATO WCC is thicker than Federal brass, so no surprise), but also a bulge at the base of the bullet, about the middle of the COL, measuring .380. It's not enough to make the round fail to enter, on its own weight, the Wilson case gauge or the Glock barrel, but almost. They will not freely spin in the barrel like factory rounds, or my other handloads. The bulge is quite visible: it's like a ring in the middle of the round. The rounds will chamber and manually eject, but I haven't fired any yet. I suspect that the additive effect of using a .356 bullet and thicker brass is causing this bulge.

I could:

1) Use the Lee Factory Crimp Die and no doubt mash this bulge away, but that would likely swage the bullet down, and be using the FCD to "cover up errors in my loading procedure",

2) Stick to thinner brass like Starline or Federal with HAP bullets, but I'd like to use the several thousand NATO cases I have,

3) Possibly adjust the Redding die (or try the Hornady and Lee regular crimp dies I have around, but I'm not sure any of those dies are doing much, or should do much, that low on the case anyway.

4) Do something else.

I'd appreciate your opinions as to whether this is a problem, and if so, what you would do about it. Thanks in advance.

 

[CatShooter]

You are being too anal about it.

One thou (or several thou) in the mouth dia is nothing. Remember that this is a submachine gun round.

The bulge in the middle of the case is because the case walls are thicker (Martha Stewart says, "... and that's a GOOD thing " )

We all like our ammo to look like factory, but when you are mixing and matching, you cannot reasonably do it. It only takes a few thou to make a ring in the body... but it is clear that the loaded cases are free to function and eject.

Enjoy them.

Meow

 

[CJ6]

Is this affecting your Groups ? Cycling ? Pressure ?

 

[cwsanfor]

As was pointed out by GooseGestapo on THR, I was oversizing the brass. I had screwed the Redding sizing dies down to the shellplate the other day for some reason. Adjusting it out 1/2 turn allowed me to go back to using the Redding crimp die, and putting the Lee FCD away. No unsightly bulge now, and everything chambers better. I also removed a bit of flare, but that was not so much the problem.

All the rounds seemed to have the bullet concentrically seated.

Thanks all, for your thoughtful responses.