Funny thing happened the other day....

[scattershot]

I have been reloading for 40 years or better, and I started with the .38 Special, so I've loaded a few of them. The other day I was reloading a general purpose load using lead SWC boolits. I was just about done when I noticed that I had several WCC military cases, so I thought I'd load them, too.

Long story short, the loaded rounds wouldn't fit in any .38 or .357 revolver I tried them in. I think there's a term in engineering called "tolerance stack" or something similar, which made the loaded rounds too fat to fit in the chambers.

Just something to be aware of, that military cases are apparently thicker than commercial cases.

I have never chamber checked revolver rounds, but I'm going to start.

Hope this saves someone some grief down the line.

 

[mikld]

I've run into the same situation; large for caliber wadcutters (.359"+) and thick case walls. Since I needed a large diameter bullet, I had a revolver with large throats .359"+, I took 'em apart and kept the thick walled brass for jacketed bullets.

 

[scattershot]

Thanks. The boolits were .360, and the cases were WCC 94 &95. I guess the combo was just too large for the chamber. Never experienced this before. BTW, the case of the loaded round measured .380 at the crimp. My other loads and commercial rounds measure .378/.379.

Not sure what the diameter of the chamber is, but it's gotta be pretty close.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I had a similar problem with 44-40 in my Ruger Vaqueros. .429 bullets were just too big to chamber, and .427 work just fine. You know that has got to be close. I have 3 or 4 brands of brass and the same is true for all of them. I test fit every round before putting away, but now I use a Lee Factory Crimp Die and when testing loaded ammo's fit, maybe 3 per 1000 have a problem (down from almost 20%). Ivan

 

[moxie]

Never have had the problem. Scores (hundreds?) of different headstamps including WCC plus other military brass. Many different brands and types of bullets. Never had one that wouldn't chamber. Tight yes, sometimes. But they always go in.

Did they go in at all? All but the last quarter inch or so?

 

[ACP230]

I started out loading military cases in .38 Special.
Still got a few hanging around. Scratched and "experienced" but
still working.

Have never had one that would not chamber since I started using a press instead of the sort of primitive Lee Loader kit.

I have found Remington cases to be thinner, overall, than several other
brands. They work fine too.

 

[GyMac]

I have a bunch of those WCC cases, but even with wadcutters I have no trouble getting them to chamber. I use a Lee Factory Crimp die.

 

[scattershot]

Never have had the problem. Scores (hundreds?) of different headstamps including WCC plus other military brass. Many different brands and types of bullets. Never had one that wouldn't chamber. Tight yes, sometimes. But they always go in.

Did they go in at all? All but the last quarter inch or so?

Nope. Wouldn't go in at all. The combination of a .360 boolit and the military case resulted.in a diameter.of .382 at the case mouth, which is .002 over the diameter of the chamber. Live and learn, I guess.

These will probably work fine with a jacketed bullet of .357/.358 diameter.

 

[Doubless]

When I first started handloading and casting my own about 35 years ago, I bought a Lee TL mould for the 148 WC. I found that about 30% of the projectiles bulged the cases to where they wouldn't chamber. My "fix" may scare some of you but I swear it is as safe as it gets:

What I did was take the de-capping assembly out of the sizer die and run the loaded round into the carbide sizer die. It swaged the lead down to the appropriate size, and there was no issue with chambering from that point.

I don't use the Lee TL mould any more for that single reason: I now have several H&G full WC moulds in ten cavity, and that is what I use, sizing to .358, so the problem disappeared. But this will work if you decide to try it.

 

[BC38]

What if you was to put some 147g 9mm jacketed boolits into them cases? do you have enough cases to make it worth buying 100 of the 9mm's?

 

[papajohn428]

This is why I try to segregate my military brass from the commercial stuff. Undersized bullets can help, but you still have issues now and then. Older brass can also become work-hardened and stiff, not wanting to accept a new bullet. You can anneal the brass, or just pitch it, if it's that old and well-used it's probably on its last legs anyway.

 

[lefty60]

I have been having the same type of issues with 9mm and cast bullets! My dies are RCBS. I prefer to use a 4th die for crimping.

So I purchased a LEE carbide crimping die. In the instructions that came with it they stated that with over sized cast bullets the die would resize the round to the correct size, allowing proper functioning.

Well by golly it works! I had loaded 400 rds of 9mm with 147gr cast bullets. I had some ugly looking reloads with about 10% that would not chamber!

I tested the Lee die with some dummy rounds, it seemed to work. So I ran the entire 400 rds thru the Lee die. It worked slick! The finished rounds look great and all of them will chamber with ease !!

I load a lot of cast bullets, but I no longer cast or size them myself. I am adding the LEE carbide crimp die to each of my handgun die sets.

 

[scattershot]

What if you was to put some 147g 9mm jacketed boolits into them cases? do you have enough cases to make it worth buying 100 of the 9mm's?

Actually, I only have 20 or so of these cases, so it's not worth the effort. I'm just going to move on without them.