Case bulge

[joeyj]

I started reloading 9 mm Luger this afternoon. I loaded 50 then I dropped them in my head space cage. Out of the 50, 6 refused to go in. They stuck out 64th to almost 1/8 of an inch. (I use a Lee progressive press) my question, is there a gadget or something that will straighten the case out, once it's been loaded ? I would look it up on Google but I'm not sure what to hunt for. Thank you, Joe

[bogey1]

How many times were they reloaded? I'm thinking the cases are stretching as I never ran into
a problem like this. But I also never used a head space gauge.

[gghbi]

First thing is to do a visual inspection to see what looks odd. Might give you a clue the best way to fix them. Are you seating and crimping in one step or two?

If nothing looks out of place, run them thru the seating die again and recheck. If you see something, it might be worth posting a picture.

[frankski]

Does the cash fit the gage before the bullet is seated? Does the bulge occur after the bullet is seated? Are you removing the bell in the crimp die? Are you sure the problem is case bulge rather than excessive OAL?

[DucatiRon]

So much to check. But yes there is a tool. I highly reccomend a Lee Factory crimp die. It will help reset the case mouth after flaring and will also help resize the brass on the up stroke. I will not load ammo without one and neither will most manufactures.

[Walleye Hunter]

Is that the Glock bulge I've heard of?

[joeyj]

I use both a seating and a crimping die. The quote with the

[Yoder]

All the 9 mm I load is shot in Glocks. I use nothing but range brass and I don't even keep track of how many times I've used the same cases. I used to but decided it doesn't matter. I load them until they split. To give you an idea, I've loaded somewhere around 50k rounds of just 9mm. I've never used a case gauge and I've never had a case that was bulged and wouldn't fit in the chamber. I also use a Lee Factory crimp die. It is awesome. The only problems I've ever had like that were from reloads a friend of mine gave me to test out. They wouldn't chamber. Turns out he didn't have his re-sizing die set up correctly. He set his so it didn't bottom out on the shell plate so the brass wasn't fully re-sized. If your brass is bulged and won't chamber, I would check your re-sizing die setup and also see if you have too much crimp and are deforming the case. Hope this helps.

[pstew]

You can use the 9mm Makarov LEE factory crimp die as a push through “bulge buster”. The 9 Mak is a straight wall case, so it works really well for me.. My reloads are much more reliable now, even though I’m using range brass that was shot through who knows what.

[ExFlyinguy]

Just an FYI. Lee does also make a die called a "bulge buster" but it does NOT work with 9mm. I have one for .40 that I use on very rare occasions when a reload ever so slightly won't 100% fit in my case gauge

*ETA: It's technically not a die, but an adapter to push the case completely through the die. The 9mm being ever so slightly tappered is why it can't be used on 9mm