[B.Sauer]

There’s the rub, I still use a single stage press! Much easier for me. No, you can’t check an un-sized case easily/quickly for a bulge. An un-sized case won’t ever seat in a case gauge. Yes, I have my air gun hose down beside me to regularly blow debris from the case gauge and press. You could maybe just run all your brass thru the sizing stage only and check each case when done, then finish off with the different stages with the non bulged cases. Yes, it’s a time thing. You can run a finished round thru the bulge buster no problem. Maybe just drop each finished round thru the case gauge and the ones that don’t just freely drop in/out put aside for a bulge buster run. You shouldn’t really have that many, I don’t. My CZ SP01 has no problem with the slightly bulged case rounds, it’s the match barrel guns that will hang up. I had a live round stuck in the chamber once and I couldn’t get it into battery to fire it at the range. I brought it home and beat the slide back with a mallet to finally eject it out. Scared the hell out of me while doing it. I told my wife, don’t be alarmed if you hear a gun shot coming from the garage!
Happy Thanksgiving and shooting!
Bob

[B.Sauer]

You are correct about Lee not supporting or advising using the bulge buster on 9mm due to the case rim and slight taper. They used to not advise against it, but now do. However, using the bulge buster with the 9x18mm (Makarov) die, it will work. You force the case up thru the die which will remove the bulge near the rim. I use mine more for .45 ACP. I’ve used the 9mm a number of times, but usually just toss the bulged case instead. There is a real concern about re-forming the brass like that at the case head. The concern is it weakens the brass and then you have a case head separation upon firing and that is a big, big problem. After I size my clean, de-primed brass, I drop it in my Wilson case gauge. It should fall in flush, no pushing and then turn it over and drop out on it’s own. If the case is ALMOST flush with the case gauge and a little/lot of a push will make it flush and it won’t fall out on it’s own, the case is bulged. If it’s bulged, it goes into another coffee can for later. I do the same procedure again with my finished rounds before I put them into my inventory. It’s sounds overkill, but it really only adds about 3 seconds total per round. I have good tunes on and I enjoy the time and great results.
P.S. You need to purchase the bulge buster kit and the 9×18 die separately. You need both.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 4 months ago by B.Sauer.

[B.Sauer]

It sounds like the case was bulged. If the COAL is fine and the round didn’t chamber without bashing the back of the slide, the case was bulged. Be sure to check each case after you size them in a Wilson case gauge. If the empty case won’t drop in flush with the gauge and drop out, the case is bulged and won’t chamber in a normal to tight barrel chamber. It is usually referred as the “Glock bulge” because Glock chambers are typically not fully supported and will cause a bulge on the fired case near the case head. You can search the internet for the most common ways to get rid of the bulge in a case. I use the Lee bulge buster. I may get 10 bulged cases out of 100 from the range brass I pick up. A bulged case round will not chamber in my Springfield 1911, it will do exactly as you explained.

[B.Sauer]

I’ve been using a load suggested by an Alliant rep on another website. Snappy and accurate with these bullets.
6.7 grains BE-86
COAL 1.265
Average 856 ft/s
Springfield 5″ 1911

I’ve also used WSF.
6.4 grains WSF
COAL 1.255
Average 833 ft/s
Springfield 5″ 1911

I prefer the BE-86.

[Author]

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