Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Straight Walled Handgun Case Too Long to Chamber?

NOTE, THIS POST IS ABOUT STRAIGHT WALLED HANDGUN CASES ONLY --- BOTTLE NECK RIFLE CASES ARE ENTIRELY DIFFERENT.

The following occurred to me as I read the �Brass trimming question� thread.

Has anyone experienced a straight walled revolver/pistol cartridge failing to chamber that could be directly attributed to the case itself being too long?

In a semi auto, I�m talking about the case mouth stopping at the end of the chamber causing an out of battery condition. In a revolver or single shot, the cartridge not seating deep enough to close the action or rotate the cylinder (or thought to cause an overpressure situation due to impeding bullet release).

I�m not talking about failures to chamber resulting from various loaded cartridge problems (i.e., wrinkled cases, improper crimp, shaved lead in crimp, oversized bullets, overall length, nose profile, etc.).

I�ll start with my experience:

I have several thousand .45 ACP cases from multiple mfgs, that have been shot I don�t know how many times. I have multiple thousand .45 Colt and .44 Mag cases from maybe four different mfgs that have seen considerable use/reloads. Also have an original batch (now retired) of 500 Starline .475 LB cases that were loaded at least 20 times. Also have 9mm, .38spcl, .357 Mag, .44 spcl, 40 S&W, 10mm, that have seen substantial use, but not as much as the .44s, 45s, 475s.

None of these cases have ever been trimmed and to the best of my knowledge, I have never had a failure to chamber due to a case that was �too long (or one too short to fire). In fact, the .475 LB cases actually got shorter over time.

Most of the new straight walled cases that I�ve measured are at or below the minimum recommended trim length.

NOTE, THIS POST IS ABOUT STRAIGHT WALLED HANDGUN CASES ONLY --- BOTTLE NECK RIFLE CASES ARE ENTIRELY DIFFERENT.

FWIW,

Paul

I have never had a case be too long to chamber, 38SPL, 357MAG, 41MAG, 44MAG, and 45ACP. I have checked several, and in 45ACP many once fired were actually below minimum dimensions. In the 38SPL I load for my S&W 52-2 I do trim them all to .010 below max for consistency. I normally have the necks crack before any too long of case happens.

I've never had a straightwall pistol case fail to chamber because the case was too long.

I have had them fail to chamber because repeated heavy loads have swelled the case at the base and the sizing die doesn't go down far enough to size the case there.

I generally keep loading handgun brass until the case mouth splits. I have no doubt I have cases that have been loaded well over 20 times and some that have seen repeated heavy loads.

Out of curiousity I'll have to measure some cases, but in my experience straightwall pistol cases don't need to be trimmed.

Nope.

Me neither.

I've never measured a straight wall pistol case. I've been reloading for handguns since 1980....I haven't had that experience yet.

No. Never.

Ernie

Paul,
In nearly 40 years of loading straight walled cartridges, I have only trimmed one batch of 50. That batch wasn't too long but I was anal enough to think that if they were "exactly" the same length, crimp and accuracy would be better. The crimp probably was better; better accuracy was undetectable.

I reload mostly for revolvers, but have never seen a case get too long to chamber. Mine seem to increase hardly at all or actually get shorter.