Slight Bulge in cases? Pic added

scsims

scsims

New member
I have noticed that all my reloaded cases have a slight bulging ring around the bottom of the half of the case about 3/8" from the base of the case.

I have seen this on FL sized cases but these are with my 243 and only have been neck sized.

I'll post some pics tonight.

Any know what I'm talking about or do you need to see some pics?
 
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Dont hold it to me cause i dont know a whole lot about reloading yet but it sounds like either bad cases or more chamber pressure than what u should have.it could be several other things to.u need to go to a gun shop and talk to them befor somthing bad happends to yourself or your rifle.
 
Post a pic and I can answer positive....for now without seeing the brass and going only by what you said, I would assume all is well. The brass will expand to your chamber, which is the reason you have to resize the brass to begin with.
 
Is this bulge just on one side. If so, it is normal. the case is laying in the bottom of the chamber and there is a natural gap at the top. When fired it swells to fit the gap. If you are not getting stiff extraction or bolt lift all should be ok. Like TC said, a picture will help to determine for sure.
 
Here is a pic. It almost looks to me like where the sizing die stopped.

f6c01e39.jpg
 
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you got more than a couple loadings on that
brass huh!

That bottom part of your brass wont expand the same as the rest, as its thicker there, Plus I have never had a size die that went all the way down. I dont think there is any wrong with it, I have about 300 rounds of 6mm rem and a whole pile of .223 that looks just like it. If you dont like the looks of it, tumble it with walnut it will go away.
 
looks normal to me too. you can bend a paper clip in a small "L" to fit inside the case. it is a feeler which you can check for roughness and cracking. after several loadings the case will sometimes crack there. i had a 22-250 that after about 20+ loadings some of the cases would develope a crack part way around the case just up from the base.
 
i have had some of my .260rem look like this after first reload. local gun shop had told me same thing others here have said and it was from my dies.i was using corncob media and went to like furhunter says walnut and they did clean up better.
 
I'm am fairly new to reloading as well and I asked this same question last year. Everyone pretty much agreed it was normal...here is my pic I took of my .243 case. With higher quality brass(lapua) I don't see any case bulge.

243bulge.jpg
 
scsims,

Your photo, and the chamber marks, look normal to me
I had something similar happen to me on a 15" .30-06 Encore barrel sometime ago.
Using new Winchester brass while working up loads for the gun, I noticed that they were coming out of the chamber with a noticable "pronounced" web ring. The loads were no where near maximum. The web ring was different than what your photo shows, and, like I said, much more pronounced.

At this point, I realized that the chamber was maybe cut to a larger spec., and maybe my dies were tighter.
On the other hand, I noticed that when I used another new batch of Remington brass with the same load, I didn't get that bright ring what so ever.
It doesn't mean that one brand of brass is better than the other really, maybe harder, softer, or thicker.
Don't know.

I do know that brass that shows this bright ring on a regular basis, more than likely will fail quicker.

FWIW,
Bob
 
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I'm am fairly new to reloading as well and I asked this same question last year. Everyone pretty much agreed it was normal...here is my pic I took of my .243 case. With higher quality brass(lapua) I don't see any case bulge.

243bulge.jpg




This a VERY normal case.

The Lapua does not look like this because the inside walls are shaped differently on Lapua cases.

There is nothing worng here.

CatShooter
 
That is normal. Factory or standard reamer chambers are often slightly oversized. The brass had to grow to meet the chamber walls when fired. The actuall solid portion of the casehead will NOT grow, but the flexable thinner body portion can and will. The expansion is the area ahead of the casehead where your brass body grew to meet the chamber. If you FL size it, I bet it is gone or diminshed considerably.

A min spec or match reamer would be much tighter, and will usually not show that sign (also one reason they use less powder too)
 
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