Glock reloading

[fitnessinsurgency]

Any opinions on reloading for glocks.  I have a glock 17 and a 19.  I am finding mixed opinions on whether it is safe to reload glock shot ammo.

[cmxterra]

I tend to stick with factory loads. YMMV

[Bradbn4]

Yes it is; however, (don't ya all hate that?)

The standard Glock barrel does not fully support the brass case; so a recommendation would be to replace the barrel with a Lone Wolf Dist.  The added benefit is that you can shoot lead, have a spare barrel.

You should also do a 100% re-size of the brass and then shoot the ammo in a barrel that fully supports the round.


http://www.lonewolfdist.com/Products.aspx?CAT=238

<standard rifling >

[Jack Crabb]

The Glock 17 and 19 should be OK with jacketed bullets. The 22 and 23 in .40 S&W seem to rupture case heads from time to time.

Lead bullets are not compatible with the polygonal rifling in the factor Glock barrel.

[RacinRob]

I think that the 9mm is fine or at least I haven't had a problem.

[Ronin4hire]

Used to be that my "speed" at hand reloading wasnt worth it when I could buy bulk commercial reman ammo.
But gone are the days of $115ish/k of 115gn FMJ and buying 5-8k rounds a month (the UPS guy hated me!)
Course at that price I was probably shooting 300+rnds/wk myself in addition to working as a professional instructor.
Kinda glad Im not in the business anymore, too $$$$ to keep at a professional practice level.
Dry-fire drills with laser trainers help, and an old box of leftovers fired thru once in a while

With the current scarcity and increase price of ammo, reloading may have to be an option.
Still wouldnt trust my life to a hobbyist/reload, but for range plinking?      CAVEAT EMPTOR!
I put my own weak FMJ loads thru my entire G-family (my 17s, 19 and 26) without a hitch.
Ran a few my buddy made for me as well- couple thousand rounds with just 1 squib that lodged in the barrel.
We both had single stage presses and full-lenght sized the cases guess 1 oopsie got by without the powder charge?
THANKFULLY I had the instant realization that POOF was bad and to NOT fire the next round...
Im sure the Glock is sturdy enough to handle it but I dont really wanna ever find out!

[NWPilgrim]

I've been reloading for Glock 9mm and .40 for about 15 years. No problems.  It reloads the same as for my other pistols.

The address some common concerns:

Glock says don't shoot reloads
Sure and so does nearly every other gun manufacturer. reloading is done at your own risk and will not be covered by warranty according to almost every mfg.

Don't shoot lead bullets in Glock polygonal rifled barrels
Depending on the hardness of your lead bullets they may or may not smear more than other means of rifling.  The specific concern is that lead may build up faster in Glock barrels and cause dramatic increase in pressure. Many of us find that if you clean your barrel well after every 200-300 rounds then the lead will not build up.  I do this about half the time and no issues whatsoever.  Also, depending on hardness of the lead bulelt esides increased lead smearing you may get less accuracy. If you are still concerned you can get an aftermarket barrel (Lone Wolf, Storm Lake, KKM, BarSto, etc) with traditional rifling. Or just reload plated or jacketed bullets.

Glock barrels cause dangerous case bulges
Apparently some Glock pistols do allow the base of the case body to bulge out some, but certainly not all, and I question whether this is dangerous or not.  I would see for yourself how your pistol forms the cases and see if it is a problem for you or not.  I shoot a Gen2 G22, Gen3G19 and G23, and Gen4 G27 and have not seen this happen at all. Nor have I seen it in the hundreds of cases I have picked up at the range from other shooters.

In summary I do not do anything different for my Glocks than I do for any other pistol reloading.

[Alpha Mike]

I have been reloading for my first gen Glock 17 for 20+ years, never had a problem.  If you are competent at reloading, you should have no problems either.

[RacinRob]

Glock barrels cause dangerous case bulges
Apparently some Glock pistols do allow the base of the case body to bulge out some, but certainly not all, and I question whether this is dangerous or not.  I would see for yourself how your pistol forms the cases and see if it is a problem for you or not.  I shoot a Gen2 G22, Gen3G19 and G23, and Gen4 G27 and have not seen this happen at all. Nor have I seen it in the hundreds of cases I have picked up at the range from other shooters.

That suprises me, if I dumped out my couple of buckets of .40 I would bet that 25% - 50% have noticeable bulges at the base of the case.  You can tell that they are Glock fired by the primer.  What I don't know is if it is dangerous or not.

[Bradbn4]

Glock barrels cause dangerous case bulges
Apparently some Glock pistols do allow the base of the case body to bulge out some, but certainly not all, and I question whether this is dangerous or not.  I would see for yourself how your pistol forms the cases and see if it is a problem for you or not.  I shoot a Gen2 G22, Gen3G19 and G23, and Gen4 G27 and have not seen this happen at all. Nor have I seen it in the hundreds of cases I have picked up at the range from other shooters.

That surprises me, if I dumped out my couple of buckets of .40 I would bet that 25% - 50% have noticeable bulges at the base of the case.  You can tell that they are Glock fired by the primer.  What I don't know is if it is dangerous or not.

Even the ones with bulges should be ok at normal / reduced loads if the case is
  1) fully resized in a push thru resizing rig.
  2) shot in an aftermarket barrel that fully supports the brass

I would expect that the brass that has the bulge will be weaker and show excessive wear much sooner than one that did not exhibit this issue.  So instead of getting X amount of reloads per brass, it might be .5X.  Where X = the number of average brass reloads before being forced to stop using the brass for reloading purposes.

[zanedclark@att.net]

Here is one thread from the Cast Bullet Association on shooting lead through factory Glock barrels http://www.castbulletassoc.org/forum/view_topic.php?id=7532&forum_id=4&highlight=glock

I don't have a Glock, but shoot lead through an old Smith 469 with no problems and through my 92SB Beretta 9mm.  With the Baretta, I don't get good results yet, but am still working on the issue.

If you are interested in casting and reloading lead, then the CBA is a good resource.
z

[Kilroy]

Two national sporting good store chains have both been unable to sell cleaning kits designed to remove lead from gun barrels.  Sadly, few shooters know how to remove lead, or even when they should.  Mostly, many ignore the lead and shoot some jacketed rounds to "clean out" the lead.

No manufacturer will warranty against reloads.

[John Doe]

I know this is an old topic but it may be of benefit to someone wanting to reload .40 cal for Glocks.
My brother is a Glock certified armorer & an avid reloader, He says that the Glock "kaboom" can be eliminated with the use of the GRX push through die by Redding.
ymmv of course

[endurance]

I just got a text this week from a friend I split 2,000 rounds of reloads with we ordered off the interweb. His fifth case failed and burned his hand. He shoots a glock 17. Why he continues to use this ammo boggles my mind. I've shot almost my entire 1,000 and haven't had a single problem yet, but I shoot an XD9.

If I had control over my brass and knew how many times it's been reloaded, I just might be willing to take the chance. But shooting some interweb reloads through a glock seems foolhardy to me.

[Carl]

I have had no problems with 9 mm glock with non Plus P loads ,A fully supported chamber barrel  will help avoid over worked brass. The 40 cal Glocks were a whole other story and while our INDOOR (near minimum loads) were OK often factory NEW rounds would fail in the 40 cal Glocks.

[Knecht]

Never had a problem with 9mm or 40SW in my Glocks, no matter if new or reloaded.

[mnotlyon]

Any opinions on reloading for glocks.  I have a glock 17 and a 19.  I am finding mixed opinions on whether it is safe to reload glock shot ammo.

I reload my hunting ammo for my Glock 20. I use a Lone Wolf barrel, and load them hot.
I've never had any problems.

[TiredOldGrunt]

I reload .40 for my M&P, I can shed *some* light on the subject.

I bought 1K rnds of once fired brass, and I can tell what brass was shot in a weapon with an unsupported chamber (GLOCK?!?!).

I must run my brass though the Lee Bulge Buster prior to the rest of my process in order to size the entire wall of the brass, about 75% of my once fired brass has the "Glock Bulge" (glocked brass).

The brass I have previously shot in my M&P does *NOT* require "de-bulging" because my chamber is fully supported and clears checks with the Dillon chamber gauge.

Pick another weapon (M&P, Sig, Etc?) to reload your brass from.

TOG

[TiredOldGrunt]

I focused on .40, sorry I should have mentioned 9mm.  40 is a high pressure round, however the 9 can/may suffer from bulging also since it too is also an unsupported chamber.

https://www.google.com/search?q=glock+17+unsupported+chamber&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Again, YMMV.

TOG

[bdhutier]

I focused on .40, sorry I should have mentioned 9mm.  40 is a high pressure round, however the 9 can/may suffer from bulging also since it too is also an unsupported chamber.

https://www.google.com/search?q=glock+17+unsupported+chamber&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Again, YMMV.

TOG

.40 and 9mm both have about 35,000-37,800psi chamber pressure.

http://www.saami.org/specifications_and_information/specifications/Velocity_Pressure_CfPR.pdf

[Mortblanc]

See there,

If you had bought anything besides a Glock you would not be having this problem!

[TiredOldGrunt]

See there,

If you had bought anything besides a Glock you would not be having this problem!

HA HA!  There *is* a wee bit of truth to that!

Heres what I suggest..

1) Deprime and resize the brass
2) Drop it in a Dillon chamber gauge, if its good move on
3) If it wont go flush in the chamber gauge, debulge it and check again, it should be good... move on.

My chamber gauge just came in the mail the other day, after dropping 500 .40 rounds (of which I am SURE many were from a Glock), I only found *1* that was bulged.  YMMV

Simple!!

[John Doe]

I just started reloading for rifle a few months ago.
My plan is to reload for my Glock too as I progress in the hobby.
I have a Glock 23/19 as of this weekend. I bought a Lone Wolf 9mm barrel & glock 9mm ejector.
I went through my .40 brass & had no problem finding brass with bulges 
So I don't think I'll reload for .40 as I have a nice pile of factory ammo for it.
But I will eventually reload for 9mm once I've piled up a good stash of .223
so what am I trying to say? I dunno, just rambling I guess lol

[endurance]

I just started reloading for rifle a few months ago.
My plan is to reload for my Glock too as I progress in the hobby.
I have a Glock 23/19 as of this weekend. I bought a Lone Wolf 9mm barrel & glock 9mm ejector.
I went through my .40 brass & had no problem finding brass with bulges 
So I don't think I'll reload for .40 as I have a nice pile of factory ammo for it.
But I will eventually reload for 9mm once I've piled up a good stash of .223
so what am I trying to say? I dunno, just rambling I guess lol

There are aftermarket barrels for Glocks that prevent bulges and fully support the brass and allow you to reload.  I'm not a Glock guy, but I've seen people post threads on them being between $125-175.

[John Doe]

There are aftermarket barrels for Glocks that prevent bulges and fully support the brass and allow you to reload.  I'm not a Glock guy, but I've seen people post threads on them being between $125-175.

I forgot to add that part of what drove me to switch from .40 to 9mm is we switched at work.
So I was going to try & find someone on armslist to trade their g19 for my g23 but wound up doing this conversion instead. Now I have ammo options if need be making it more prepper friendly, aka more versatile.
I may get another lone wolf in .40 but for now I haven't even started reloading for pistol yet as I'm focusing on the AR- as far as reloading goes..
I hope I didn't drag this too off topic

[reefmarker]

Can someone post a picture of bulging glock brass with normal brass next to it?  Maybe I am missing something.

I have shot and reloaded 1000's of rounds through an old glock 22 and glock 23 and have never had a single issue with them (The glocks or the ammo).  Except the time my uncle shot a 9mm out of one.  Didn't hurt anything.  He though I screwed up a reload until we ejected it.  That was a bulging case!  I also have never noticed any bulges when resizing, but if it is minor maybe I wouldn't have noticed it?  Never had any issues with a reload (except a couple with dud primers.)

[Carl]

Can someone post a picture of bulging glock brass with normal brass next to it?  Maybe I am missing something.

I have shot and reloaded 1000's of rounds through an old glock 22 and glock 23 and have never had a single issue with them (The glocks or the ammo).  Except the time my uncle shot a 9mm out of one.  Didn't hurt anything.  He though I screwed up a reload until we ejected it.  That was a bulging case!  I also have never noticed any bulges when resizing, but if it is minor maybe I wouldn't have noticed it?  Never had any issues with a reload (except a couple with dud primers.)

Here you are ,Glock bulge brass photo...

[reefmarker]

Holy Cow!  I have never seen that from my G23 or G22! 

I would be worried about reloading if I ended up with that. 

I am on my 3rd 8lb bottle of powder plus lots of little 1 pounders and have never seen anything that locked that bad (and a good deal of elcheapo winchester white box ammo).  I am guessing my 2 .40 glocks have each seen over 5000 rounds with nothing that looks like that.  I usually trash .40 brass because it has been stepped on or an extractor has torn up the rim.

[Carl]

Holy Cow!  I have never seen that from my G23 or G22! 

I would be worried about reloading if I ended up with that. 

I am on my 3rd 8lb bottle of powder plus lots of little 1 pounders and have never seen anything that locked that bad (and a good deal of elcheapo winchester white box ammo).  I am guessing my 2 .40 glocks have each seen over 5000 rounds with nothing that looks like that.  I usually trash .40 brass because it has been stepped on or an extractor has torn up the rim.

If you look close ,it is often due to poor maintenance or a Glock being able to fire slightly out of battery
with the cartridge not quite fully in place within the chamber. I used to load 80,000 9MM and
75,000 or so 40 cal each month for training ammo (LEO) and it happens most often when rapid fire
is used and when the gun in question had not had the chamber cleaned properly resulting in a
slight out of battery condition. I cure most of it by running a chamber reamer(slow battery drill to turn it)
into each weapon and the result after 50 or so guns was an embarrassing pile of lead,copper,and powder residue. 

[reefmarker]

Interesting Carl.

I am a nut about keeping a clean weapon, so that may help me out.  I was at a class once and the instructor commented that that was the cleanest Glock he had ever seen including new ones right out of the box!