# Processing WMA (16) 9mm Brass & The Blue Bullets



## USABAKER (Dec 15, 2020)

I'm not new to reloading, just to reloading for 9mm Luger. At the gun range where I work a Range Safety Office caters to Miltary and as a result, I have access to once shot Military brass.

I'm reloading WMA 9mm brass for my wife's P365XL and just started processing the brass. Having processed plenty of 5.56 and 7.62 Military brass I expected to have to deal with crimped primer pockets. Looking at the 9mm brass it looks to have been crimped but measuring is telling me something totally different.

In a 20 case sample I found:

After extracting the spent primer the primer pockets measure .170" -.000 /+ .001"
After using a Hornady Primer Pocket Reamer the dimensions remain the same at .170" -.000 /+ .001"
After Swaging the pockets measure exactly.171"

While reaming and swaging does add a taper at the mouth of the primer pocket which will make seating the new primer easier. I see no measurable change from swaged or reamed pockets.

This was just curiosity for me because it is totally different from what I see on Military rifle brass. Are the 9mm crimps, at least on the WMA brass, so slight that removal of the primer mitigates the crimp?

I also purchased 1300 9mm 115Gr RN bullets, has anyone loaded these? I would like to know how much you find you need to expand the case opening.

Thanks


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## paper2punch (Jan 24, 2021)

Bell the mouth so your bullet nestles squarely into the case mouth(about.050"). Be sure to test fire a few rounds to determine what length feed best. My LRN's are not true round noses, they are actually a 3/4 ellipse and must be loaded longer (.03) than cast lrns.


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## SamBond (Aug 30, 2016)

USABAKER said:


> Are the 9mm crimps, at least on the WMA brass, so slight that removal of the primer mitigates the crimp?
> I also purchased 1300 9mm 115Gr RN bullets, has anyone loaded these? I would like to know how much you find you need to expand the case opening.


I don't load crimped primer pocket brass but a shooting buddy does. He tells me you need to ream the pockets. That's all I got on that.
Only expand the case mouth as much as you have to so that you can start the bullet by hand, and no more. Test your expansion a little more every time until you're sure all of the cases will allow bullets to start. That is for jacketed or plated bullets. Hard cast lead is a little different.
What type of bullet are you using?

Sam


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