I loaded my first 30 rounds

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Michael94

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I got my reloading supplies a couple of years ago and never set it up until recently. I loaded my first 30 rounds of 9mm. Was using my once fired brass, a mix of S&B, Fed, Blazer, and Speer. 4.2gr of Win231 and Campro 124gr bullets.

20 were right at 1.15" and fired without issue. The other 10 were slightly too short at 1.149" or too long at 1.157". Not too sure what to do with these ones, since they are already crimped. My Lee book is pretty barebones and doesn't have much info in it. Haha.
 
Michael94 said:
I got my reloading supplies a couple of years ago and never set it up until recently. I loaded my first 30 rounds of 9mm. Was using my once fired brass, a mix of S&B, Fed, Blazer, and Speer. 4.2gr of Win231 and Campro 124gr bullets.

20 were right at 1.15" and fired without issue. The other 10 were slightly too short at 1.149" or too long at 1.157". Not too sure what to do with these ones, since they are already crimped. My Lee book is pretty barebones and doesn't have much info in it. Haha.
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Shoot them if they chamber. I load my 9mm short and never had an issue. I used to reload all at 1.090, but moved to 1.100
 
Michael94 said:
So it has nothing to do with the brass? I thought it was caused by the slight differences in brass length.
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You are going to get variations as you don't trim pistol brass. But a bullet that is slightly undersized will go in deeper, and one oversized will protrude out more. You'll never get 100% the same with mass produced bullets.

I can trim 30 carbine brass to the same length, I used pulled bullets and I'll get variations in the OAL.
 
Michael94 said:
So it has nothing to do with the brass? I thought it was caused by the slight differences in brass length.
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Brass length does not matter for the overall length of the reloaded cartridge as it is the distance from the shell holder to the bullet seating stem.

So a shorter case has more bullet "exposed" than a longer case provided both have the same overall length.
 
Still curious what 7 thousands longer OAL causes.
What press are you using and do you have die rings and seater stem etc. tight?
 
You are off to a good start. You still have a pistol and 10 fingers, right?

The barrel usually comes out of a 9mm pistol quite easily. The chamber then become the gauge you use when setting up your dies.

We do a "plunk test" with the first few rounds we load, to make sure they chamber properly. Drop a loaded round into the chamber and note how it drops in and should bottom out on the case mouth. It should spin easily and drop right out when you up end the barrel. This is the Plunk test.

If the bullet is seated too far out, it will engage the rifling. Won't make the same sound and the round won't spin easily in the chamber. A Fail.

The book OAL is a short setting that should fit in all chambers. CZ and Norinco tend to have short throats and need a bullet seated deeper than most other guns.

It is worth knowing how close you are to being "too long". I load some rounds at 1.125" and try them in all my chambers. If the bullet does not touch anything, I then set the die to 1.120", giving my self a good 5 thou of tolerance for all the variables. I suggest you try that. 1.115 is a bit short and might cause a feeding problem is some guns.

In the future, ignore the OAL listed in the book. Load a sample round long and see if it fits the chamber and the mag. If too long. seat deeper until it fits. That is the OAL for YOUR gun.
 
Lol I decided to reduce the OAL of my 9mm loads by like .08" one time to see if they'd feed better. Made no discernable difference (To pressure indicators, recoil, report, etc etc. They did feed better though). .008" is nothing for 9mm. You'll be fine.
 
I have a Lee classic 4 hole turret press, with the Lee deluxe 4 set for 9mm. I am not sure what a die seater or seater stem are. I have a Lyman head space gauge if that helps at all?

I will try the plunk test next time I am at the range. I only tried them with my fx9 PCC, I didn't try them in any handguns, was slightly nervous.

I am just loading for plinking not competition or anything. When I tried them in my fx9 I was able to hit my steel going at 50 yards and didn't notice any major shift in zero. If I get acceptable accuracy, will it be okay to keep loading them with the same set up? I'd like to just load bulk ammo for shooting with my Beretta 92f and fx9.

If the round is too long and engages the rifling, would that cause any damage or safety issues?

Thanks for all the help everyone
 
Michael94 said:
I have a Lee classic 4 hole turret press, with the Lee deluxe 4 set for 9mm. I am not sure what a die seater or seater stem are. I have a Lyman head space gauge if that helps at all?

I will try the plunk test next time I am at the range. I only tried them with my fx9 PCC, I didn't try them in any handguns, was slightly nervous.

I am just loading for plinking not competition or anything. When I tried them in my fx9 I was able to hit my steel going at 50 yards and didn't notice any major shift in zero. If I get acceptable accuracy, will it be okay to keep loading them with the same set up? I'd like to just load bulk ammo for shooting with my Beretta 92f and fx9.

If the round is too long and engages the rifling, would that cause any damage or safety issues?

Thanks for all the help everyone
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Loading them too long, all it is gonna happen is your slide might not fully close. I think you are over thinking it.

Let just say running 1.090 I had no issues feeding in a Grand Power k100, alfa proj, shadow 1, sp01, hi point carbine, sam 1911. And came home twice with 3rd place marksmen at PPC provincals with my SP01.
 
Michael94 said:
I have a Lee classic 4 hole turret press, with the Lee deluxe 4 set for 9mm. I am not sure what a die seater or seater stem are.
Click to expand...

The seater or seater stem is that part of the seating die that pushes against the bullet as you bring the case up into the seating die body.
This can be screwed down into the die body to adjust the seating depth and thus the OAL.

Did your die set not come with instructions? What reloading manual do you have?

And for the the plunk test you don't have to be at the range.
Pull your barrel out of your gun and check while you are reloading.
Or use a case gauge if you don't want to use your barrel/gun.

Better to find any issue at the reloading bench then at the range imo.
 
And for the the plunk test you don't have to be at the range.
Pull your barrel out of your gun and check while you are reloading.
Or use a case gauge if you don't want to use your barrel/gun.

Yes. Plunk test at the bench, before you crank out 1000 rounds that don't fit your chamber. The barrel is out of the gun and you use the chamber as the perfect gauge.

The problem with a case gauge is that it proves the ammo fits the gauge, but does not prove it will chamber in your gun. That is why we use the barrel.
 
bertn said:
The seater or seater stem is that part of the seating die that pushes against the bullet as you bring the case up into the seating die body.
This can be screwed down into the die body to adjust the seating depth and thus the OAL.

Did your die set not come with instructions? What reloading manual do you have?

And for the the plunk test you don't have to be at the range.
Pull your barrel out of your gun and check while you are reloading.
Or use a case gauge if you don't want to use your barrel/gun.

Better to find any issue at the reloading bench then at the range imo.
Click to expand...

Yes I adjusted the bullet seater down like it said to do in the instructions for the set. Then locked it in place. I have a Lee reloading book, but it's just not very in depth, and leaves me with lots of unanswered questions.
 
The seater die has 2 adjustments.

back out the seater stem a few revs so it does not touch the bullet. take a loaded round and push it up all the way. Turn the die body down until it touches the case mouth.
Turn it in 1/8 turn more and lack it. Then take a handful of other loaded rounds and try them. You should feel a little resistance on each of them.
That is the die applying a small taper crimp. You want enough taper crimp to get rid of the case mouth flare that started the loading process.

Once you have the crimp adjusted, you can lock the ring on the die body. It will never need adjusting again.

Then take soem loaded rounds (with the bullet you will be reloading) and adjust the seater stem down so it touched the bullet. Lock that setting.

The die is now set to seat and crimp. The seater stem will need adjusting when you change bullet shapes. After changing the stem, try a few rounds in the pistol chamber
for a plunk test and make sure they are not so long that they hang up in a magazine.
 
Michael94 said:
I have a Lee classic 4 hole turret press, with the Lee deluxe 4 set for 9mm. I am not sure what a die seater or seater stem are. I have a Lyman head space gauge if that helps at all?

I will try the plunk test next time I am at the range. I only tried them with my fx9 PCC, I didn't try them in any handguns, was slightly nervous.





I am just loading for plinking not competition or anything. When I tried them in my fx9 I was able to hit my steel going at 50 yards and didn't notice any major shift in zero. If I get acceptable accuracy, will it be okay to keep loading them with the same set up? I'd like to just load bulk ammo for shooting with my Beretta 92f and fx9.

If the round is too long and engages the rifling, would that cause any damage or safety issues?

Thanks for all the help everyone
Click to expand...

As far as engaging the rifling and the slide not closing you are kind of stuck with a loaded gun that you may not be able to safely pull back the slide to clear it. This happened to me with 45 ACP. I kept it pointed down range, cleared the mag and then called a ceasefire when everyone was done shooting that string. The RO recognized the problem and came up with a piece of 2x4 and a hammer and gave the slide a rap while I held it down range. The slide moved ahead a bit and I was able to discharge it. This was my first attempt at reloading for an auto-loader pistol and I had not put enough crimp on them. Had I used the drop test I would not have had a problem
 
Michael94 said:
I got my reloading supplies a couple of years ago and never set it up until recently. I loaded my first 30 rounds of 9mm. Was using my once fired brass, a mix of S&B, Fed, Blazer, and Speer. 4.2gr of Win231 and Campro 124gr bullets.

20 were right at 1.15" and fired without issue. The other 10 were slightly too short at 1.149" or too long at 1.157". Not too sure what to do with these ones, since they are already crimped. My Lee book is pretty barebones and doesn't have much info in it. Haha.
Click to expand...

What makes you think 1.150" is THE perfect OAL? And for what bullet? Different bullet shapes and weights will require seating depths, which will produce different OALs.

I can assure you that -.001" is absolutely nothing. It is probably less than your measuring error. +.007 is essentially negligible as well. Certainly not something to worry about.



Michael94 said:
So it has nothing to do with the brass? I thought it was caused by the slight differences in brass length.
Click to expand...

Think about the mechanics of seating the bullet in the case. What tools bear against which parts of the round? Brass length has no relation to bullet seating depth and thus OAL.



As someone has posted above, a bullet seated way too long will jam in the lands and likely stop the slide from closing. A bullet seated way too short can result in keyholing. The bullet cocks sideways as it leaves the case and then corkscrews down the barrel. I had that happen when I first started reloading.
 
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