Kamotion

The following is from RPatton above: "I don't know why they call it a "chamber" gauge since it is rarely a duplicate of the chamber and the error of assuming that it is will leave you standing there clearing a "fat bullet" jam while the meter is running." This is probably the truest statement of the entire conversation. So here is what I found. I have 5 different 40 cal pistols....Glock and S&W...and I have a Dillon 40SW chamber check and DoubleAlpha chamber check and LE Wilson chamber check. I know this would have been a better test if I had a couple of more brands of case gages and more brands of barrels...but this is what I have. I got caught in a competition with "fat bullets" because; 1) I did not use my calipers often enough 2) I trusted the dillon case gage. It had never come up in thousands of rounds that I hit that sweet spot where it fit the dillon case gage and not the barrel. After doing a lot of measuring and making a bunch of fat bullets of various sizes it was actually easy to duplicate my lack of attention to size. I found that if your ammo is perfect or close to perfect it will fit in the LE Wilson. Of the case gages I have the LE Wilson is by far the closest to SAAMI Spec. This is good and bad, kind of. If your ammo fits the LE Wilson, it will fit in any of the barrels. The bad part is, most reloaded ammo is off a little. A little bulgy, a little croocked, a little not square....we are not talking a lot but in measurements of a thousandth or half a thousdandths of and inch. So if you can reload to make it fit the LE Wilson......you are back to SAAMI specs....yeah!!!! Maybe if you use one of those push through dies, you might make it back to SAMMI. I do not use the pass through die because I am using used brass and half or more of what I shoot I never get back during an idpa or uspsa match. I just don't want to spend all the extra time when I will never see it again. So I found that the doublealpha case gage which holds 20 rounds is just slightly sloppier than the LE Wilson.....but a lot tighter than the Dillon. Being a little sloppier it was just enough to allow for a reloaded cartridge that was "A little bulgy, a little croocked, a little not square".....not a lot but in the "thousandth or half a thousdandths" range. So the LE Wilson was unforgiving and the DoubleAlpha is a little forgiving for us reloaders and the best part is...if it fit the doublealpha, it will fit any barrel I owned and I also tried it in some other 40 cal brands at the local gun store. To fit in the LE Wilson it needs to be no larger than .423 at the neck and no larger that .424 at the base...SAMMI....and it needs to be straight. In the DoubleAlpha it can be .423 at the neck and .4245 at the base or at SAAMI with a half thoudandsth crookedness or buldge and it will still go in the case gage and in all the barrels. Of course if you have a really tight chamber in your gun you will have to make your own tests. Yes, everyone says use your barrel as the final check, and that would be fine if you only shoot in one barrel. The point to all of this is to let you know that you need to make sure your case gage (ie dillon) is close enough to SAAMI that it will not let fat ammo through that will not chamber in your firearm. In the photos are cartridges that do not fit the DA but easily plop into the Dillon. FYI... all 20 holes in the DA were (as I could determine) the same. I am going to return the Dillon chamber check and see if I had an abnormal unit. Thanks rp

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you but here's what I found out .I ordered the LE Wilson case gauge and I ordered the double alpha block that holds 20 bullet at a time everything is in 40 caliber. The Le Wilson of the three chambered checkers is by far the tightest and when I tried different bullets from different manufacturers the only thing I could get to go into the le Wilson was a brand new bullet . anything that I had reloaded or picked up at the range if it was just off the tiniest bit it would not fit in the LE Wilson so the best I can tell is the only Wilson Chamber check is like absolutely tight to saami specs. So all my brass is a total mixed bag of brands and they probably all got shot out of multiple kinds of guns. I'm using a Redding sizing die and it seems like it does a really good job. Everything fits just right and it goes into the double alpha chamber check and when it fits the double alpha chamber check then it fits the barrel in my Glock and it fits the barrel in my Smith and Wesson without a problem. I do not have one of those U dies but I suspect if I did have a U dye it would make the casings even closer to being new and probably at that point it would fit into the LE Wilson but what I have found out is the Dillon 40 caliber chamber check is unbelievably sloppy and there is a sweet spot where it was still fit in the Dillon but not in the Glock barrel. I'm going to take some measurements and I'll post the specs over the weekend. Just to finalize this LE Wilson is the tightest and probably the most exact the double alphas are just slightly larger and the Dillon is huge I will not be using the Dillon anymore.

After using my Dillon chamber check for years.....40 cal....I have discovered that it is about .005 larger than the chamber of my 40 cal Glock. Without going into all the numbers, while changing some dies around I hit the sweet spot where the finished cartridges passed the chamber check gage with ease but would not fully seat in the barrel. So every last one was chamber checked in the gage and then,checked in the barrel during a USPSA match. ? so I had about 40% that would not let the slide fully seat. I get it now and am in the process of measuring all my case gages to see if they meet saami specs or are slightly off one way or another. It will be interesting to see what the variations are between each 40 cal barrel and each 9mm barrel and each 45 barrel. When I get done I will post a list of the chamber sizes and the case gage sizes. I have not figured out how to measure them yet. When using the inside jaws of the calipers they do not reach all the way down to where the crimp would be. Thanks. Randall

Steve you are the man! And correct! Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

I believe you're correct someone was just too lazy to finish the job. They should not have been trimmed in the first place I'm sure. So for now I'm going to put them in the scrap bucket. Thanks to all of you for your ideas and if nothing else I learn something. RP

Noylj I believe that you are exactly correct. Trimming them was the wrong thing to do in the first place for 40 cal pistol. They were supposedly used once. Other than smoothing each one by hand they are pretty much unusable. I'm going to put them in the scrap bucket. Thanks to all of you for your extra ideas though. RP

I don't have ss pins but tumbling is a good idea to try. I was going to put them in the scrap bucket for brass recycle. I have plenty of brass and do not want to sit and hand sand with wet or dry sand paper. I will let you know.thanks rp

After pulling apart the ones that have the copper scraped off....I have found that they a re from a batch of brass that I purchased off of amazon. They are trimmed.....why I don't know.......and not chamfered or Deburred. So the edges are sharp inside and out. When I went back to my regular brass.....no problems. I'm not going to mess with deburring and will find someone at the next uspsa shoot to give them to that does not mind do it. I took a look at the Hornady and Redding seating dies and will order one tomorrow. The belling suggestion made me take a look at my bell and I was able to back it off a little. Do you think one of the other brands has a more "full length" sizing die than Dillon? Rp

Seating die causing copper plated bullets to get shaved. I am using a Dillon 650 with Dillon dies. Sometimes.....I get some copper shaving on the side of the bullet. Yes the brass is belled...plenty. Even though the seating die does not crimp, it brings in the bell fairly straight and then I get some copper scraping. The Dillon is adjusted by screwing the die up and down in the tool head. Would it help to have a die like redding that I could leave up higher in the tool head and be able to adjust the seating stem lower. Thanks. Rp

Thanks for the tip. Ordered the book! So far I have only used Winchester 296 with a 300 grain round nose. 1950 fps. Zeroed the scope last weekend with the rifle layed on a gun bag. Next week end I using a real rifle rest and will try for an actual tite group. Thanks Jack

You can't beat extreme bullets. Jack Savage

Take a look at this. Real loading data!! http://blog.westernpowders.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/LoadGuide-458Socom-update5-20-15.pdf Jack

Have you seen this. I think it's the first time a powder company has actually published any exact information on 458 socom. I know it's just one companies set of data but it's the first time I've seen anything published. Has anyone else seen anything published by any of the other major companies? westernpowders.com/newest-reloading-data/ Click on the 458 socom link jack

So with primers being backordered everywhere..... has anyone seen somewhere that will still take a backorder. I don't mind waiting but I do want to get into line. thanks rp

Thanks to everyone! I am shaking them over a 45 cal tray now and 95 percent drop in bottom down and it let's me see inside. I agree it is better to sort before than to have stoppages during loading. Thanks. RP