DougM

I've seem to see more split cases in 40 so I look at each one after I load them. It goes pretty quick 0 simply rolling the cases usually flags a bad case with a darker line. My thinking is if they are going to split, they will do it during the loading process. I guess if you annealed the cases, you could reduce the splitting but why bother?

I have the Witness Elite with both a 40S&W barrel and a 10mm barrel. I had to put in a dual recoil spring in it to handle the 10mm hot loads (est. around 700 ft-lbs of energy) but the steel frame makes it controllable. Never did any trigger work to it and am very happy with it as it came from the factory. Especially for a woods or self defense gun, you may want to think hard before doing any work on the trigger. Never had a stoppage or problem with the gun so I'd definitely buy it again..

I also shoot a Match Elite with a 10mm barrel and am using a dual recoil spring. Still find brass traveling into the next zip code. Of course, I load my 10mm up to a round 700 ftlb so it is a heavy load.

I use it almost exclusively for 40S&W and am very happy with it. I usually use 5.0 to 5.2 grains under 165 grain bullets to get upwards of 950fps from a 4.25" M&P. If shooting 180 grain bullets, I usually use around 4.7 gns to get upwards of 850fps. Decent SDs from most loads. I wouldn't hesitate to buy another tub if I could find it at a decent price.

While I religiously use one for 40S&W and 10mm, I have never found the need to use one for 45ACP. I never had a 45ACP case that exhibited any kind of bulge and therefore never needed to run them through a bulge buster. Others may have a different experience - especially if they load their 45ACP really hot.

Yes, I have been using the Hornady one for about 3 years now. It does fine with jacketed, plated, or coated bullets. I can't get it to feed lead bullets worth a darn so I gave up on that. You may have to fool with it a bit to feed reliably but it can be done. I usually have feed tubes with up to 50 pills if using 165 grains or less. If using 180 grain bullets, I reduce it to around 40 to keep from putting too much weight into the feeder and causing bullets to drop out of it. I slide a small dowel into the feeder to catch the initial drop when I pull the retaining pin out of the feed tubes so the sudden weight dropping into the feeder doesn't shove a bunch of bullets through it but once it settles, it works fine. I also use the 45ACP one with similar results.

I only reload 10mm at full power. Otherwise, might as well just shoot 40S&W. Anyway, I've used 11.8 gn of AA#7 under 165 gn Zero JHPs to get just north of 1300 fps out of a Witness Match 4.5" barrel. I've done a bit of research on 10mm loads and both AA#9 and Power Pistol also seem to be popular among the full power people.

Hey, Gearhead. The photo you showed first is of the seating die. The knurled knob at the top sets the bullet seating depth, which I suspect you already know. The crimp die, however, has a thru hole with the only adjustment being the depth the die sits in the toolhead. If your second photo is of your crimp die, that is clearly different than mine. I do NOT have the ridge you show in that photo. Also, my crimp die has "45ACP TC AP" stamped on the top of the die. By the way, I bought my set (546554) new from Hornady and read the part number directly from the plastic box so I know I'm not mixing up part numbers. I'm at a loss on why your crimp die looks different from mine if your set is truly the part number you quoted. Unless the original owner switched dies on you.

One thing just occurred to me. You said you got the press and dies used. Check with the previous owner to be sure he didn't substitute a different die to get a roll crimp.

Hey, Gearhead. I have the same set of 45ACP dies (Set # 546554) and the crimp die is a taper crimp. I have reloaded many thousands of rounds using this set and no problems at all with the taper crimp - as long as you set it correctly. I have used it with jacketed, plated, lead, and coated bullets and never had the slightest problem. Unless you got a different crimp die in your set (which I seriously doubt), you already have a taper crimp die and it is a decent die. Don't waste your money on any other die - just set it up right and use the money to buy components. Then go shoot. If you don't believe me on the die, call Hornady and talk to Customer Service. They are excellent and will tell you what you have to set your mind at rest.

Are you sure the Hornady dies are roll crimps? I have Hornady 45ACP dies and mine are taper crimped. How did you determine they are roll crimped?

Building on Mike21STI's comment, see if you can isolate when the longer rounds are occurring. I found my issues were primarily at the end of a session when the first stages were emptying out. The slight difference in ram offset pressures - especially at the resizing/depriming stage - were enough to cause my seating depth at stage 4 to vary slightly. As a result, I generally run some empty cases through as the press clears out at the end of a run just so the press stays balanced.

I actually went the other way. I had an Elite Witness Match in 40S&W and added a 10mm barrel. I had to replace the recoil spring with one of the double stack springs to handle the additional recoil of the 10mm but other than that, it works fine. His 10mm mags will also work for 40S&W and my 40's also seem to load the 10mm with no issues. Can't speak to holsters, though.

I also load it until it splits. I examine every round AFTER reloading it to be sure it hasn't split during the reloading process. If it has, I disassemble the round and trash the brass.

Congrads on getting into 40S&W. I've been doing it for about 6 years so far (also on a LnL) and have learned a few things. One is that separate seating and crimping is very desirable as you've already been told. That is why I went with Dillon dies for my 40S&W. Makes life much easier and repeatable. You will also probably soon realize that putting your brass through a push-thru die before reloading is often needed. This is because many barrels don't fully support the brass all the way to the web and some slight bulging may occur there. And few, if any, resizing dies will go down far enough to take it out. If left unaddressed, you may start to see feeding issues in your pistols. I'm pretty careful to pick up only my own brass now and rarely have an issue since my barrels do a pretty good job but I still run all my brass thru a push-thru die as a first step just to eliminate any possible issues.