Quag

You could be right I'll clean it again tonight. Thx.

I hear you Grumpy, I used to shoot USPSA and I'm aware of mag changes before they are empty. It is really I question of why it doesn't lock back on an empty mag. It used to.

I love my steel 9mm 1911 style tanfo but it is a pain. I had a light strike problem which I appeared to have solved going to a shorter OAL. Took her out the other day (first time in 6 months) and she shot great except she would not slide lock at the end of a mag. Tried different mags and the same result. However it eject the round every time. Thoughts? I want to dress her up and take her to a match but I'm afraid she will embarass me. Might have to go back to my old ugly G17. BTW I keep my tanfo stock everything is original.

I like your last paragraph the best, but I appreciate your through analysis. I'm going to carry fully shorten my 9mm for my tanfo and see if it works.

Hey Joe, I've had just the opposite cci seats pretty good in my dillion 650, win seats well too but not as good as cci. Maybe it's not the press but the primer pocket. I can't count the number of times I reloaded my 9mm brass. It seems to go forever as opposed to 223.

Barrel reaming is new to me any tricks to do that right besides a good gun smith. Thx

I use a small washer under my dillion 650 primer station post which seats the primers about .015 deeper this helped with tanfo light strikes but did not eliminate it.

I use BB 9mm almost exclusively. Used to use 147 FN now I am trying 135 RN. I used to have some light strikes and fail to chamber of 147 in my tanfoglio but my tricked out G17 eat almost everything. In reading this thread and going over my old notes the big difference with a lot of the posters is I was reloading to a OAL of 1.14 to 1.15 (147 gr FN). I have recently been reloading my 135 RN to to 1.12 to 1.13. No failures in my G17. I know the CZ shadow is similar to the tanfoglio. Question to the posters here should I go with a lower OAL like 1.10 to 1.075 for my tanfoglio.

I reload 9mm using both cci and win. The wins sometimes have trouble seating correctly despite a rigorous depriming and cleaning process. Not so with cci. My FTFs are mainly In my tanfoglio 9mm 1911 not in my G17. But that's another issue discussed on this forum (light strikes). All in all I prefer cci but get by with win. I remember I used to use federal match primers they worked pretty good. In the last 4 years it's been reload with whatever primers you can get. So the issue became academic. Good luck.

I am trying out some different set ups on my 650. Just to be clear you take your fired brass (uncleaned), lube, then resize/ deprime, then clean/measure/inspect, then put it through the lotoo., ading press as a second pass to prime/load out etc? Do you have any problems resizing dirty brass or does generous lube overcome that? I am thinking of 1st pass: lube, #1 deprime/resize, #2 dillion swage tool, clean brass sonic cleaner (done after depriming 9/10x cleans primer pockets nicely) then inspect/measure/trim as necessary. 2nd pass, #1 empty, #2 power drop/prime, #3 AA Mr. bullet drop feeder, #4 bullet seating, #5 crimp. QC check: JP 223 case guage thoughts?

First I am not that a great USPSA/IDPA/3 gun comptitor, but I do pass the straight face test. I shoot real slow and I achieve pretty good accuarcy. I shoot real fast and I have terrible accuracy. both seem to result in bad scores. I can never seem to find a balence. But you know what I have a great time as long as I stick to local matches. After a particuarly bad match I decided to drown my sorrow in some really good chinese food and mai tais. It worked. However at the end I opened the fortune cookie and it said and I am not emblishing "a balance between speed and accuracy results in perfection". I kid you not. I showed it to my wife and she said "duh". No sympathy there.

I have have not been to as many pistol matches as I hope this summer but having made Mr. Memphis's shim adjustment I have almost eliminated the light strikes. But I still get some. When this thread started there was no primer shortages. I have been up here in New England stocking up on small pistol primers and have bought anything available (CCI, WIn, Federal) when I go back to NC to reload I will sort by primer. I was using wins.

I am amazed after 5 years reloading how many self induced "fu&k ups I initiate. I have to learned to laugh or cry at my foibles. The last one was a good one. Since I have no one to share it with that would understand the humor of this incident I thought I would share it here so I can be laughed at and justifiably ridiculed. I had a bunch of 223 rounds that did not pass my match OC test. I decided I wanted to recover the powder and bullets so I started going the pain in the ass bullet puller hammer chore (which I hate doing). I'm in my garage. I have one of those sealed grey floors that has black flakes in it. So I insert the first 223 round in the bullet puller and whack it on the garage floor. And bang! I fall off my chair and immediately check myself for holes. Pulse rate was through the roof. I look at the bullet puller expecting it to be blown apart by the round going off. But it is intact. However I smell that tell tale odor in the air of ingnition. I look carefully around the floor and I see a black spot where the hammer hit. I had whacked a primer that was face up and it went off. I got a broom and swept the floor and there it was dust, dirt and about 3-4 unused primers that had escaped my reloading bench. What a dumb ass. I will be sweeping up after every session.

For 9mm I wet tumble with primers in. then dry. I then spray a small amount of Dillon or One Shot case lube on the cartridges then reload. After all the finished loads are checked I dry tumble for about 30 min with 2/3 walnut and 1/3 corn with 2 to 3 TBS of alcohol (I do not add any thing else to the dry media and I keep this media separate form other dry media). I don't really need this last step sometimes I do it sometimes I don't. I just like the way the rounds look and feel with last dry tumble step.

I have a Tanfoglio Limited Elite in 9mm. Its a sweet gun but I have reliability problems with my reloads. I use 147 gr Bayou FN or 124 gr Berry FMJRN. My OAL on both is 1.15. Generally I have no feed problems but at least 1 or 2 times a match there is a failure to feed (I think due to the mag not the chamber) as well as light strikes. I think I solved the light strikes with MM's shim idea under the primer cam. How about these mags? Amy thoughts? thanks

Thanks for your in depth reply, your "spring back theory" has a lot of merit. I shot over 100 rounds today in a 3 gun match with my AR-15 with all reloads. I checked 200 rounds with the JP gauge last night. All of them passed the drop test with the JP gauge except 3. I had no problems at the match. Great accuracy at 100 yards shooting freehand. I believe the issue is due to either spring back or short stroking during resizing on my 650 (or both). I use a Dillon 223/5.56 resizing die which is supposed to be a full length die. Thanks for the info on the differences in the case check gauges. Its amazing how different they are for the same round. I am going to switch to a different brass prep method that may help with this. But from now on any match reloads go in the JP rifles Wylde case gauge that's the final QC check. JP rifles does recommend using their case gauge when reloading, I just checked my notes from 4 years ago when I bought my JP AR-15. I don't know why I got into using the silver Dillon gauge.

Guy thanks for your response.One thing you may have not understood from my post is the Wylde Case Gauge (JP-Rifles red) did not accept the cartridge, the Dillon gauge did. I did re-chamber the cartridge again and it would not seat. From the marks on it it looks like it is hung up about 3/4 up the cartridge or 1/4 below the case rim. Later today I will blacken it and see exactly where it is hanging up and caliper the diameter. One of the reasons I use the Dillon resizing die is that it is supposed to resize the entire cartridge (at least that is what I was told). I guess I will contact Dillon and try to find out what the specs are on their gauge. Perhaps the JP-Wylde gauge is narrower than the Dillon gauge. Why I'd like to find that out.

I had my loading confidence shaken today at the range (not a new experience). For the first time in years I had a reloaded .223 round failure to go into battery on my JP AR-15. I can deal with light primer strikes and crimping issues and solve them but I am at a loss on this failure. The attached picture (for those of you that like pictures) shows the red JP Rifles Case gauge on the right and the Dillon Gauge on the left (of the offending round). I checked the OAL on the round at it was 2.243 vs a goal of 2.24. The offending round checked out in the Dillon case gauge but would not "chamber" in the JP rifles's gauge. I have heard that you should use the gauge made for the chamber of the rifle. The JP rifle gauge says 2.23/5.56 Wylde, the silver Dillon gauge says .223 case gauge. I have have used both gauges for years and noticed the JP gauge is tighter than the Dillon but not by much and all rounds generally check out in the Dillon Gauge. Usually they both agree this is the first major difference I have had. Anybody have any thoughts on the this? BTW The resizing die is a Dillon on a 650. I thought the .223/5.56 Wylde chamber was more forgiving than a pure .223 chamber but I don't remember where I read that. Seems to be the opposite. Thanks for your assistance

I have been reloading 223 for about 5 years first on a 550 now on a 650. I have been thru so many iterations of this issue, the only thing I can tell you is depending on your press and your shooting goals you may do it different ways. I shoot 223 in local 3 gun matches here in NC. The longest shot is about 250 yards and that is rare. Most of the 223 shots are less than 100 yards and even less than 50 yards. In fact I am thinking about getting a 9 mm PCC to shot these matches with. But I love my JP 223. So given my goals I do not need super accuracy out to 300 yards or greater. So this is what I do; Brass Prep 1) case check all fired brass anything that is over sized and needs trimming or is significantly undersized throw away (I have so much brass) 2) check primer pocket depth, throw away all non conformists unless you want to spend time swaging primer pockets 2) Using a separate tool head, in station #1 universal decapping die, decap all dirty range brass after separating out 5.56 3) clean all brass in a Hornady liquid sonic cleaner, this cleans out the primer pockets so you do not have to do it manually. I love that thing. Really gets the inside clean Loading 1) insert reloading tool head, lube all cleaned brass station #1 resize die station #2 powder drop/primer station #3 AA Mr. Bullet Feeder Station #4 seating die Station #6 crimp 2) post load cleaning I hate the feel of the lube on my 223 rounds so I polish them using walnut shells and a couple of table spoons of iso-p alcohol. Only need about an hour to get the shine and the lube off. If you notice I do not trim unless absolutely necessary. I have only found significant brass growth on a new factory round, once trimmed after the first firing it really does not grow that much. Its a lot faster to case check the length than hand trimming. However if you re-load larger rifle rounds and need better accuracy trim away. Good luck

That shim has to be real thin to get the back screw in the that washer shim has to be real thin to get the back screw in the mount if you look very closely you can see the angle on the top of the mount. The washer looks large in the picture. I had to hunt in my shop for awhile before I found the right one.

thanks I'll have to give them a try. I've been running 147 gr FN Bayou's for years and would like to try something different. So you really notice a difference between 120 and 124 grn Bayous? Ever try the 147?

I saw this post from 2018. I am running a 9mm Tanfaglio Limited I reload Bayou flat nose 147 gr, for a low power factor of around 130 to 140. I tired some factory 124 grn federal RN today and I was surprised by their accuracy and crispness. What is your experiece with the Bayou 124 RN. I also use Tite Group and 231. thanks

I have used Bayou 147 gr flat nose for years. Never any problem with fouling. Talk to the new owner and ordered another batch of 1000 they are backup 3 weeks. Nice guy. At range today happened to use some factor federal 124 gr 9mm round nose. I was quite surprised at the accuracy and crispness. Considering ordering some 124 Bayous. Any thoughts. FMJ bullets more accurate than coated? thoughts? thnx

Got to resurrect this thread. I have been out of the reloading/shooting game for a couple of years. Moved to NC. Got into the game again, built a new reloading bench, set up my Dillion 650 loaded a bunch of 223 everything went reasonably well. Got out my relatively unused Tanfoglio Limited Elite 9 mm and shot a couple of USPSA matches with it. I used my old "match reloads" everything went great. No light strikes in over 500 rounds. Love that gun. So I decide to reload some new ammo using the same formulas as before, went to range today light strikes 1/10 what a mess. Glad it was not a match. I then shot 50 rds of federal factory not one light strike so it was not the pistol. I am using Win Primers in my reloads. (I used to use federal but Win is all I've got now and guess what no small pistol primers anywhere!) So I go to this forum and find this thread what a relief. 1) I used my caliper and a large magnifying glass and discovered in my newly reloaded ammo I had a number of flush primers. Suspect #1 for the light stikes 2) checked my old reloads and the primers were visually slightly deep and using the calipers they were> 0.005 in depth some about .010. Again using this batch no light strikes in over 500 rds. 3) installed a thin washer under the primer punch seat and reloaded about 20 rounds. Using the calipers the primer depth pretty much approached .010. 4) BTW using the calipers is not error free you've got to have steady hands and there is a lot of error in that measurement.I prefer the large magnifying glass you can easily discern the deeper seating. 5) also took all the newer reloads in the batch that failed today and ran then thru the press again with the washer and generally got an additional .003 to .005 in depth. I will report results tomorrow after I go to the range. BTW I forgot how great this forum is, thank you Brian,

cleaning tonight, loading last pistol rounds and planning our route from New England around NJ! Staying in an AirBB this should be interesting when we dry fire practice with our shotguns Good luck to the other NE squads