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I use a lot of the 147 Xtreme plated bullets. I've been happy with them, but I've not shot coated so I can't make a direct comparison. I find they occasionally keyhole when fired out of a G26, but that should be due to factors other than the bullet. I'm fiddling with a longer OAL, and a lighter crimp, which seem to be helping. I'd like to try them in .357 (which should also help, with some guns), but the 9's are only available in .356.

I use dryer sheets (after they get used in the dryer) instead of paper towels. They do a fine job of collecting the dust in the tumbler, and they're tough--they hold up better than paper towels.

I'm fortunate in that as my eyesight changed, my distance vision became worse, but my focus at about front sight distance is as clear as ever. So I shoot iron sights uncorrected. I do have astigmatism, so for bullseye with a dot sight, best move I ever made was to take a dot sight into the eye doctor. I held it up while the doc fiddled with the lense selection on the machine until the dot was perfectly round. I then had a pair of safety/shooting glasses made with that prescription.

When looking to rent your first apartment, you surreptitiously pace the length of the hallway to make sure there is room for a 10 m air pistol range.

I only sort brass for bullseye (Fed .45's) police revolver (Rem) and a couple of rifle calibers I shoot at 300 yds. Even then, I'm not separating by lot number, only headstamp, so I'm passing on the possibility of further reducing the variability. Everything else, which is to say most of what I shoot, is mixed brass. I've never done careful comparisons of mixed vs. sorted, so I don't have data to support my practice...but logically it should matter to some extent in the precision events, and I do know a number of shooters better than I who do it, so that's my rationale.

Now there are two standards. The official loader of USPSA and The loader that most people in USPSA actually use

Overall length of the loaded cartridge can also be a big factor. If the bullet has too long of a jump before it engages the rifling, it can cause problems. I've solved tumbling problems just by increasing cartridge length to near the maximum that the chamber will accommodate.

Move the sight. YOUR job as the shooter is to work towards shooting the smallest groups that the gun and ammo will allow. As your skill increases, the group size will shrink. If the groups aren't where they should be, it's always the gun's fault--not yours--but the remedy is always as simple as adjusting the sights. That's not to say it's a one-and-done exercise. As others have pointed out, as you gain experience your technique will likely change, resulting in a change in point of impact. So you change the sights again, as needed. To recap: Precision (group size) is something you improve with practice (and to a lesser extent, fiddling with loads and the gun). Accuracy (where the group is relative to where you want it) is something you improve with a screwdriver (or sight pusher, or drift punch).

That may be, but 99.9% of the total rounds being fired by users on this forum are probably loaded on a progressive machine as well...so progressives will account for most of the problematic loads even if the load quality is the same or better than loads made on a single stage press.

I use 147 gr Xtreme bullets. They sell sampler packs, which is a good place to start. Get on their mailing list, and they send the daily or weekly sale info. Pretty much anything they sell comes up 5% off pretty regularly, 10% off occasionally, and 15% off maybe twice a year. Sometimes they'll add free shipping as well. That's when you pounce on the 3000 bullet bulk packs...

Or, compare the other end of the tubes.

I've not kept careful records, but if I had to estimate, I'd say 1-2% flipped or sideways primers with my 550. Only in the high end of that range when the press is getting dirty.

Good tip, thanks. I've not seen Federal on sale very often.

I just checked the Bayou Bullets website, and they sell a 160g 9 mm bullet with that same profile, sized to .356. Maybe you got a batch of those that they'd mislabeled and sold as .358?

I can't answer your specific question, but something I've found very helpful in load development is to test the various loads in a randomized, blind trial fashion. OK, maybe I'm the only one who tests like I'm running a clinical trial, but it's worked well for me, particularly for precision load development. Load up whatever you want for side-by-side testing. If you can't distinguish the loads visually, have someone else note what the loads actually are, but put them in boxes labeled only A, B, C, etc. (if you can distinguish the loads visually, the best you can do is have someone else load your mags and keep track of what you've been given, while you do your best not to cheat and look at the loads). Shoot a lot of groups, or strings (I always do at least 5, 5 shot groups for precision loads), depending on what you are developing loads for, but shoot them in random order. That is, don't shoot up all of your A loads before moving on the the B loads, etc. Randomizing reduces the effects of fatigue as you progress through the groups. Note only the letter code associated with each group or string. For precision load development, since I'm not concerned with time, I just write the letter on each individual target, then come home to measure the group sizes. Calculate the averages, and the standard deviations. Don't throw out fliers, unless you called a shot as bad before you looked at the data. Only after all of the shooting is complete do you unblind the study, and associate the actual load with the groups or string or chrono data. Why bother with all of this? Because it can lead you to better loads that you wouldn't have expected to find. Everyone has biases, expectations of what is likely to perform better, and there is a tendency to try a little harder with the ammo you expect, or want, to be the best. I've experienced it many times; shooting expensive factory ammo against cheaper stuff; the expensive isn't always best in a given gun. Or shooting your old reliable bullets against reloads made with more expensive, hard to find bullets. The unobtanium heads may just perform so much better that they're worth the extra effort to find. You may never know, unless you test in the blind.