BJB

FYI: Match is still on as scheduled. Saturday is pretty much sold out. Friday still has a few openings.....maybe 7 or 8 openings.

I carried a P-07 for several years but have carried a PCR since December. I've actually shot USPSA matches with both carry guns.

Hang in there and figure it out @XrayDoc88. You shouldn't be having that much issue from loading a 125 gr bullet in CBC brass. The issue with thicker CBC brass usually shows up more when loading a heavier bullet deeper. I have a Dillon with Dillon dies and I'm able to load any brass I want, and most people are also able to load any brass they want. It's not any special trick, it just loads fine and should load for you too.

Either gun will serve you well. Neither gun will hold you back. Good aftermarket support for both platforms too. The Sig has a better trigger out of the box, but the M&P can have a nice trigger with Apex parts dropped in. The Sig can be made heavier than the M&P. For some shooters that's a big plus, but if you grip the snot out of the gun it's not that big of an advantage. The M&P may have less than stellar accuracy with heavier bullets thru the factory barrel. Mine had poorer accuracy with heavy bullets but shot 124/115s fine. I put an Apex semi-fit barrel in it and it's accurate with all weights now. I like both guns. The Sig costs more but the M&P might require a little extra work to bring it's trigger and accuracy up to par with the SIg so cost will likely be a wash in the end. Select either and you're good-to-go.

BTW: A taper crimp does not hold the bullet. The neck tension with the bullet below the taper crimp is what holds the bullet. A taper crimp simply removes the bell, that's all, so a very light taper crimp is A-OK and preferable with coated or plated bullets.

You're not seating them too deep. The HAP is a truncated cone with a flat meplat. In essence, the tip is cut off as relative to a normal round nose so it just seems that you're loading really short at 1.069" but you're not. I just measured a factory Hornady Critical Defense and it was 1.07". It's a FTX bullet which is really just like a HAP bullet. Take some of your offending bullets and adjust your seating die to shove them in a little more and then see how they plunk....just to see if anything changes....and this will take ogive problems out of play. Maybe they're worse.....or maybe they better.....but find out. A crimp of 0.378" should be OK. You might try 0.377", again.....just to see what happens when you then plunk.....and to see if the 0.378" crimp is allowing a little metal "rebound" with your thicker walled stuff. You're not gonna damage a jacketed bullet too much with a little over crimp (but over crimping will damage a coated or plated bullet.). Try more crimp to see what happens. Maybe they're worse.....or maybe they better.....but find out. Again, on the offending cartridges, paint them with a Sharpie (including the ogive) so you can determine where the problem is buy looking for the ink to be rubbed off. As to your question about sorting brass, that's all up to you and your goals. If you're looking for supreme accuracy like in Bullseye then yes, sort. If you're just looking for quality range ammo then no need to sort and do different things according to different head-stamps because to do so will be adding a lot of different things to your process which will be very inefficient. My goal is quality ammo for USPSA, Steel Challenge, and practice. I'm not going to do all these extra steps that some guys determine is good for them. Loading over 20,000 rds a year I have no time for that inefficient stuff. I have one 9mm load and it runs in all my 9mm pistols. I use a Dillon 550 with the normal Dillon carbide dies loading 137PF ammo in range pick-up mixed brass. Ibejihead 135 gr coated bullets. Nothing special here by any means, but this ammo will give me 10-shot 2" groups at 25 yds (from a rest) all the time. A Bullseye shooter might scoff at that because they have different goals, but it meets my requirements. Think about your goals with your reloaded ammo and go from there. Try different things like crimp, OAL, etc. just so see what happens. You don't have to shoot it. If you don't like it just pull it. For instance, for your current situation try gauging all your cases after they're resized just to take that station out of the mix of possible problems. If they all gauge fine but then you have a few of the loaded cased fail plunk you'll know that the resizing station isn't the issue. You're not gonna gauge all your resized cases for now on because that'll be inefficient, just for now while you're troubleshooting.

Those brands are not stepped brass and should load fine for you. The CBC (Magtech), S&B, GFL (Fiocchi), & SIG brass is often thicker walled but shouldn't be enough to stop you. I've loaded .tens & tens of thousands of .356" into that brass just fine on a Dillon 550 with DIllon carbide dies. Even loaded .357" (coated) into that brass just fine. I guess the place to start is to know your OAL, your crimp, what are you plunking them into, etc.? You can also color an offending cartridge with marker, plunk it and see where the marker is rubbed off to see where it's touching.

No need to change your current load. Plug-n-play with the mag primers as is. I've chronoed the exact load with regular SPP and mag SPP and only see around 1 PF increase and sometimes not even that.

Ghost pouches come with carriers that carry bullets out AND with carries that carry bullets forward (or in your case, bullets backwards). You pick the pouch you want and put the other in a box in your closet. You can use the Ghost pouches carrying the bullets backwards and when you realize this just isn't any good you can simply turn the mags around in the same pouch without changing anything else or spending another dime. Or, dig in your closet for the bullets out pouches.

@Jkp1987, as you determined, try a little more crimp first. EGW makes a tight gauge. 0.380" is what a fired case should measure at the mouth. 0.377" to 0.379" should be a good crimp for plated. Increase your crimp slightly and then see if the gauging issue goes away. Then pull a few of the rounds and inspect where the bullet was crimped. It should have no line or just a faint line. You can over crimp jacketed bullets and get away with it but you don't want to over crimp plated or coated bullets or you can have leading and accuracy issues.

Yeah, to go from flush to sticking up that much is a fairly big difference. See @RaylanGivens suggestion above about putting them in different holes. Also, put some that fit flush into the holes that are standing proud. Are the gauge holes clean? You said you used once fired brass. Do you know where it comes from and how it's processed? The reason I ask is because if all the information I had was based on seeing that picture I'd say those problem cases are from 9mm major that weren't roll sized. If a 9mm major case is swelled out closer to the base and not roll sized, your resizing die might not reach down that far. FWIW, on my de-capping/resizing die, I set it to touch the shell plate then backed it off 1/4 turn. It maximizes it's effectiveness but it's not impacting the plate each cycle .

Yes, please send a picture of the round failing the gauge. But, from what you have described the 'problem' is actually not a problem at all. It's just the case gauge isn't allowing for the bullet profile/ogive. Berry's don't have a fat ogive like a lot of cast 9mm do. Your OAL is legit if it plunks & spins in your barrel. If it were too long then that could be an issue or if it were too short then that could be an issue too because then the base of the bullet could be pushed down to where the 9mm case walls thicken and the you really could have an issue caused by bullet seating deep and bulging the case......but, that's usually seen with heavy bullets (which are longer) having to be seated short. We'll look at the pictures you post but for now I'd say you don't have a problem if the 'failed' rounds plunk/spin in your barrel. Just mentally note how they gauge and realize that it's fine. Don't get caught up in trying to load ammo and determine OAL for the gauge, because you load ammo & determine OAL for the gun.

What is your OAL? When you say they do not fit properly in the EGW...how so? Picture? The EGW I have doesn't have much, if any, throat & leade. Your bullet ogive might be touching the inner rim where the case mouth headspaces. Load a few shorter and see how they check in the gauge. If that checks out then you've found the cause & it's a non-issue. In my EGW the cases stand proud, almost a rim-width high....and all plunk/spin in my gun barrels. I know this so I'm not trying to load shorter to load for the gauge. The gauge will still catch other issues like split cases, bulged cases from 9mm Major, etc. Plunk & spin the 'failed' rounds in your barrel. If they're good-to-go then there's not really an issue.

When using One-Shot: 1 or 2 second spray inside a gallon freezer bag, let dry, add your 200 or 300 cases & seal bag, work & knead around a little bit, done. A can will last a long time this way and there's no excess lube on the cases to clean up after loading.

Have you disassembled the press recently for thorough maintenance and then reassembled it without using the Dillon platform alignment tool? If the platform is not reassembled in alignment the casing will try to enter the die with a slight offset, but you should see the issue at all stations, not just station#4. -https://www.dillonprecision.com/rl-550-series-xl-650-platform-alignment-tool_8_6_26408.html