Farmer

What Guy said. + Are you using mixed brass? You have enough flair and Not shaving the bullets if using coated or lead? When I use mixed brass for practice, I take the loosest (thinnest/shortest brass) and the tightest (thickest/longest brass) and try and adjust in between. The 45 auto isn’t or doesn’t seem to be as finicky about crimping as the 9mm. Or at least I haven’t noticed it.

I know many here have been complaining about the Norma brass for a while. I just ran across some of the new Norma brass and Wow, a couple of them look like they used a hat pin to punch the flash holes. I have a bunch of older Norma 38 specials, 270 Win and others and while they’re slightly smaller it’s nothing like these. They must have had a screw up at the factory that didn’t get caught.

Looks like a few more in the background that you could compare with also. Looks like this one has been sitting for a while. Wonder why if the others don’t. I looked at one at an auction once that appeared very nice until someone fired it up. Sounded like a blender full of ice. I’m no expert but it sounded like a lot of work and $$$.

I saw that just recently. I remember when Taurus came out with them years ago they had trouble with the brass backing up and locking the cylinder up. I always thought it would have been cool to “K” one and see if it helped. I get 2800+ fps out of my 15” TC with a 40g V-Max so that’s better than a 22 mag.

Looks like you dropped a shop rag in there. Anything should work as long as the powder psi stays the same above the rotor. My old Hollywood measure had a flat plastic plate with a 5/16 hole in it and it worked fine.

@boatdoc173 If you’re shooting minor loads you would have to seat the bullet about .025” deeper to bump the pressure and at that it isn’t going to get you necessarily into a danger zone. Maybe a bit hotter but generally nothing to worry about. Now if you’re at major that’s a little different story.

I also get good accuracy from the match winners in my pistols, and actually the plated are good too. What’s funny is that the 135 MW shoots great out of my XDM but the 135 RN doesn’t. Jake at RMR said they are the same bullet and they just run the RN through another stamping process to make the flat nose MW. If I seat the RN .015” deeper off the lands than the MW’s then they shoot better but still not as good.

It’ll be interesting what you come up with by changing the seating depth. I did some testing years ago and the results were not what I expected. I tested same loads with different seating depths starting with .010 from the lands and seating deeper in .010” increments up to .050”. What I found was that the .010 didn’t necessarily give the best accuracy or velocity and the ES was erratic. At .020 the ES settled down and accuracy increased as did velocity, psi looked good. At .030 ES was pretty much the same, velocity dropped and accuracy fell off some, psi similar. At .040” it was similar to .030” but velocity was starting to increase and ES was worse with accuracy slightly worse. At .050 velocity jumped similar to the .020” loading but ES was erratic and accuracy fell off, higher psi indications showed up too. I’ve done this test with rifle rounds and pistol too and the results are very similar. There’s that drop in velocity which I contribute to the extra free bore but not enough decrease in case volume to increase psi. Just some stuff I’ve run across over the years. YMMV.

Are you saying .001-.003 Longer? If the die is tight I would check shell plate or tool head. If it’s shorter check for die crud or bullet mash. Have seen up to .005 from a tight fit and mashing the bullet nose especially on HP’s. Like the others have said under .005 is gtg unless you’re OCD.

I would just roll a small amount around and when the H110 was stuck to the bowl I’d scoop out the mixed stuff and then shake the H110 into another container. Re-insert the mixture and do it again. It’s repetitive but really didn’t take all that long. In a flat container you can also scoop out a large majority that is separated. Just work in small batches.

Check this.^^ I had this happen with some Redding die’s. They are a bit tighter and would start to push the flair back as the bullet was seated. Had to back it out the body a turn or two more than my others. You can also get brass shavings under the seater die too which is an indication.

I did the same with H110 and 4350. They were mixed so I poured it into a flat Tupperware bowl and carefully shook it. The static held most of the H110 to one side letting me separate the 4350. Also beings they are different densities they naturally separate. Kinda like getting the wheat out of the chaff. A flat metal pan with ribs on the bottom might work too. Good luck, it’s a PITA but it’s also a lesson.

He didn’t say what kind of revolver, if it’s a SA they will headspace on the mouth. I would try - .002” smaller at the mouth edge than .100 down the body for starters. So if the case measures .422 @ the center of the bullet in the case, the mouth should be .420-.419. Might have to adjust those numbers to your brass and bullet size.

First a good manual really helps explain and show procedures. Whenever you need to trim Always measure and trim after sizing because the case grows. If you size to fit the chamber that ammo pretty much fits that gun. If you size fully it pretty much puts the brass back to new length. Sizing to minimum will help your brass last longer and there is less stretching and trimming. Of course neck sizing helps with all of that too but eventually you’ll have to “bump” the shoulder back to get them to chamber. All this means is you use a full length sizing or body die to push the shoulder back a small amount. I generally use .003-.005” clearance as this gives a bit more “fudge factor” on production chambers. A Hornady Head & Shoulder gauge that you use with your dial indicator is a big help getting everything the same and finding the benchmark for your chambers and keeping track of brass & chamber growth.

Maybe that’s why they lowered the max load for 10mm and a couple others from the old manual to the online one.

I have the auto disk with the micro adjustable insert instead of using the disks. It was ok but not with larger flake powder like e3. So I bought an auto drum and so far it works very well. It was a little finicky at first and after throwing about 50-100 through it it settled down. I use it on an old 4 hole turret press and even while that thing is shaking and turning around it still stays right on or occasionally maybe +- .1 which I didn’t think was too bad for what it costs. It has seemed to gotten better with use and the adjustment is pretty easy. Oh yeah, it doesn’t leak either. Like any of them, make sure to get full stroke and develop a consistent rhythm.

Included with the hammer is a 3 piece aluminum collet that grabs the case by the extractor groove. My original one had a garter spring holding the 3 pieces together and was a pain in the ass because it kept falling apart. I just use either a Lee flat shell holder or any other brand to hold the case in the hammer. Makes changes way faster BUT if you have a loose shell holder and a really tight bullet it can booger up the rim a bit.

My RCBS is still going strong after 40 years. And yea I can’t believe it’s been that long either. I just use shell holders instead of the collet.

I wonder if Blue Dot is like H110/296. It’s a real flame thrower until you keep increasing the charge. Once you reach the “magic” charge there’s virtually no flash and the cases come out of the gun cold and almost perfectly clean or slightly gray. I’ve never tried it with BD but I know a fellow that had a 357 mag load that was about a grain over max and would drive tacks. The shells would fall out of the cylinder and the primers were still slightly rounded, totally crazy. Whenever I have worked up a load with BD as I’ve approached max it seems to peak sort of quickly, unlike H110 so I have quit. I don’t know if the lot’s of BD are that much different or what but I do know that I’ve had some shotgun loads with it that I’ve had to slam the butt on the ground to eject the shell. And that’s following the load data to the letter.

^This!

That’s what mines at too. I figured if it works don’t f**k with it.

Really? How do you know? I guess I haven’t checked the update number’s. After the little glitch I had, installing the new batteries in mine made it work just like it did before, just fine. Forgot to add that I had to do a re-connect.

Kinda what I do. If it’s a bit dirty I give them a quick 30 sec wash in lac thinner, quick dry, lube, size & decap, swage if needed and then wash/dry. Sort headstamp and ready to go. I like to get all the dirty work done before cleaning so when I’m done it’s like loading new brass. No after cleaning, no surprises, all crimps the same primers seat the same, ect, ect. May take a little bit more time initially but when it’s time to load, just grab a brand and go.

It’s a real PITA but I’ve taken a rag with alcohol or thinner on it and wiped them down. You just have to be careful not to dig into the grease groove and just wipe across it. If you remove a little it won’t hurt because once it’s fired it’ll squeeze it out into the bore. You could also try alcohol on a towel and roll them around on it to see if that works.

I haven’t tried BD with light bullets but with 165 & 180’s I wasn’t impressed. Large flash and accuracy wasn’t that great. Honestly I didn’t continue with it as there were better choices, ie #9, Longshot. I have loaded some 155’s but mostly with medium powders like Silhouette ect. My Alliant manual shows BE96 as a higher vel choice than Blue Dot but I haven’t has a chance to try that to see. Sorry I’m not much help.