DMTJAGER

HG=Hand Gun

I have begun reloading using synthetic coated bullets and encountered a issue with my loaded rounds that ended up with them being to long that some great members here educated me and allowed me to figure out and solve my problem It got me to wondering just how much should a HG bullet vary in length before it becomes unacceptable I took 25 random 124 grain Hi-Tek coated RN bullets from a bag of 500 and measured them all I don't recall their exact lengths but I do recall 21 were +/- withiin 0.0015 and 0.002 in length but 4 varied up to 0.0006-0.007 in length How much difference in bullet length is normal and acceptable?

Truly sorry to hear of your misfortunes I almost bought a PSA 9mm AR last year but opted for a Ruger 9mm PC as it was $120 cheaper Glad I did now Have ran 600+ rounds out if it using 17 21 and 33 round Glock OEM and Pmaags with zero issues. Will stay away from PSA 9MM AR's To bad have several of their Premium AR-15's and they have been nothing short of flawless for me

You are a truly fortunate man. Does she by chance have a like minded sister?

I am having to increase my knowledge of HG reloading considerably I recently posted a request for help here and was the recipient a sharing of exceptional knowledge. After I was educated as to my mistake and the cause of it I took the time to seriously analyze the situation and determine why I didn't possess this knowledge even after more than 3 decades of reloading I discovered the cause for my error and ignorance was due to habits and assumptions I developed in the very earliest stages of my reloading career I had only ever used standard non plated FMJ bullets for all my HG reloading in round or flat nose configuration I would always set my max length on a loaded round based on the length of a factory loaded round I knew functionedin in my HGs. Then load my rounds and do what is now known as a "plunk test" I called it a chamber fit test. This worked flawlessly for me until I tried coated bullets I know now I made a mistake in assuming that the fact my coated bullets were 124grn round nosed they would work if set to the same length as my 124grn FMJ and nope they didn't My 124grn FMJ that function perfectly have a max length if 1.147 but my 124grn polymer coated bullets max length must be 1.1135 considerably shorter. I now know I should never assume anything in reloading regardless of no matter how much or how many years of past experience you have. I always did this when reloading for my 7 different rifle calibers and have no explanation as to why I didn't apply that same rule to reloading my HG calibers I guess familiarity truly breeds contempt or in my case ignorance

After learning of all the health issues associated with dry media tumbling decided to give wet tumbling with SS pins a try. Went the economy route and bought a Chicago electric tumbler from HF. I decided to try a batch of about 300 of my own 1x fired 9mm brass that had just spent 4 hours in my Lyman 2500 with crushed untreated walnut husk. I then removed the brass separated it from the media washed and rinsed very thoroughly and dried in oven for 180* for 90 minutes. After two hours in the SS pins Dawn DS and LS I was nothing short of astonished at the amount of walnut media that was in the waist water. I line my strainer with paper towels to catch all my SS pins and it works flawlessly. But it also caught a very large amount of crushed walnut media as well. As all the brass was not sized or deprimed all the media had to have bern in the flash holes and was dislodged by the SS pins. My brass also looked brand new I will be using wet tumbling from now on. I'm pretty sure when I resized and deprimed my brass the stuck media would've likely been safely removed but now I know it will be gone before the brass ever gets to any of my presses. I just never thought THAT much media could get caught in a sm hg primer FH, but obvious it does.

Yes I always drop check my ammo in both my HG's and rifle, that's how I caught this issue, just never had a HG round I set to the same max length as a quality factory ammo not chamber. Used this method to reload rounds for my S&W 645, XD 45, S&W M&P 4.25" 9mm Pro Core and Shield, and now my P320 and never had any issues. I just recently bought a Wilson chamber gauge as I thought it would help me avoid potential reloading mistakes. Again I erred as I misunderstood the function of the Wilson gauge in that it checked only the resized case dimension not the length of a loaded round, hence the name "chamber gauge, DUH! as I also was wrong for assuming my issue was due to case dimension and not max length of the loaded round. Lesson very well learned. Again thanks for the help getting me past a true novice reloader mistake, I greatly appreciate it.

We’ll assume you meant an OAL of 1.147 or 1.145 You sir were correct. I ACTUALLY meant a max length of 1.145" I should avoid posting after I work 3 consecutive 16 hour shifts and four in five days. Thanks all who shared their knowledge with me and helped my know my way out of this and learned a important lesson along the way. I have reloaded thousands of FMJ HG bullets for 45acp, 38/357 and well over 2k for my 9mm's. I always just set my reloads max length identically to that of a quality made factory ammo and never had one that I can recall not fitting without issue. Looking back now should have known it was most likely the coated bullet as it was the only new never used component in my reload. I have no explanation as to why such an obvious potential cause escaped me but it did. Yes as so many suggested the bullet was not set deeply enough. To set my max length for my previous 9mm reloads using 124grn FMJ, I took a factory loaded round of WW NATO 124 grain ammo and measured it at 1.145" and choose that as my starting length, tested my first dummy reload in my gun and it worked fine and I then proceeded with reloading the rest, doing spot checks every 10th round and rarely had any issues that I can recall. This time was different. I fallowed the advice given here and started gradually setting back the bullet 0.002 to 0.025 at a time. Ended up at 1.1135 from 1.1450 and passed the 'plunk" test with flying colors. My 124 grain coated bullets must be seated 0.0315 shorter than my 124 grain FMJ bullets. I assumed incorrectly that the FMJ coating would have to be thicker resulting in a 124 grain FMJ bullet that was longer than a same weight synthetic coating and therefore I should have no issues if I set my rounds loaded with coated bullets to the same length as my rounds using FMJ. Now I know why "Assumption" is often referred to as the "Mother of all screw ups". Now the question I must ask is what the heck good are all these high dollar CNC machined 100 loaded round check gauges when there was nothing wrong with my resized case but rather the bullet was not seated deeply enough? Before I spend any more $$$ would such a loaded round check gauge have caught this issue same as the chamber of my HG barrel? Again thanks to all for the help I greatly appreciate it. Thankfully learned a valuable lesson without having done so the hard way.

Greetings to all, first post by new member. I was in my LGS recently and they had HI-Tech coated bullets for a good price and after the store owners absolute assurance they would give me no issues what so ever and he has sold thousands with no customer complaints to date, I bought 500 124 grain 9mm. Although I have been reloading HG rounds for 30+ years this is my first ever reloading with synthetic coated bullets. Reloaded a few test rounds without primer or powder and they all passed being checked with my Wilson loaded round gauge. I then tried to chamber them in my Sig P-320 and although they chambered with no issue they were more difficult to eject by hand than my factory ammo. I have been reloading HG ammo for 30+ years and don't ever recall a HG reload of mine cambering so tightly that it required noticeably more force to rack the slide to eject it. I'm not talking a great amount just a noticeable amount of increase in force needed to rack the slide and eject the round. As a test, first tried to seat a resized case with mouth flared but without a bullet and it dropped right in and out of my P320 chamber no issues at all. Next made reloads using the same exact batch of my own 1x fired brass and 115 and 124 grain FMJ (not plated) from Rocky MT Reloading and both chambered and ejected with no more effort than my factory rounds and with less force than the reloads using coated bullets. I seriously doubt my reloading techniques or procedure is resulting in the issue but I will list it here so those experience with coated bullets can see if there is anything in my reloading process that could be causing my issue. Brass was factory new that I bought and now is 1x fired by myself. Dry media cleaned for 4 hours separated, rinsed and dried in oven for 90 minuets at 180* then wet tumbled with stainless steel pins for 1 hour, separated, rinsed and dried again in over for 90 minuets at 180*. All 10 pieces of brass closely inspected and measured for COAL prior to reloading. Lubed lightly with Hornady One-Shot spray case lube Using all Lee dies, resized case, case mouth flared the least needed to seat a bullet, then seated and crimped using Lee factory crimp die set per Lee set up for minimal crimp. Average OAL of rounds is 1.475" Using a factory loaded rounds from Speer, CCI, and Federal did measurement comparisons of entire length of brass case of my reloads VS the three factory loads with my calipers and there was never more than 0.0005" to 0.001" difference in any measurement and one factory round from CCI was actually 0.0005" larger OD then my reload at both the case mouth and below the crimp. Based on my measurement results I can not understand why they all are slightly more difficult to eject by hand. I would like to know if these rounds are safe to fire or not. Is this a normal issue with coated bullets as I need to know before I reload the reaming nearly 500 I have left.