Problem with OAL on bullet seating

[PatUSAF]

Hey everyone,

I just purchased my first press and got all of my equipment set up to start pressing my own 9mm ammo.

I got the Lee Anniversary set (I know I know....its cheap and not a Dillon!) but I wanted to start slow and build my way up.

So I got my brass deprimed, resized and ready to seat some bullets. After fussing with the powder measure and scale for an hour I was finally happy with my charges to start pressing some bullets.

So the problem is, that every bullet I seat on the press is different from one round to another. I set it up at 1.142 OAL and it goes from 1.3 to 1.53 and its all over the place.

I should have prefaced this with, I'm a crazy anal retentive fool and I was looking forward to getting into reloading to produce more consistent loads.

Am I just making a big deal out of something stupid, or are my concerns warranted?

Why is this happening? My dies are brand new and tightened very well, my pressure on the press is consistent from case to case and the press doesn't flex too much.

Pat

[DWFAN]

Here are some idea's.

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=147480&view=findpost&p=1653746&hl=inconsistent&fromsearch=1

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=94356&view=findpost&p=1084224&hl=inconsistent&fromsearch=1

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=63442&view=findpost&p=747998&hl=inconsistent&fromsearch=1

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=46663&view=findpost&p=537838&hl=inconsistent&fromsearch=1

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=98496&view=findpost&p=1127846&hl=oal+variance&fromsearch=1

[acekc]

So the problem is, that every bullet I seat on the press is different from one round to another. I set it up at 1.142 OAL and it goes from 1.3 to 1.53 and its all over the place.

I should have prefaced this with, I'm a crazy anal retentive fool and I was looking forward to getting into reloading to produce more consistent loads.

Am I just making a big deal out of something stupid, or are my concerns warranted?

Why is this happening? My dies are brand new and tightened very well, my pressure on the press is consistent from case to case and the press doesn't flex too much.

Pat

Did you really mean to say it varies from 1.3 to 1.53 or did you mean to say it varies from 1.13 to 1.153? I suspect the latter but wanted to be sure.

Assuming it really is variance of 0.023 instead of 0.23 inches, at least part of it is probably bullet variances. I'm not sure what brand of dies you're using but you may be able to disassemble the seater die and remove the stem, which is the part that contacts the bullet and pushes it into the case. Take the stem and put it on top of a loose bullet (i.e. not seated in a case) and use your calipers to measure the distance from the top of the seating stem to the base of the bullet.

Do this for 10-20 bullets and see what sort of variance you get there. Since the seating stem typically contacts the ogive of the bullet, simply measuring the bullets base to tip does not give you an indication of bullet variance from the seating die's "perspective" so to speak.

[PatUSAF]

I did indeed mean to say 1.13 to 1.53 etc....

That's a good idea, to see how the bullets vary, I measured a few that I have and they vary a bit, but not drastically only +-.002 or so.

So I guess if that works the question becomes how do I get an accurate read on the OAL of the round?

Pat

[Ofishl1]

I did indeed mean to say 1.13 to 1.53 etc....

That's a good idea, to see how the bullets vary, I measured a few that I have and they vary a bit, but not drastically only +-.002 or so.

So I guess if that works the question becomes how do I get an accurate read on the OAL of the round?

Pat

My Dillon seater has two sides to be used for flat nose and round nose profiles, if I forget to flip it in the die to the correct bullet profile I am seating, I get some some "wild" swings in depth,...I realize it it right away and just pull it out and flip it over,...not sure if yours is the same way,..may be an option.

[PatUSAF]

Wish it was, the lee is only a 1 sided deal.

What size comparator would I get for a 9mm bullet?

It seems like its a normal shift in the dimension and since I'm measuring overall length of the cartridge its all over the place, I figure I should get a comparator to measure accurately.

Pat