Changing The OAL on Loaded Rounds

[Lifeislarge]

I have about a hundred rounds of .40 that I loaded to minor to see if I liked shooting it and it turns out that I don't. I loaded them to 1.185 OAL for my Edge with a 165gr. bullet and they chrono'd to and average of 150 PF. Can I run the finished loads through the seating and crimp dies to reduce the OAL to one that I can shoot through my Sig 229 or do I have to pull all the bullet and start over. I get that reducing the OAL will increase pressure/velocity etc. and what I'm wondering is if it will increase it to an unsafe level. Alliant's website says to use 7.8 gr. for a minimum of of 1.12 OAL and these have 5.8 gr. which I will want to seat to around 1.125. No big deal, I can always just use them as practice rounds but there's no point in shooting minor loads if I'm only shooting major.

Edited December 19, 2012 by Lifeislarge

[wgj3]

I had to do the same thing recently, but for a different reason. Ive had no issues. .40 is a high pressure round. You aren't going to hurt anything starting with relatively moderate loads. If you were already at 185pf, you might want to rethink. I say you should be good to go.

I had to do the same thing b/c I changed bullets profiles from RNFP to TC. The TC profile wont feed at the same length, so I had to take em down ab .04...

Edited December 19, 2012 by wgj3

[Hi-Power Jack]

I agree with Will - should be fine - I'd try ONE first, and see what it

looks like and shoots like, though, rather than doing the entire batch.

[56hawk]

Jacketed or lead and how heavy of a crimp did you use? You should be fine shortening them up if they are jacketed. Didn't double check the load, but if you are below maximum at the shorter length the pressure shouldn't be a problem.

[superdude]

check out the link below, and post #27 for OAL and pressure data. It's a different gunpowder and bullet so the numbers will be different and I'm suggesting that the numbers will be the same, only that the data in the graph is, well, data on OAL and seating depth.

http://forums.1911forum.com/showthread.php?t=393338&page=2

[Lifeislarge]

Cool, thanks for the info. My crimp measures to .421 and using the info on the chart in the above link I should be okay at 1.125 in my fairly robust 229. Now if it was a Glock I might be worried

[gng4life]

Done it several times, had no issues with jacketed bullets but careful with the pressure. As always, go slow and in small increments, pressure increases are not exactly linear...