Dirty 9mm Load?

[d_striker]

OK thanks everyone! I will get a chance to play in the laboratory/garage tomorrow. I'm going to play around with each stage of the press and try to get a better feel for what exactly is occurring at each one. Off the bat, I know that I may be belling the cases too much.

One thing I've also found with coated and plated bullets is that it's very easy to not bell enough. Not enough flare on the case mouth and it's easy to damage the coating or even plating. This is not an issue with jacketed which is why coated and plated require a little more initial diligence in the reloading process.

I recently discovered in MY process that it's also possible for the case itself to swage a soft bullet down slightly (roughly .0005") upon seating the bullet without enough flare on the case mouth. This of course depends on the wall thickness of the particular case, hardness of the bullet, and also how much your sizing die is sizing the case.

Don't be afraid to pull bullets. It's really the only way to verify what's going on with the bullet once it makes its way through your dies.

Edited November 9, 2015 by d_striker