Take the Poll - Average Case Gauge Failures per 100 rounds

[Bill Nesbitt]

I case gauge anything that is shot in a match whether big or local. It must drop fully into the case gauge and drop out freely. The rejects are put in the practice only box where they all run 100% in all my guns. The piece of mind is worth it to me.

[G-ManBart]

Maybe 1 out of 100 or so. Thats using both a U die and a FCD. 90% of the sticky ones are Winchester...???

I use EGW's 4 in 1 case gauge. My FCD is set lightly to remove the bell and has a consistent feel doing so. Any more

resistance is my "stop sign" for closer inspection. Many devoted handloaders are convinced the U die is overkill and is harsh

on the brass. Maybe, but I'm not a metallurgist. I think they're the greatest thing since paved sidewalks. The FCD is fine but

it's a 1/2 turn (or less) away from being a problem. Moderation is paramount there IMO.

Jim M

Good points. The U-die is almost a no-brainer. The FCD can smash out problems that you should otherwise know about and shouldn't be there in the first place if everything else is done right. If the FCD isn't just right, it can actually remove neck tension on the bullet rather than increase it....a bad thing if that's the way it's set up. R,

[ebg3]

I load on a 550 with Dillon dies. I avg. 3/100 failures in my case gauge. Most of these will work in my STI. I only case gauge for majors...at locals, I visually check rounds for primers and case bulges. I've been loading 40's for 12 years and have had no real issues with any brass. Recently, I've had some problems with speer brass being loose and not holding bullets. What's up with that?

[BayouSlide]

I gauge every round, practice or match. Use Dillon dies in my 550B with a Lee FCD in final station. Mostly 9mm mixed brass for practice, used about 5X and counting. Winchester 1 - 3 X fired for matches. IIRC, maybe 3 - 5 failures to gauge in about 16K rounds...and all of those still chambered and fired properly in my G34 Glock with factory barrel.

[JSCHIEFEN]

Roll size all 45, 38SC, & 40. Use 2 sizer dies (Redding carbide then EGW U-die), Redding Bell die,

Redding MicroSeater, Lee FCD. This gives 99.8% perfect loads. Always use known source brass.

Everything loaded on a Super 1050.

[Paul Burtchell]

Using EGW U-die and havent had any failures.

BK

+1

+2

Doug, the EGW Undersize is the way to go.

[el pres]

I have been loading with all Lee dies for 40 on a 650 and they work great !!

I dont use a case guage but my Edge barrel instead. I have a quite higher no go rate than most

but for a slightly different reason. If your talking about just brass bulge then I would have to say

2-3 rounds in a Thousand but I have a different problem, kind of a thread drift mabey.

I use to load Berry's plated bullets and now Precision Black bullets both very soft and I have a high rate of the bullets

not seating straight. They still work 100% but are reserved for practice. They stick in the barrel because the bullet is touching the lead area of the barrel on one side, loading to 1.180. I have changed my seating die to a Dillon to better match the flat bullet profile but it's only gotten slightly better. I have plenty of flare set and an FCD afterwards ??? Any ideas ???

Edited June 5, 2008 by DIRTY CHAMBER

[Fullauto_Shooter]

This is great data and very enlightening for me. I just assumed that everyone else had about the same number of case gauge failures that I've been dealing with but see now that's not the "case" - bad pun, sorry. Seems like most folks have got this figured out while I've been flailing around with the same problem for years.

I'll be ordering several EGW U-Dies. I looked on their website and they're $22 each with extra decapping pins available for $2 each. Quick question - how durable are the decapping pins? I plan on ordering several extra pins just in case but wasn't sure how often they failed or how many I should get. I plan on getting U-Dies for all my calibers since I typically have about the same case gauge failure rate no matter what caliber I'm shooting.

Thanks again for the perspective - if you're coming in late, I'd still love to hear from you on the poll.

[Harmon]

only cases that fail the gauge for me is the nasty Sellier and Bellot and only when fired from a factory glock barrel

[Jman]

Quick question - how durable are the decapping pins? I plan on ordering several extra pins just in case but wasn't sure how often they failed or how many I should get.

Both my 9/40 decapping pins are original issue. About 10,000 rounds between them. Now that I said that I'll snap one before the weekend. Lee makes them for EGW and my standard Lee sizers have the same pin (I think) that I use as "stand ins".

Jim M

[Shay1911]

Ok, I ran a little experiment...

Lee sizer station one, U die station two, LFCD station five. Brass is police range glocked.

Out of 100, about 10 did not pass my Lyman case gauge.

Inside diameter of Lyman case gauge is 0.424.

Outside diameter of glocked ring on bottom of rounds that failed .4245-.425.

Inside diameter of chamber, CZ Tactical Sport, .427.

In other words, none of the ones that didnt pass the case gauge would cause a FTF, they all pass the barrel chamber test.

[Derek45]

DILLON 650

LEE dies, including FCD.

Precision bullets

just load and shoot.

I Never have any problems.

I use my rifle case guages more than pistol.

[Fullauto_Shooter]

Took the plunge this AM and ordered EGW U-Dies for all my pistol calibers along with 10 x replacement decapping pins. If these dies live up to the hype, I should be cranking out trouble-free rounds shortly after they arrive. I'll post a report once I have them up and running.

Thanks again for the suggestions.

[hopalong]

I use a xl650 with dillion dies for my .45 stuff and get maybe 1 in 3-400 that is sticky but will work. I loaded 1000 yesterday and all of them fell in and fell out.

I use a U die with my 40 because of tight cylinders on my 646. Since then I've had 0 (ZERO) problems with my auto ammo and maybe 1 in the same 3-400 (but it won't work in my 646, and will in my autos)

I quit checking practice ammo long time ago, and only check match ammo now.

HOP

[lucas]

I load and shoot with 650.

[waxman]

I would say I have about 3 out of 100 that fail the case gauge. Most of them were just sticky, but I dont take any chances. I am running on a real great 100% streak with my SV. I am at about 3400 rnds without any kind of malfunction. I am going to see how far I can push that. If the rounds are at all sticky, and dont fit the case gauge, i use them for practice only. The SV eats them just like the good ones. I attribute my reliability of my reloads to the Lee FCD. My failures went from 3% to 0% after I bought it. I now have one for 9, 40 and 45. I am loading on a D 550B. Kinda Amish in this sport. But if it isnt broke, why fix it.

[splashdown]

I load on a SDB. The chamber of my G35 Barsto match barrel is so tight that I have to barrel gauge every round because I just don't trust it. I would get 5-10% that wouldn't chamber easily. For my SV with schuemann hybrid, it never was an issue and I hadn't bothered to gauge any ammo. My new 6" STI has a KKM barrel, and twice this season I've had a fat round go in and get stuck with the gun out of battery. So now I'm barrel gauging everything and I've seen about 3-5% not go in/come out easily. My solution is to re-crimp and try again. If that doesn't work, I pull it and start over.

[sargenv]

People use those things?

[Fullauto_Shooter]

I promised an update and I finally have one. I've loaded 1800 rounds of .40 since I installed the U-Die and I've had only two cases that failed the case gauge. Both were very badly "ringed and bulged" around the very bottom of the case after sizing.

Before I got the U-Die, I would've had probably close to 60-70 rounds that failed the gauge - I'm now a believer. Just wish it hadn't taken me literally years to get this figured out.

Thanks again,

Doug

[Hammer]

I just loaded a couple of thousand rounds for the Winchester Challenge and American Handgunner World Shootoff. Mixed brass, fired who knows how many times. All were Caseproed and guaged. My wife shoots with me. All failures are my fault!

Nuff Said!

I had 1 out of 2000 that didn't guage. It worked fine in practice.

Hammer

[ben b.]

Before I got disgusted with them and bought a reloading rig, I was shooting Outdoor Marksman/Miwall remfg ammo. When I got an EGW case guage, I found that about 13% of the remfg mmo failed, some of it very badly. This explained some things.

I bought U-dies from the start, am about 2,000 rounds into it, and have not had a single gauge failure. Yet .

[Harmon]

the lone wolf barrel im running is tighter than any case gauge ive seen. SAAMI min for sure.

they fail to chamber in that gun, but run all day in my KKM.

The plus side is my cases dont get sized much and last a LONG time.

1 out of a thousand fails the KKM

3-4 out of a thousand fail the lone wolf

0 fail to chamber in the glock tube.

Harmon

[raz-0]

My storm lake barrel is tight. Bough a dillon case gauge, and what passes the case gauge can still be a bit sticky feeling when testing it int he barrel by hand.

From the barrel it is about 4.3 per hundred. The case gauge is a hair over 3.

[D. Manley]

I just recently did a little experiment which confirmed what I've suspected a good while. I took a good bit of once-fired range brass, picked 100 each .45 caliber Federal, Winchester, R/P, CCI, and GFL (Fiochhi). I ran each group through the U-Die by headstamp and gauged the sized, unloaded casings. Sure enough, about 4 out of 100 would fail to fully seat in the gauge. The problem...extractor dings. I wonder how much time has been wasted trying to figure out what went wrong in the reloading process that caused the problem when it was there from the get-go. And FWIW, to satisfy my curiousity I hit the dings with a little smooth diamond hone knocking the burrs off and, zap...in they went.

[Johann the Horrible]

I gauge all my ammo and the less than 1 per 100 that does not gauge goes through the FCD. After that it goes to the practice bin and works just as well as the match ammo. The last stoppage I had was a dead primer.