Case Gages

[Rufus The Bum]

I've been loading for nearly 20 years and have never used a case gage until I started shooting IPSC. Used to be that I'd case gage every round that I loaded, the good stuff goes into the match ammo box and the other stuff went into the practice ammo box. Well it seems that almost all of my ammo I load through my 550 gages bad, in particular, the last 1/2 inch of the round won't go into the gage, it hard sticks.

Am I being too picky in my quality control? Or should I just load away on my progressive and case gage ammo only for major matches? What does everyone else do? Using a single stage, you can get almost 100 percent resize on the case, in a progressive you can't.

[diehli]

Goes back to dies. Lee/EGW sizing die and/or Lee FCD will take care of it.

[ErikW]

You probably need a different resizing die, as detailed ad nauseum in other threads, including this current topic.

Obviously your chamber is looser than your gauge. You can continue to shoot the ammo that fails the gauge, but I think you're pushing your luck. A fat case stuck in your chamber may break your extractor as you try to clear it.

I take the ammo that doesn't quite pass the gauge cleanly and use it as practice ammo and throw away the brass. I take the ammo that hangs up bad in the gauge and disassemble it, and throw away the brass. There's a lot less of the latter with my new EGW die.

[Rufus The Bum]

Eric, do you use the factory crimp die in a Dillon? I know I should probably be using Dillon dies, but I use the Hornady Dies I've been using for years.

[ErikW]

I think I've got one in 9mm. Flexmoney is a fan of the Lee F.C.D. A search will reveal a few topics about it.