Some of the rounds that failed to fully feed would not even go tall the way home with a firm heel of the hand smack to the back of the slide. It would be between 1/8 and 1/2 inch back from full battery. Some would seat with a smack and some just had to be cycled out. Next time if I get any like that I will save them and slap the calipers all over them. My Springfield is clean so I will put some through that next time to compare too.
It is a 3 die set, 4 if if you count the power stage. Size, Bell&powder, seat, crimp. Seat height looked pretty good. Bell seemed fine. Could not really tell about crimp.
The dies themselves are Dillons too.
I think my strokes were consistent but the proof is in what kind of performance you get in... What were we talking about again?
The 9s were funny. The powder I had (231) was not listed for 9 in the book so I hit the web... but clearly I did not hit it hard enough because the slide did not move and they sounded about like .22s
Heh, oops :P
I am going to double check the weight of our 9mm projectiles and do some better searching for loads. Also I have two other brands of powder to try now.
.45ACP should never be crimped, because the round headspaces on the case mouth. A tiny amount of crimp may seem harmless, but it could also bulge out the case behind the crimp enough to exceed appropriate dimensions.
Also check for any roughness in the chamber. There may be just enough to interfere with certain brands or reloads. And hand-polishing the feed ramp with some crocus cloth wrapped around a dowel never hurts. It should shine like a mirror.
Of all the stuff I ever loaded it was the .45s that gave me the most trouble. I think it must be why I liked shooting .357 so much then. .357 is a breeze since it’s a roll-crimp and there’s no question when it’s right.
But I had the toughest time getting my .45s to seat right. That taper-crimp is a bugger. Too loose and the bullet doesn’t stay put. Too tight and it won’t headspace on the case rim. Grrr.
It sounds like maybe your cases are bulging slightly? Dang, it’s been so long that I’m not getting recall, but isn’t there a full-length resize before the belling stage? Maybe there’s something not right about that making it too wide in the base, and then too tight in the chamber.
dunno.
Okay... unscrew the seater plug a turn or two, place a factory load in the station, raise the ram, and screw the plug back down till you feel resistance. This should set your seating depth. Unscrew the crimp die a turn or two. Index the load to station four, raise the ram. Turn down the crimp die until you feel resistance. This should set your crimp. You should at least be in the ball park...
winmags right, there should be no visible crimp, the case side should appear straight, but have a dia of .473, as opposed to .475 at the bottom, and .480 on the rim. What your “crimp” die does is “de-bell” the cartridge...
winmag is also right about the feed ramp... it should shine...
max load for 231 in 115gr 9mm is 5.3gr for 1150 fps... I’d start 4.3gr at 1050 fps. 3.8 gives 1000 fps, but that light a load may cause cycling problems too...
I’ve used 231 for 9mm, but prefer Unique... which is what I feed my .38/.357...