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...
That’s an excellent recommendation. Use a factory load of the same bullet as a gauge to set the dies. Dang, that woulda’ saved me hours and much aggravation. :-)
It was about 4.2 of 231 that would not cycle the 9mm. I got some blue dot and loaded some about 7.8 should be good. We will see. I am trying various this with the .45 now.
Well said, that’s a great summary of case measurement and die setting. Micrometers are our friends. Even the digital ones aren’t that spendy these days.
Yup, Unique for it all, 9mm, .38 and .45 both the long and short versions. I have a can of Win Ball 293 I think, don’t use it much, it’s for the full bore .357 loads with a jacketed bullet. I don’t actually shoot many jacketed ones once I get a load set. Lead makes punching holes in paper or knocking down steel plates that much cheaper.