tony357 386 Posted September 7, 2011 dig0770, measure the length of those i am very curious. i have never had this problem.. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tbtrout 141 Posted September 7, 2011 dig0770, measure the length of those i am very curious. i have never had this problem.. me either and I have picked up and reloaded about every case out there. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tony357 386 Posted September 7, 2011 me either and I have picked up and reloaded about every case out there. I do not have any ppu cases, but i am curious as to how much longer they are, jon mentioned this earlier on having cases .010-.015 longer which i have never encountered.. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JonF 79 Posted September 7, 2011 I do not have any ppu cases, but i am curious as to how much longer they are, jon mentioned this earlier on having cases .010-.015 longer which i have never encountered.. I didn't mean .010-.015" longer than spec, i meant .010-.015" extreme spread in measured length from the shortest to longest in a large sampling of mixed headstamps. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
djg0770 481 Posted September 8, 2011 No, i meant thousandths. I've mic'd a bunch of 9mm once before, something like 8 of the most common headstamps i had on hand, and found about 10 thousandths of an inch variance from the shortest to the longest. The same headstamp alone will often have 3-5 thousandths spread from its hi to lo len so adding different manufacturers to the mix spreads it out even more. Could you imagine hand trimming pistol brass in the quantity that avid shooters reload and consume it? I grabbed a mixed handful and used the caliper. 1.146 was the smallest 1.155 was the largest. Beginning to think that I need to readjust the seat/crimp die. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JonF 79 Posted September 9, 2011 Since you're loading mixed brass, you may want to take a sampling of 5 cases of your most abundant headstamps and see what the length ranges are for each brand (you may find 3-5 thousandths spread for the same headstamp alone). With that info, you can determine and select a average length case to use for your crimp baseline so any longer or shorter cases wont be too extreme. If you find outliers like the PPU cases, you can either set aside and trim or discard since they will be somewhat problematic as you've found. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tony357 386 Posted September 10, 2011 I would trim the whole lot.. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
djg0770 481 Posted September 11, 2011 Well, I adjusted the seat/crimp die and that took care of the problem for those 6 cases. It's obvious though that I needed to address the root of the problem - I need to trim pistol brass So, I got a trimmer today and started taking care of that. It's now quite obvious that this definitely was a case length problem all along. Some cases go zip and nothing is trimmed and then other cases have to go a few revolutions before nothing more is being trimmed. Mea Culpa Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
matt6669 71 Posted September 11, 2011 trimming pistol brass, never done it, and never will. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
djg0770 481 Posted September 11, 2011 Until u can't chamber a case. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
matt6669 71 Posted September 12, 2011 meh just keep a watchful eye and you shouldn't have any problems. Problem cases just toss in the scrap pile esp with .38 brass it's so plentiful Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sigman 41 Posted September 12, 2011 Dan If you're set on trimming pistol brass, get a case gauge and check it first. Maybe the crimp is more affected by case length when using wadcutter bullets? I've loaded thousands of pistol rounds with no trimming, but have not used wadcutters. I only trim rifle brass when it needs it. I case gauge all rifle brass first. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites