buba68
Member
Not so fast.
Using the barrel for the "plunk test" will determine the "max OAL" that will work for the barrel but that length may not reliably feed from the magazine. (There's another reloading variable of resized case length as shorter case will allow more bullet nose to stick above the case mouth but I won't go into that in this post)
Before you move onto powder work up, you need to determine the "working OAL" that reliably feed from the magazine and chamber in the barrel as slide cycles. Often the working OAL could be the same length as max OAL but sometimes the working OAL is shorter.
And once you determine the working OAL, then you can move on to the powder work up.
Just my .02 but I do not think the OP is moving to fast. He has selected the powder he is going to use and the bullet he is going to use. He has determined the COL for his barrel and the bullet he is going to be using. The COL of 1.25 is pretty common using a 230gr fmj bullet so he should not have any issues feeding in his magazine He has a Hornady Reloading Manual and has gotten a lot of advise from the forum members.
The next logical step is to determine the powder charge he is going to start out with which he has already done. He has stated he is going to load up some small groups of each powder charge he is going to use and go to the range and see how they work.
If they work he is good to go just need to determine which powder charge he wants to go with for a range/plinking load. If he has problems he can come back to the forum for more advise.
I know some folks do not think much of Lee Dies but I have been using the Lee 4 die set for several years for the pistol calibers I load and they have worked 100% for me. I do use the factory crimp die and have never had an issue with a round feeding, firing or ejecting. Yes the factory crimp die with the resizing insert makes sure the cartridge is within specs when it is crimped and I load either plated bullets or FMJ and never had a problem with the die resizing the bullet. Don't load lead bullets so I can't say anything about them.