How consistent should COL be? 9mm, LCT press, 4 die set with FCD

[GJSchulze]

Walkalong, Ummm duh?! Obvious after the fact and probably should have been obvious to me before the fact. Sinclair has these in two sizes, the largest hole being too small for 9mm. However, Hornady makes a guage that has a slot that fits on the caliper and then has several inserts for the bullet. Now on clearance. Thanks.

 

[Walkalong]

The Hornady set up should work. I don't do it with pistol calibers. I just play with seating depth a little as measured by OAL.

 

[Hondo 60]

How consistent should COL be?

If you're trying to measure with just a calipers, GOOD LUCK.
Any number of tiny bumps on the bullet can make the OAL be off by a LOT.

If you have the right tools, then .001-.003" can be pretty tight.

with pistol calibers. I just play with seating depth a little as measured by OAL.

Ditto

 

[gamestalker]

I agree your oal variances are normal and no where near becoming an issue. The one area of your post that did catch my eye though, is that you stated all your primers are flush with the case head. Seating primers correctly should be to make sure that they are completely into the pocket, or at least .004" below case head to avoid mis-fires.

GS

 

[ddc]

I agree your oal variances are normal and no where near becoming an issue. The one area of your post that did catch my eye though, is that you stated all your primers are flush with the case head. Seating primers correctly should be to make sure that they are completely into the pocket, or at least .004" below case head to avoid mis-fires.

GS

gamestalker,
Your comment reminds me of a question I have about the Lee Classic Turret: It does not appear to have any ability to adjust the seating depth of the primer. A google search supports that theory. I don't see any formal documentation yea or nay on the subject.

 

[GJSchulze]

that they are completely into the pocket, or at least .004" below case head to avoid mis-fires

I've heard this before and I don't quite understand the whole primer depth thing. Don't you want the bottom (anvil) of the primer to touch the bottom of the pocket? If so, then how do you change the depth? If you seat it higher, it might not fire and and if you seat it deeper, you can crush the primer. So how can you have control over the depth?

Can someone please explain. This has bugged me since I started reloading 9mm two years ago.

 

[1KPerDay]

seat the primers until you feel them seat and/or they won't go any further with reasonable effort. They will then be flush or below flush. if they aren't, something is wrong. It's really hard to crush a primer so it won't fire. I've mashed a few starting out, and fired them in my guns (sans powder and bullet) so I could deprime/reload them, and all went bang without exception.

 

[GJSchulze]

That's what I thought. So someone saying seat them .004 below flush really means that for that primer and that pocket, .004 is when the primer bottomed out. Different primer, different pocket would be .004 could be wrong

 

[1KPerDay]

It's more critical in rifles with floating firing pins, where slam-firing can be an issue. If you use military primers you may have less trouble, but a lot of people use standard primers. In those cases, you really want to have them below flush and may have to ream your primer pockets to get them deep enough. In pistols, flush is good enough (as long as they're seated and provide enough resistance to the firing pin to ignite reliably).