I reload 4K rounds of 9mm/month give or take. I've got excellent lighting on my Hornady LNL AP press and am vigilant about powder level and the occasional escape of a .380 case into my case feeder hopper.
My usual load is 3.3gr WSF behind 147gr coated lead and while I have had a couple of escapes a .380 case loaded to 1.11" is simply a very soft round where the case doesn't eject. I'm transitioning to N320 and 115gr bullets. Had an "escape" and it turns out that this load with the short .380 case will hardly move the bullet in the barrel probably because there isn't any bearing surface between case and bullet.
We shoot steel challenge so the only thing that saved me was the bullet hadn't moved far enough and the slide wouldn't go into battery. I shut down for the day and it took awhile for the light bulb to go off.
I can't go through thousands of cases by hand, but what I'm going to do is run my case feeder a tube at a time and put a mark at the top of the tube corresponding to a stack of 9mm cases. I believe I'll be able to catch a short case using this approach.
I averted disaster, but not due to any effort on my part.
My usual load is 3.3gr WSF behind 147gr coated lead and while I have had a couple of escapes a .380 case loaded to 1.11" is simply a very soft round where the case doesn't eject. I'm transitioning to N320 and 115gr bullets. Had an "escape" and it turns out that this load with the short .380 case will hardly move the bullet in the barrel probably because there isn't any bearing surface between case and bullet.
We shoot steel challenge so the only thing that saved me was the bullet hadn't moved far enough and the slide wouldn't go into battery. I shut down for the day and it took awhile for the light bulb to go off.
I can't go through thousands of cases by hand, but what I'm going to do is run my case feeder a tube at a time and put a mark at the top of the tube corresponding to a stack of 9mm cases. I believe I'll be able to catch a short case using this approach.
I averted disaster, but not due to any effort on my part.