sizing die problem.

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Maybe it’s just the angle or my eyes but it looks to me like there’s a whole lot of shank showing.

Captain Quack said:
I've checked the OAL 7 times in the newest Speer manual for this type and weight of bullet. Consistent to 3 places and close on the 4th
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Captain Quack said:
New Winchester brass and RMR 115 gr FMJ Rd Nose bullets.
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This is a point I see a lot of people having problems with: you’re using Speer OAL for a not-Speer bullet. Speer, Nosler and Hornady - in fact all bullet manufacturers - only publish loading data for their products, not a generic product and not their competitors products.
The Western powders manuals list a COAL of 1.120” for that bullet. If that’s where you are that’s still too long for your guns, seat deeper until they plunk in your chambers. Drop in, seat flush, spins with light finger pressure, falls out. That’s a good plunk.
You should still be at a starting load so you don’t really need to worry about dropping the powder charge to compensate if you want to seat some of your current load that don’t fit just a few tenths deeper.
 
@Captain Quack , thanks for the pics, they show a number of things to me.
COL, for a 115gr RMR RN, is very long. That may or may not be a problem in the EGW Gauge, or in your gun, with your FTF or FTC. Did you do a plunk test in the barrels you’re using? That’s step 1. Some published data will show 1.169” for a COL but you need to use that specific bullet. Others have mentioned 1.130”, or around there, and it’s a good starting point but has to be based on what your gun will handle, not what you read here. Then the powder charges may have to be adjusted if you’re reducing the COL.
The amount of flare you’re adding (not flair), is plenty for a jacketed bullet, I’d probably do a bit less. But the crimp step should be able to take it back down.
Jim Watson said:
That bullet shape will not pass the EGW gauge, it doesn't have a throat like a barrel.
Will they "plunk" i.e. chamber fully and drop out freely in your actual gun barrel?

I was once loading an oddball combination, I had the gunsmith ream a gauge with the same reamer used on the barrel. That ought not to be necessary here.
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EGW sells a “Large Ogive” 9mm gauge, but it’s not clear what that encompasses.
 
DrBand. They fit the mags. They do plunk in and out well now. At least, I think they do. They drop in fine and fall out with no help. Not really certain about how they should look. Time to check the plunk with those blazers I found. Maybe I just need to roll up 50 or so and pop out and see what they do. I looked on the RMR site and posted asking for advice, and I'm waiting for some. NMexJim. I recently tore it all down and cleaned it and put it back together. Function is fine. I've reset the dies at least three times since then, after and while watching multiple YouTubes on how to do it. I can get the cases to sit flush in a case gauge. Almost all the brass I'm using is new Winchester 9 mm. No problem there. Everything else feeds fine to make a whole bullet, but they sit high in the case gauge. They show about half the rim. They do plunk fine. I'm still embarrassed at not knowing I was using a universal decapping die instead of a sizing/decaping die. A new 9 mm sizing/decapping die fixed that problem. Since they plunk fine, I'm going to stick with this current setting and work on the OAL. I've done some quick googles and see OAL's from 1.15 to 1.50. The latest Speer manual recommends 1.35, and I've got that very consistently, but I am now looking at some other manuals. The gent who got me into reloading and was my Mentor years ago has given up on the US government and moved to Mexico. I haven't found anyone else except a friend who's been asking me about how to reload. We only have one really commercial reloading store in town, and they handle all kinds of sporting goods, and the staff don't seem to be knowledgeable about reloading. The consensus seems to be an OAL issue. I will, of course, defer to all the accumulated knowledge here. What's the next step? Start long and go down, or start short and go up and see when it plunks in the barrels properly?

Captain Quack.
 
Captain Quack said:
DrBand. They fit the mags. They do plunk in and out well now. At least, I think they do. They drop in fine and fall out with no help. Not really certain about how they should look. Time to check the plunk with those blazers I found. Maybe I just need to roll up 50 or so and pop out and see what they do. I looked on the RMR site and posted asking for advice, and I'm waiting for some. NMexJim. I recently tore it all down and cleaned it and put it back together. Function is fine. I've reset the dies at least three times since then, after and while watching multiple YouTubes on how to do it. I can get the cases to sit flush in a case gauge. Almost all the brass I'm using is new Winchester 9 mm. No problem there. Everything else feeds fine to make a whole bullet, but they sit high in the case gauge. They show about half the rim. They do plunk fine. I'm still embarrassed at not knowing I was using a universal decapping die instead of a sizing/decaping die. A new 9 mm sizing/decapping die fixed that problem. Since they plunk fine, I'm going to stick with this current setting and work on the OAL. I've done some quick googles and see OAL's from 1.15 to 1.50. The latest Speer manual recommends 1.35, and I've got that very consistently, but I am now looking at some other manuals. The gent who got me into reloading and was my Mentor years ago has given up on the US government and moved to Mexico. I haven't found anyone else except a friend who's been asking me about how to reload. We only have one really commercial reloading store in town, and they handle all kinds of sporting goods, and the staff don't seem to be knowledgeable about reloading. The consensus seems to be an OAL issue. I will, of course, defer to all the accumulated knowledge here. What's the next step? Start long and go down, or start short and go up and see when it plunks in the barrels properly?

Captain Quack.
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Sounds like you have it worked out. If the rounds plunk, then you should be good especially if they fall right out of the barrel. Maybe no need to seat further. I personally do not like to be too close to the riflings w/ a pistol round. I'd rather seat an additional .025 or so back.

I would suggest that you push firmly on the side of the bullet and see if they are firmly in the case and that there is no lateral movement. If there is, then you need to go deeper. The bullet needs to be seated firmly so that recoil doesn't change OAL in the magazine.

Too, push on the end of the bullet to make sure your taper crimp is good. A good taper crimp should just remove whatever flare you put in (there will probably be some discussion over this comment). My method is to measure the case mouth right out of the size die and make a note of that for a baseline, and then flare just enough over that to get the bullet to sit in the case easing entry into the seating die. Lead, plated and coated bullets may require a bit more flare than jacketed because they tend to run a thou or two over.

Generally, go long and seat deeper as needed.

I agree w/ you, take some out and give them a try. I do that with new loads.
 
Since my health went south, my Wife will be taking over some of the pulling the lever. With me sitting right there of course. I flared slightly more than I needed to make it easier for her to set the bullet in the case. When she gets comfortable with that I'll narrow the flare a bit more. I've worn myself out today. Tomorrow. Roll up some bullets and see if they work.
Captain Quack.
 
Captain Quack said:
Since my health went south, my Wife will be taking over some of the pulling the lever. With me sitting right there of course. I flared slightly more than I needed to make it easier for her to set the bullet in the case. When she gets comfortable with that I'll narrow the flare a bit more. I've worn myself out today. Tomorrow. Roll up some bullets and see if they work.
Captain Quack.
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Western powder’s last manual listed that exact RMR bullet with an OAL of 1.120”.
 
I'll try that. I went looking for the western powders manual and did a page search for RMR when I got there and only got one entry and that was manufacturers. Could you send me a link, please? And GeoDudeFlorida. I'm going to steal your avatar. My Wife and I met at a SF convention almost 30 years ago now. I haven't started rolling yet so I'll run up some dummies in 1.12 and see how it goes.
 
Captain Quack said:
I'll try that. I went looking for the western powders manual and did a page search for RMR when I got there and only got one entry and that was manufacturers. Could you send me a link, please? And GeoDudeFlorida. I'm going to steal your avatar. My Wife and I met at a SF convention almost 30 years ago now. I haven't started rolling yet so I'll run up some dummies in 1.12 and see how it goes.
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No problem.
IMG_1776.jpeg
When Hodgdon took over Western they imported all of the existing loading tables to their site. You just have to scroll down to the R’s after selecting 115gr from the bullet weight options.
 
Maybe that's why I missed it. I just bought 10 lbs of mixed powder. There is only 1 reloading retailer around here, they have very limited stock on powders and no primers, of course. I had to travel 35 miles and visit 8 stores to find what I bought. Some red dot. Silhouette. Accurate #2. A couple of others. I've been using up my stock of old pistol powders from when I loaded years ago. I've been finishing off the last of the Unique. Have to figure out if there is a conversion chart or something.
 
Captain Quack said:
Maybe that's why I missed it. I just bought 10 lbs of mixed powder. There is only 1 reloading retailer around here, they have very limited stock on powders and no primers, of course. I had to travel 35 miles and visit 8 stores to find what I bought. Some red dot. Silhouette. Accurate #2. A couple of others. I've been using up my stock of old pistol powders from when I loaded years ago. I've been finishing off the last of the Unique. Have to figure out if there is a conversion chart or something.
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There are no conversion charts. Only data for specific powders. Each one is an entity unto itself. Bullets , however, can be varied to a degree. Lead & plated use lead data unless specially listed. Jacketed & hollow-point-jacketed can use the same data IF you work up. Sometimes plated is listed separately for newer powders.
Always work up. (You know this:))
 
I know most of that. I still have a bunch of cast and lead .38 from our cowboy action days. I was going to give it away, but my much better half said let's shoot it. Federal, Remington, CCI, Alliant, ATK. Most of them are owned by the Vista Corporation in Lewiston, Idaho. The powder is made elsewhere, I understand. (according to Wikipedia). RMR and Freedom Munitions are down there too. Although, Freedom won't sell out the door. RMR does if you order in advance and are nice about it. Last month we spent a whole day and went to 10 different stores and the best we could do were a mixed lot of one pound at a time powders and still no primers in the very city they are made in. 35 miles each way and the Lewiston grade at the top. We go down about once a month for treatments for me. I see lots of powder manufacturers pages in my immediate future.

Captain Quack.
 
I tried to find both. No go. I seem to have found Western load data on more than one manufacturer page. One didn't list 115 gr 9 mm at all for Silhouette on one version, and did list Silhouette for 115 another version. Could you please send me the link for the page? I know a lot of them have been bought out by others. I'm also unsure what I'm looking for. Just FMJ or just RN? The new powders I bought are Ramshot Silhouette and True Blue, Accurate #2 (No #5 for love nor money). Alliant Blue dot, Power Pistol and some Bullseye from years ago. I've got about 4 pounds of Hercules 2400 from the old days too. Plus some odds and sods for pistol and '06 for my Wife's Garand and .303 British for my Lee Enfield. This is what I have on hand. New and old. I have about 2.5 lbs of the IMR 4895 and less than a pound of everything else. Most of the old ones we're bought for Cowboy Action shooting.
 

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You know. If a guy has an account with an internet hosting company that allows you to make web pages and someone got the URLs of as many load data pages as possible and posted them on that page, that might be something nice for the reloading community. Comments?

Captain Quack.
 
Press set for 1.20. Almost fits case gauge and plunk test was very good. Geodude. I was hoping for a link to the manual. I'll be buying other types and weights of bullets from RMR. As soon as I have the energy I'll roll up 50 or so and off to the range.

Captain Quack.
 
Captain Quack said:
Press set for 1.20. Almost fits case gauge and plunk test was very good. Geodude. I was hoping for a link to the manual. I'll be buying other types and weights of bullets from RMR. As soon as I have the energy I'll roll up 50 or so and off to the range.

Captain Quack.
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That should be 1.120” Captain.

Here you go:
https://www.hodgdonreloading.com/western-powders-load-manual

Sorry, thought I said it was all on the Hodgdon site now.
GeoDudeFlorida said:
When Hodgdon took over Western they imported all of the existing loading tables to their site. You just have to scroll down to the R’s after selecting 115gr from the bullet weight options
Click to expand...
 
That's right. Make me go look and see if what I said was right before my morning coffee. Checked em. 1.12 as you said GeoDudeFlorida. I was looking at the online manuals for the RMR data. I checked the online manual. It's strange. When I search for RMR using search in Adobe reader, it only shows the first entry under manufacturers. Not the rest. I found them. Thank you so so much GeoDudeFLorida!
 
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