Stop reloading 9MM cases at .744?

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sbwaters

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Have been shooting up a storm with my 9MM. It seems to shrink about .001 each time. For reloading, I group the cases by length - .751, .750, .749, .748 .... My shortest group of 50 is now at .745.

If SAAMI says the 9MM case length is .754 (-.010). Does that mean I should recycle cases that get to .743?

If so, I guess it means that you can’t use cases until signs of wear.

What happens if I load shorter than that?

Will the cases keep shrinking?
 
I never measure them. I suppose if someone wants to squeeze out every last bit of accuracy from the 9MM, has both the gun and the ability to do it, then maybe sorting cases by length could help, or maybe one particular length is best. Dunno. I'm going to keep shooting them all without measuring them.
 
I can't recall ever measuring a 9x19 case, and I've loaded and shot many, many thousands of them. I've got two 5 gallon buckets of 9x19 brass in my shop right now, and the thought of measuring the lengths on all those cases gives me the willies. Not going to happen.

Just load and shoot and repeat as necessary......

Hope this helps.

Fred
 
sbwaters said:
Walkalong, do you realize what you are doing to my OCD?

P.S. Love your Pooh “reference”.
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lol, sorry. I am/was seriously OCD about some things, others not so much, and having been beaten over the head at work for years about "Well, your OCD, you can't expect others to hold that high of a standard" *Insert primal scream here*, I am not so much as I was about many things. *sigh* :)

The Pooh line is awesome, I stole it from another THR member. Wish I remembered who.
 
At my age I find I am shrinking much more than any brass ever can. I do note that the term OCD does stand for Obsessive-Compulsive-DISORDER - rather implying that it is not a 'good' thing?

I also must mention that there are only two kinds of people in this world.

1. Those who MUST have closure in all aspects of their life.
 
Yea, OCD in the strictest sense isn't a good thing in general, but we misuse the term all the time to describe people who are thorough and do a great job.
 
well............................ IMHO if I hit the point where I'm breaking out the micrometer and sorting cases by length in one THOUSANDTH intervals?........... I'm thinking I might not be misusing that 'disorder' thingie - LOL

But that's just ME mind you. And I only strive to keep ME happy.
 
Hey, I have inside micrometers, outside micrometers, a ball micrometer, a depth micrometer, multiple calipers, a pin gauge set, a calibration set, chamber gauges..... Way more than I really "need" for 99.9% of reloading.
 
RandyP said:
sorting cases by length in one THOUSANDTH intervals?
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Heh! Started reloading last year and, worried about getting the proper crimp, saw that the case length could contribute to variance. Then I learned I didn’t have to crimp in to hold the bullet; just remove the bell. Measuring had become a habit as I sought accurate loads for particular barrels/bullets/powder.

This may sound strange, but the more I learn, the more I find I can unlearn.
 
i have measured a batch of 9mm case lengths and found some to be as short as .740". they all shot fine. if you still want to keep your ocd happy, you can sort them in two groups: one above .745 and one below. by the way, the hornady manual min/max for the 9mm luger case is .754/.749".

murf
 
SB, I've only been reloading 9MM since 1967, so take anything I have to say with a grain of salt. I admit to being a bit OCD myself about such things as headspace, actual cartridge case length,etc. While most shooters don't seem to know,or care, anything about headspace unless something ugly happens, I personally much prefer more precisely fitted firearms with headspace as close to minimum as possible. Due to this, I have measured headspace on quite a few 9MM autoloaders and some 9MM revolvers, along with measuring a sampling of 9MM cases along the way. Average headspace on 30+ 9MM guns I've actually measured was .7616". So even if you have a 9MM case that actually measures .754", you've still got a bit of clearance there in the average gun with the average case. And I've VERY rarely found a 9X19MM case that actually measures as long as .754". Cases as short as .740" are not unusual with, .744"-.745" being very common. The No-Go headspace dimension for 9MM is .777". So you could have have a gun with headspace as loose as .776", and it would still be in-spec. So FWIW, If all else is proper, I would not be concerned loading cases as short as you mention.

BTW, if you will measure some of your fired cases, then size and measure again, you'll find the sized case has regained some of its original length......ymmv
 
My experience with 9mm reloading. I have loaded and fired about 15,000 mixed range brass 9mm through my M&Ps (not one single failure of any kind with my reloads so far, which I am happy to report).

I have about 20,000 pieces of 9mm range brass in various stages of ready; dirty range brass, rinsed, resized/deprimed, washed/clean, and final step of case gauging before they get loaded.

The case gauging step has been performed on all 15,000 cases that I have loaded and fired to date, and I do this while watching tv or something (I can check about 600 per hour). When case gauging, I am looking for .747 to .754. Anything over or under goes to scrap. If I gauge for 1 hour and check about 600, there will only be a few (10 or less) that are shorter than .747 and less than 1 per 600 are longer than .754. For me about 98.5 to 99% of cases meet my .747 to .754 requirement. The vast majority of them are .748 to .752.

This is just my experience.
 
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ArchAngelCD said:
That looks cool, I will look into it.

I have something similar that straps to my AR-15 that catches the .223 brass.
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Ive had both the hand strap version and the rail mount version. Eventually the rail version broke. He sent another made of a different type of plastic, but it got too loose to stay on my .45s.

At first the strap didnt catch them as well, I tried to bend it to "better" cover the ejection port, but many brass bounced off of it. Then I figured out to just arrange it more straight up and down, and it catches great.

I have a caldwell for the AR, they have 2 different ones. One is a loop of matèrial that holds it on, dont know how it works.

I own 2 of the other type, that has a wire box inside the catcher net, which mounts to the receivers picatinny rail. It works very well.

Russellc
 
Rock185 said:
if you will measure some of your fired cases, then size and measure again, you'll find the sized case has regained some of its original length
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Yes, it is after the resize that I am getting close to .744.
johnandersonoutdoors said:
If I gauge for 1 hour and check about 600, there will only be a few (10 or less) that are shorter than .747 and less than 1 per 600 are longer than .754
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None are longer and most are at .747 and shorter now. Starline. All starting at .754 or slightly shorter.
 
Rock185 said:
Johnanderson, I thought I was pretty OCD about this stuff, but I think you may have me beat;) Te saluto.
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I have to say I honestly never thought of my process as OCD. Do you mean the case gauging, specifically?

When I started loading I wanted to be safe and make good ammo that always functions in my gun. Figured that keeping brass to .747-.754 would give me nice consistent ammo with very even bell removal/taper crimp. Making ammo is the only thing that I do this carefully. I really wouldn't case gauge all my 9mm brass after the resize/before loading if it was that much trouble. But being able to do about 600 an hour, which is almost a month's worth of shooting for me, is a small amount of time to virtually guarantee great ammo.

What is your reloading process like?


sbwaters said:
None are longer and most are at .747 and shorter now. Starline. All starting at .754 or slightly shorter.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you have the right brass, length wise, to make some consistent and high quality reloads.
 
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