Crazy standards?

[rharris27]

All of the reloading I have done so far is with pre-processed once-fired brass. As such, I haven't yet had to worry about trimming or cleaning or any of that mess. Every time I go to the range, though, I'm sure to pick up every piece of brass that I find. Now that I have several full tubs, I thought I'd process some 9mm brass and reload it from the beginning (unlike all the pre-processed stuff I've purchased where all I have to worry about is powder weight and OAL). For trimming I'm using a bench mounted Hornady trimmer and the Hornady chamfer/debur tool. Then I clean it in the Hornady Sonic Cleaner and tumble it for a few hours. Once it's all trimmed and cleaned, I measure it just to be sure it is at my desired trim length. The trim length I'm shooting for is .748, but I'm finding a wide variation of length in my casings. I've tried several times to recheck the setting of my trimmer, but I don't find any problems there. Here's my question. If a case is more than .001 away from my desired trim length, then I simply put it to the side. That is to say, cases that are acceptable to me are between .747 and .749 in length. I'm using a Frankford Arsenal caliper to measure. Are these standards too tight? What could be causing such a wide variance in my trim lengths? Any help?

 

[loadnplenty]

I ran into this issue with my old trimmer. Depending on how much you chamfer it can take away also. I always size before I trim.

What I found to be a cause for some of my length and some times oval case mouths was the rims being out of round or slightly bent causing the case to sit differently from one to the next.

My old trimmer also had collets. I now use a Lyman that requires shell holders and have found very little difference in OAL length.

 

[Clearance_Clarence]

It's straight walled pistol brass, clean it, size it, load it, shoot it

 

[divemaverick]

Don't waste your time trimming 9mm. Your variation is probable due to different brands of brass and headstamps. Overall length and a proper crimp on clean brass will give you all the reliability and accuracy you need. I have loaded hundreds of thousands of rounds of 9mm and 38 super and 45 acp and .40 S&W. I have never trimmed any. I trim everything on my long range rifles but that is a completely different animal.

 

[rharris27]

It seems that there would be feeding issues with varying OALs. Is this not the case? If I understand correctly, as long as none of your reloads exceed the max OAL, then you're good? Doesn't this effect your seating depth?

 

[Dos S]

Over all length would be the same if you dead length seat. only difference is would be less bullet inside the shorter case. inside space would stay the same so there would be no pressure difference. the various length shouldn't be enough to cause any problem, until the get too long for a short free bore. hope this helps. D s

 

[Chuckdog]

I'm anal on case prep, but I've never trimmed a handgun cartridge. The 9 headspaces off the case mouth.

If you run into problems with them, it will likely be them coming up short due to them repeatedly slamming into the chambers.

Trimming is a necessary evil on bottleneck rounds, but that's all for me.

 

[rharris27]

I think one of my biggest problems is either my own misconception or bad learning, or something along those lines. I was under the impression that reloads would be distinctly uniform in all ways - brass would all be the same length, the powder would be the exact same, the seating would be the exact same, and the OAL would be the exact same, etc. What I am finding is that this is just hardly ever the case. I have read lots of advice both in books and on this forum that includes stuff like "weigh every charge" and "measure every round", etc. I think this is the source of my frustration. Weighing every single charge adds tremendous amounts of time to the reloading process. What about those utilizing progressive presses? Do they stop and weigh every charge? In my case, I am using the Lee turret press with the AutoDisk Pro and the Micrometer Charging Bar, yet I still see variances in my charge weights because I do weigh every charge. Granted, the weights vary by a maximum of only .2gr, but I am loading with TiteGroup. The margin of error between min and max charge is only .4gr, so I feel like I'm almost required to measure each charge to make sure I'm not over or under due to the variances thrown by my measure. What gives? Am I frustrated for no reason? Maybe I need to take a deep breath and accept the variances?

I'm reloading not for semi-reliable plinking, but for 100% reliable rounds no matter what the application is. I'm not firing out of a pistol that is "replaceable". I don't have the funds to go out and replace it if I screw up, so I need perfection. Any advice in that regard?

 

[Chuckdog]

I'm not saying to be lax in your standards, nothing at all like that.

Loading for a standard handgun round requires the same safety standards as precision rifle loads, just not the precision of weighing each charge, bullet, or case.

Inspect every case for cracks or other imperfections, but uniforming the case length and such just isn't necessary on rounds fired from a 4" barrel at 25 yds or less. Use powders that half fill or more the case and visually inspect each one before sitting a bullet atop it.

What your describing is precision loading. I do it with many of my rifle rounds. You want every round to be as identical as possible for the finest accuracy.

You can load great 100% reliable rounds without all the uniformity. I assure you, there's nothing "precision" about "quality" factory ammo you've been shooting.

 

[Twitch2120]

trimming pistol is a waste of time. even rifle on most factory guns is a waste. my 300 AAC-SD mics at 2.052. Spec is 2.015. my chamber is a bit long...