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Posted: 7/8/2013 9:16:18 AM EDT
I reloaded a bunch of rounds yesterday. I've noticed for a long time some of my pistol bullets look like coke bottles. Most of them fit in my gauge just fine but in my quest for perfection I'm wondering what is causing them to not be straight. The bullet on the right is a factory round. The three on the left didn't fit in my go-no-go gauge. The third one looks identical but does fit in my gauge (as do most of the others I loaded). I'm getting maybe a 1% or less failure rate.
EDIT: Sorry for the out of focus pic. |
| I just set up my LNL AP and am setting up the dies (Lee carbide and Lee FCD) and my first dummy round looks similar to yours. I'm still tweaking the die setup but my initial thought was I wasn't running the case high enough up into the sizing die. Whether that's the case or not, I'm not sure but I'll have to do some experimenting with some dummy rounds. .40 cal here. |
| A bulge at the bullet base is common if all the way around. If just on one side, the bullet may be crooked when seating. Does the seating stem fit the bullets ogive/nose correctly? 2. Is the shell holder the correct one & installed correctly, aligned with the die? 3. If they chamber in the firearm, its not a problem. |
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Quoted:
the coke bottle effect is common for 9mm. it shows its tight in the case and the effect depends on the thickness of the case. there is nothing wrong with it. All of my 9mm reloads have had this effect. They all drop in and out of the chamber fine and all have shot fine. |
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The Lee FCD is made just for that purpose. If those are not plated bullets that is what I would use. Fitting your chamber is more important than fitting the gage unless of course you use the ammo in more than one pistol.
Yes that general shape is normal. The case thickness increases and the bullet diameter is straight so you get a little bulge/step. |
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Most of the rounds loaded by the people in my local USPSA club have a slight wasp or coke bottle look. They all drop in and out of the case gauge and measure 0.376" at the case mouth.
If you are getting a 1% failure or out of spec rate, I'd look at your reloading process, that's 10 rounds out of 1000 not passing. Once you get your routine down and cull out the bad brass, one or two rounds out of 1000 that fail QA is typical. A round that fails to meet QA is a round that doesn't drop into my EGW 7 hole gauge and isn't flat on the top. I could force it into the gauge, then it wouldn't freely drop out. Yesterday, I took the 20 or rounds that didn't pass QA and used them for practice. All fired and extracted just fine, but why take a chance in a match? One other thing to look out for is some European brands of brass. I picked up some range brass last year and was reloading it on my Dillon 650. The brass sized and deprimed just fine and feels fine when you work the press handle, but the brass springs back at the priming station. I spent a lot of time adjusting and cleaning my dies, until some people at my club warned me about European brass (not steel cased stuff). I forgot the headstamp, but it wasn't S&B. |
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