Over the years, I've had 15 different 9mm pistols. Not until I bought a Canik and 2 Springfield 1911s, have I had a problem with my resized brass not chambering. The undersize die helped, but didn't completely solve the problem. I now run all my brass through a bulge buster before the standard resize die. I can bust my normal week's 300 rounds of brass in about 45 minutes - no time at all for a retired guy. A roll sizer (many competition shooters use these) would also give the same results, but they are expensive.
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9mm Sizing issues Military brass
- Thread starter Marco Califo
- Start date
Jim Watson
New member
When I was getting started in reloading, carbide sizing dies for 9mm cost more than .38 and .45 because the carbide insert had to be longer for the tapered cases.
I have a number of Lee carbide pistol caliber die sets. The carbide ring is no more than 1/4” long, always shorter than the brass. That's why I said it is impossible to have proper taper. It doesn't hurt anything really. The deviation could well be within the cartridge's specs.
I have gradually been drifting away from Lee and have been buying more and more Hornady. I replaced 9mm luger with hornady's die set. It has long TiN coated sleeve to impose a correct full taper.
-TL
Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
I have gradually been drifting away from Lee and have been buying more and more Hornady. I replaced 9mm luger with hornady's die set. It has long TiN coated sleeve to impose a correct full taper.
-TL
Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
Marco Califo
New member
The new Lee small base sizing die is working great. The decapping rod comes tightened so the pin will not slip back. While resizing my problem brass in the SB I tried the feeler boost. I perforated and mangled the feeler.
I use a hand deprimer on all fired brass, so I pretty much ignore the pins in the sizer dies. The nut on top of the die can turned to loosen the pin shift and allow slippage. I like to keep then tight, but to allow slippage when resistance is felt. This one will need to be loosened and then retightened by hand.
I figured out that a feeler stick up to 0.022", and also found that the 0.022" feeler blade is much harder to shape with the file.
Overall, the small base die made my process workable.
I use a hand deprimer on all fired brass, so I pretty much ignore the pins in the sizer dies. The nut on top of the die can turned to loosen the pin shift and allow slippage. I like to keep then tight, but to allow slippage when resistance is felt. This one will need to be loosened and then retightened by hand.
I figured out that a feeler stick up to 0.022", and also found that the 0.022" feeler blade is much harder to shape with the file.
Overall, the small base die made my process workable.
Last edited:
Marco Califo
New member
The WCC 97 NATO brass is weighing 1/2 grain more than Starline
nickel plated.
60.3 grains versus 59.8. Rather than a nice bell curve distribution,
both sets had twin peaks and a center valley. I am not sure this is
telling me much, the WCC 97 seems to have more brass, but, less than 1% more brass,
and thus, slightly less capacity.
nickel plated.
60.3 grains versus 59.8. Rather than a nice bell curve distribution,
both sets had twin peaks and a center valley. I am not sure this is
telling me much, the WCC 97 seems to have more brass, but, less than 1% more brass,
and thus, slightly less capacity.
Last edited:
Twin peaks means they came off two sets of tooling and were combined for the lot. I've even found that in Lapua brass. I had a lot of Winchester 308W brass twenty years ago that had four peaks when I lined it all up by weight.
The half-grain difference is smaller than the amount of brass difference you can find in the head due to tolerances of rim thickness and width, extractor groove thickness and width, and the tolerance for the extractor relief angle that tapers off the top edge of the extractor groove. Variations in any of those items have no effect on internal capacity, so you will have to measure actual case water overflow capacity among same-length (same trim) cases from the two lots to get an actual comparison.
The half-grain difference is smaller than the amount of brass difference you can find in the head due to tolerances of rim thickness and width, extractor groove thickness and width, and the tolerance for the extractor relief angle that tapers off the top edge of the extractor groove. Variations in any of those items have no effect on internal capacity, so you will have to measure actual case water overflow capacity among same-length (same trim) cases from the two lots to get an actual comparison.