problem with some 38 special cases

[tony357 386]

dig0770, measure the length of those i am very curious. i have never had this problem..

[tbtrout 141]

dig0770, measure the length of those i am very curious. i have never had this problem..

me either and I have picked up and reloaded about every case out there.

[tony357 386]

me either and I have picked up and reloaded about every case out there.

 

I do not have any ppu cases, but i am curious as to how much longer they are, jon mentioned this earlier on having cases .010-.015 longer which i have never encountered..

[JonF 79]

I do not have any ppu cases, but i am curious as to how much longer they are, jon mentioned this earlier on having cases .010-.015 longer which i have never encountered..

I didn't mean .010-.015" longer than spec, i meant .010-.015" extreme spread in measured length from the shortest to longest in a large sampling of mixed headstamps.

[djg0770 481]

No, i meant thousandths. I've mic'd a bunch of 9mm once before, something like 8 of the most common headstamps i had on hand, and found about 10 thousandths of an inch variance from the shortest to the longest. The same headstamp alone will often have 3-5 thousandths spread from its hi to lo len so adding different manufacturers to the mix spreads it out even more. Could you imagine hand trimming pistol brass in the quantity that avid shooters reload and consume it?

 

 

I grabbed a mixed handful and used the caliper. 1.146 was the smallest 1.155 was the largest. Beginning to think that I need to readjust the seat/crimp die.

[JonF 79]

Since you're loading mixed brass, you may want to take a sampling of 5 cases of your most abundant headstamps and see what the length ranges are for each brand (you may find 3-5 thousandths spread for the same headstamp alone). With that info, you can determine and select a average length case to use for your crimp baseline so any longer or shorter cases wont be too extreme. If you find outliers like the PPU cases, you can either set aside and trim or discard since they will be somewhat problematic as you've found.

[tony357 386]

I would trim the whole lot..

[djg0770 481]

Well, I adjusted the seat/crimp die and that took care of the problem for those 6 cases. It's obvious though that I needed to address the root of the problem - I need to trim pistol brass

 

So, I got a trimmer today and started taking care of that. It's now quite obvious that this definitely was a case length problem all along. Some cases go zip and nothing is trimmed and then other cases have to go a few revolutions before nothing more is being trimmed.

 

Mea Culpa

[matt6669 71]

trimming pistol brass, never done it, and never will.

[djg0770 481]

Until u can't chamber a case.

[matt6669 71]

meh just keep a watchful eye and you shouldn't have any problems. Problem cases just toss in the scrap pile esp with .38 brass it's so plentiful

[Sigman 41]

Dan

 

If you're set on trimming pistol brass, get a case gauge and check it first. Maybe the crimp is more affected by case length when using wadcutter bullets? I've loaded thousands of pistol rounds with no trimming, but have not used wadcutters. I only trim rifle brass when it needs it. I case gauge all rifle brass first.