Okay, so I would like to stop sorting brass by head stamps. This goes for both 45 and 9mm. Problem is that, if I don't do that, then I will have no way of keeping track of what came from where, how, when, etc. If I stop sorting by head stamp, inevitably I will have a fair amount of range brass mixed into my supply and therein lies the problem. On cases that I have fired, I have no issue resizing and reloading them on my Dillon 650 with Dillon resizing dies, however when you start to mix in some range brass, I get high percentages that fail my case gauges. Sure, I can take my ammunition and plunk test it instead, but then I have guns with tolerances that will not plunk and those that will in both 45 and 9. None of them are cheap firearms, I think my least expensive is a Walther PPQ but it seems more forgiving, and I do not see it as a firearm centric issue.
As background: My normal process is to wash the fired brass in my tumbler, dry it, then I have separate toolheads setup that I switch out on the Dillon which just have a resizing/decapping die on them. I run the all through it, which is very fast, then they go back into the tumbler with pins.
In my thinking through the problem, I realized that the cases causing me problems also fail the case gauge prior to being loaded as well. SO, the cases have become distorted out of spec and the Dillon resizing die is not sizing them down far enough. Again this is just on cases that are "range brass". How do I fix that? My idea was to find a tighter resizing die, but i am reading that this will slow down the press as the DIllon dies have a built in funnel like contour to allow the case to guide into the resizing die better, while others like Lee do not and instead have a more squared entry profile to size the case more fully. I read that Redding resize better and are smoother, but I already have the Dillon and the Redding are $86. SO, for $25, I want to try using the Dillon die as essentially a decapping die in station 1 and then put a Lee die, with primer punch pin removed, in station 4 in order to accomplish a more full resizing. Why would I do this? Well, station 4 has a case that will be held in place by the pin whereas station 1 has the variability of being seated by the case seating arm, which can be a bit finnicky.
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As background: My normal process is to wash the fired brass in my tumbler, dry it, then I have separate toolheads setup that I switch out on the Dillon which just have a resizing/decapping die on them. I run the all through it, which is very fast, then they go back into the tumbler with pins.
In my thinking through the problem, I realized that the cases causing me problems also fail the case gauge prior to being loaded as well. SO, the cases have become distorted out of spec and the Dillon resizing die is not sizing them down far enough. Again this is just on cases that are "range brass". How do I fix that? My idea was to find a tighter resizing die, but i am reading that this will slow down the press as the DIllon dies have a built in funnel like contour to allow the case to guide into the resizing die better, while others like Lee do not and instead have a more squared entry profile to size the case more fully. I read that Redding resize better and are smoother, but I already have the Dillon and the Redding are $86. SO, for $25, I want to try using the Dillon die as essentially a decapping die in station 1 and then put a Lee die, with primer punch pin removed, in station 4 in order to accomplish a more full resizing. Why would I do this? Well, station 4 has a case that will be held in place by the pin whereas station 1 has the variability of being seated by the case seating arm, which can be a bit finnicky.
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