Akula69
Member
Okay - before some of you guys comment me with "Well, you wouldn't have this problem if you used a (fill in the color) press..." or "If you use (fill in brand name) dies you wouldn't have this issue" hear me out.
I've been reloading for quite a few years, and have seen the quality of projectiles rise and fall, usually depending upon market pressures. Lately however, I've seen a marked decline in the consistency of overall bullet lengths (not as much so in diameter) in all calibers to the point where seating had become an exercise in repetition.
What I had been doing was setting the seating die to the shortest projectile to avoid sub-COL, mic each round after seating and sort by 100ths. After sorting I would adjust the seating die again for each group to put the rounds into the correct COL. Finally, (depending on the round) i would taper crimp. In this fashion I would have almost no sub-COL rounds but many press repetitions.
I've now found the projectile length variance to be so prevalent I actually take the time to mic the bullets and sort them by 10ths in order to speed the reloading process. I simply set the micrometer on the seating die to the correct 10's mark and go to town. (I still mic them though....)
BUT...I'm also the guy who sorts his cases by head stamp and then separates them into groups by case weight....so maybe I'm a bit anal in my attention to detail. So. my question stands (hence the poll): Do you guys mic and sort your projectiles before seating, or play the "It's getting the press again" game until the COL is perfect?
I've been reloading for quite a few years, and have seen the quality of projectiles rise and fall, usually depending upon market pressures. Lately however, I've seen a marked decline in the consistency of overall bullet lengths (not as much so in diameter) in all calibers to the point where seating had become an exercise in repetition.
What I had been doing was setting the seating die to the shortest projectile to avoid sub-COL, mic each round after seating and sort by 100ths. After sorting I would adjust the seating die again for each group to put the rounds into the correct COL. Finally, (depending on the round) i would taper crimp. In this fashion I would have almost no sub-COL rounds but many press repetitions.
I've now found the projectile length variance to be so prevalent I actually take the time to mic the bullets and sort them by 10ths in order to speed the reloading process. I simply set the micrometer on the seating die to the correct 10's mark and go to town. (I still mic them though....)
BUT...I'm also the guy who sorts his cases by head stamp and then separates them into groups by case weight....so maybe I'm a bit anal in my attention to detail. So. my question stands (hence the poll): Do you guys mic and sort your projectiles before seating, or play the "It's getting the press again" game until the COL is perfect?