Do you have days when nothing works right ???

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ACES&8S

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I have had several days not go right lately in my reloading room, it is like someone else
has took me over, an alien perhaps, I can't get the overall length to settle in while I crimp
some 357 mag 170 grain cast gas check bullets in a light load.
The OAL is supposed to be 1.590" & if I set them to that length before I crimp with the Lee
357 crimper they end up 1.574" // if I use the RCBS seat die to crimp them they end
up 1.580".
I even tried to crimp one using the mathematical difference & that was a disaster.
Every day this week it has been something else, I do not posses enough strength
to scream as loud as I want to, besides it would backfire if it sounded like a 5 year
old girl screaming.
I suppose it is a fool that searches for sanity in the mind of a reloader.
Question is double,,, do you have answer as to why the length gets shorter, plus do
you have days like this that seem to run together?
What worked yesterday doesn't work today,,,, why?
Perhaps the cast bullets aren't resized or something, I don't know how to cast bullets
my son does them for me.
My ignorance abounds somedays more than others, but if I question those who know
the answers then perhaps someday I will be able to answer these questions.
Over 20 years of this & I still run into stuff.
 
You may not be seating the bullet deep enough and the roll crimp is pulling the bullet in further. Set your bullet in further or lighten your crimp.
And yes, I have those days to.
The OAL does not have to be 1.590. That is the maximum for .357 mag.
You can make it shorter than that.
 
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Had a couple calves that needed to go to the sale barn yesterday but the fellow that need to borrow our cattle trailer for a day last week still hadn’t returned it. No big deal had plenty of hay to put up. Truck had a bad tire on front, moved one of the duals from the rear to the front. Let it down and the inboard tire was low. No problem have an air compressor on the truck but it won’t start, bad gas. Drain gas, ready to go. Check the oil, ok. Check the coolant, it’s low, top it off and the level doesn’t come up, antifreeze is running out as fast as I can put it in, freeze plug corroded away.

Ok, forget the farm truck, I’ll use mine to pull the hay buggy. Every thing going smooth until 60 some odd bails are in the barn and a front tire blows on the front end loader. A quick check of the time, yep the tire store in town is closed for the weekend. Had a tire, one valve stem left of the proper size and the tire machine took a few minutes to uncover the junk on it, so there’s another hour gone.

As much of a PITA that was I still clearly remember when we did square bails and 1600 of those suckers in a field would make me cry these days

I’ve had days like that loading too but I can just walk away...
 
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Hay bails and fixing farm machinery I'll not even go there argh!! It's about time to get in the first hay crop---if it stops raining long enough to cure first.
OP, for hand gun ammo I always aim to get the roll crimp lip in the middle of the groove as that is where it was designed to go rather than an actual OAL of the round.
 
I was "in a hurry" a few weeks ago trying to load some 38spl because some buddies wanted to shoot. I didn't realize that my 44mag dies were on the turret because all Lee dies look the same and I kept crushing cases. I turned the flare die in more and more and still crushed cases. I finally decided to remove the die and pull it apart and see what was wrong and I noticed 44 written on the turret plate. I felt soo stupid after crushing 4 cases and 20min of messing with the die. I don't rush anymore and I have had nights where things got hectic and I just put everything down and walked away until tomorrow
 
The OAL does not have to be 1.590. That is the maximum for .357 mag.
You can make it shorter than that

Yea I don't worry about shooting them being shorter, mainly because it is a low power load.
I just get so flustered when I have the same load & bullet by the hundreds which never gave me
any problem, now using the same technique & tools & head it falls apart.
I t must be me, something isn't set up right somehow.
It sets there exactly how I left it all spread out with notes everywhere, haven't touched it since I
walked away.
 
Reading some of these bad days is like a Nightmare on Reloading street.
Walked away like I said & still haven't got any Idea where to start or what happened.
It will come to me, hopefully.
 
I absolutely have days like that. There was a few reloading sessions in a row that I questioned why I’d ever started doing it.

I walked away. More often than not, bad sessions for me are caused by distractions, environmental or mental.

I just walk away for a few days.
 
I absolutely have days like that. There was a few reloading sessions in a row that I questioned why I’d ever started doing it.

I walked away. More often than not, bad sessions for me are caused by distractions, environmental or mental.

I just walk away for a few days.

Yes that is very true, in fact you have seen right thru it.
I seldom share any personal info but the face is I got some very BAD news from my doctor this past week which will
affect the rest of my life or cut it very short.
Regardless of how it goes, things will definitely be limited from now on.
I am sure that is the reason for the distraction.
I should have tried a more simple reload, like 22 Hornet or 30.06. I have always had setbacks with straight wall cases
for some reason, & they should be the easiest.
I will hand the standing 357 load to my Son to finish & hope I can get my head out of my butt & find some settling loads
to keep my mind occupied for the near future.
 
Yes that is very true, in fact you have seen right thru it.
I seldom share any personal info but the face is I got some very BAD news from my doctor this past week which will
affect the rest of my life or cut it very short.
Regardless of how it goes, things will definitely be limited from now on.
I am sure that is the reason for the distraction.
I should have tried a more simple reload, like 22 Hornet or 30.06. I have always had setbacks with straight wall cases
for some reason, & they should be the easiest.
I will hand the standing 357 load to my Son to finish & hope I can get my head out of my butt & find some settling loads
to keep my mind occupied for the near future.
Awe crap, I’m sorry to hear that man. The last time I had a really bad session it was due to a major disagreement with my now exgirlfriend. Lead to me overloading some 10mm Auto by 2 grains over max. Didn’t have my scale lined up right. I caught it but it taught me how badly emotional distress and gun powder mix. Didn’t load again for weeks.

Keeping my fingers crossed for you. Hope you get some better news soon.
 
Damn, sorry to hear the bad news. I realize reloading can therapeutic, but sometimes a guy just needs to take care of himself.

And yeah, when things go south, its time to walk away from the bench for a while. But put the powder away first. I walked away one time thinking I'd get back in a couple days, and days turned into months. Fortunately I was using a "Dot" powder, so it was obvious where it came from, but from then on, I've always had a card in the powder thrower with all the details - type and which can it came from.
 
I've had those days at work, sometimes reloading helps take my mind off of it. If not I drink a beer and think about it, or better yet I take my wife out for dinner. Problems get smaller when you look at the big picture.
 
If I roll crimp a cast bullet with a generous crimp groove it will force the bullet deeper in the case.
My 357 Mag brass is trimmed to 1.280" and for bullets with a crimp groove I will seat and crimp in one step, it takes a little fussin with the 1st round to get the "that looks about right" feeling. If I were to seat and crimp in two steps the bullet will still be pushed into the case when crimped, how far depends on how much I crimp.

For max loaded 357 using a JHP w/a cannelure I will seat the bullet with 20% of the cannelure showing and use enough crimp to remove the flare, then I use a Lee collet crimp die. If I seat the bullet with 50% of the cannelure showing the collet crimp would push the bullet deeper in to the case. For me having the collet crimp in the middle of the cannelure works best to prevent bullet pull in a revolver.

For bullets with a delicate nose like the old Remington JHP I seat and crimp in two steps, having cases of the same head stamp that have been reloaded the same # of times helps to keep the COL close.

As FROGO mentioned the lube from cast bullets builds up on the seating stem, I have had issues with this and now clean the stem after loading lead.
 
If I roll crimp a cast bullet with a generous crimp groove it will force the bullet deeper in the case.
My 357 Mag brass is trimmed to 1.280" and for bullets with a crimp groove I will seat and crimp in one step, it takes a little fussin with the 1st round to get the "that looks about right" feeling. If I were to seat and crimp in two steps the bullet will still be pushed into the case when crimped, how far depends on how much I crimp.

For max loaded 357 using a JHP w/a cannelure I will seat the bullet with 20% of the cannelure showing and use enough crimp to remove the flare, then I use a Lee collet crimp die. If I seat the bullet with 50% of the cannelure showing the collet crimp would push the bullet deeper in to the case. For me having the collet crimp in the middle of the cannelure works best to prevent bullet pull in a revolver.

For bullets with a delicate nose like the old Remington JHP I seat and crimp in two steps, having cases of the same head stamp that have been reloaded the same # of times helps to keep the COL close.

As FROGO mentioned the lube from cast bullets builds up on the seating stem, I have had issues with this and now clean the stem after loading lead.

I never have any problem with semi jacketed or full jacket or Factory semi wad cutters, I set the depth before I crimp & they never move. BUT with cast bullets
I always get the depth set then TRY to crimp & they always, without fail, go about .016" deeper which drives me nuts. It has to be the lube on the bullets
themselves because I always clean the crimp dies after each use which never show buildup, which doesn't make sense because something is dragging
the Cast Bullets down.
Should mention this doesn't happen with 44 mag cast bullets.
 
something is dragging
the Cast Bullets down.
If you measure a flared case and then crimped it without the bullet, what would be the difference in case length?
Keep in mind the case wall thickness needs to be factored in at the crimp angle to guesstimate how far the bullet will be pushed down into the case.
 
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Yes, Mr Murphy is also very interested in reloading and can't wait to stand over your shoulder and "help". I had a batch of lube spoil once. Was a homemade concoction, and something happened to it that reduced it's lubricating properties. After a couple of cases that seemed a bit tough to resize, I seized one up in my Redding FL sizer die. I drilled and tapped through the primer hole and attempted to pry out the case in a bench vise, stripped out the threads. Tapped larger and tried to use a larger bolt, nut and leverage to remove, and bone headedly bound something up to prevent movement and stripped out the threads again. With no room to tap larger, I wrote off the die as a learning experience. Sometimes you just need to walk away and hope for an epiphany.
 
Lee
Are you trimming your cases? if not the longer ones will roll crimp more and could pull the bullet in further.
Lighten your crimp a little and see if they stay put.

No, not trimmed because they were so close to but in between 1.280" & 1.290" they were ok, this is only their 2nd time
firing.
Finished them regardless of the short, with a Lee crimper, they will have to work there, the load is very light so they
will work ok & do.
Model 19 loads, I have 3 model 19's which have fired these short things well for quite a while.
I just wish I didn't have to come up with a gimmick to get the bullets crimped well at the proper depth, if they shoot
as good as they do now, imagine how good they will do when proper, then the way things are going they will probably suck.
 
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