Ok, so I was going through my loaded rounds and my log yesterday, and I found a discrepancy. My go to load for 9mm is a 115 Berry's RN over 4.5g of Bullseye. I loaded up a mess of them a while back, and labeled the boxes with the load data. So when I went to load up another batch, I just grabbed a finished box, saw 115 Berry's, 4.5g Bullseye, 1.115" COAL. Set up the press and went to town. Problem is, my notes show a COAL of 1.155". Pulled some rounds from a finished box and sure enough, 1.155", plunked it in the barrel of my CZ75, and its good. So, question is, do I pull the 400 some odd rounds that I loaded short, or just shoot them as is. 1.155 is a little on the long side, but they run fine in my gun, 1.115 is a little on the short side, but I'm pretty sure I've already run a box or two thru my gun already. Or, should I just take my whole stash and set them all at about 1.130, split the difference and call it a day? Either way, gotta get back out to the range and run some thru the chrono and see which seating depth matches up with my original data, and keep one book of data, not some paper data, some notes on my phone etc.
Well Here's a Boneheaded Move for You
- Thread starter bersaguy
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Klaatu Barada Nikto
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That's .040" Grab a chrono and get an accurate FPS, see if it's a hot load.
AJC1
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I guess that depends if it exceeds pressure and if it's still accurate or not. They are both important to me.
Blue68f100
Member
If I recall 0.030" can double the pressure in a 9mm. Your using a fast burn powder, I would knock the bullet longer then seat to proper length. Use a kinetic bullet puller to lengthen the rounds.
Hondo 60
Member
That's what I would do.
The short ones scare me a bit.
I would NOT chance that it might damage the gun.
Poper
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what he said. Short can raise pressures to a dangerous level. Take no chances!
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MFInc
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Opinion on if you are .0005-.0015" short on a OAL of 1.100"? I have a few that are 1.0995 and 1.099". I have a Kinetic hammer and will use that on the shorter ones. TY @Blue68f100 for the tip
I'm curious, Is it "ok" to round up from 10,000th's place? Would the pressure increase be significant to warrant re-seating? TIA
I'm curious, Is it "ok" to round up from 10,000th's place? Would the pressure increase be significant to warrant re-seating? TIA
I know with my equipment, my seating depth is pretty consistent, but I can have variations up to about .003". That I'm not concerned about, I don't see any effect on accuracy and a couple thou isn't going to have any appreciable effect on pressure. With this conundrum I put myself in, while I'm within spec for the cartridge, I'm .020" short of the powder manufacturer's minimum COAL, so I'm going to take the consensus of the advise here and give the short ones a few whacks with the kinetic hammer and reseat them.
I'm glad that you are taking good advice here. If it were me, after reseating, I'd cycle a few through the gun checking the extracted cartridges for bullet set back.
TfflHndn
Member
According to QuickLoad, both loads are well within max pressure of 35k psi. The 1.115 load shows pressure of just over 26k psi. So even accounting for variations in projectile (plated vs. fmj, for example) you should be fine. The longer load calculates out to about 1130 fps and the shorter load at about 1165 fps.
Thanks! That is very interesting, because my chrono data from the original work up averaged 1160fps. Now, I'm not so sure which batch I made 1st...really need to put specific load dates on my boxes
P Flados
Member
I also checked out the load using Quickload. I went the the Alliant reloader guide and found a load with 4.7 Bullseye under a 115 Speer Gold Dot bullet. I loaded the Alliant info into Quickload and found a seating depth of 0.173" and a calculated pressure of 27842 psi..
I looked up a Berry 115 and found it to be 0.553" long. I loaded this, 4.5 gr Bullseye and your 1.115 Oal in Quickload to find a 0.192 seating depth and a calculated pressure of 27750 psi.
Your reduction in powder charge seems to be just enough to offset your increased seating depth.
I looked up a Berry 115 and found it to be 0.553" long. I loaded this, 4.5 gr Bullseye and your 1.115 Oal in Quickload to find a 0.192 seating depth and a calculated pressure of 27750 psi.
Your reduction in powder charge seems to be just enough to offset your increased seating depth.
GeoDudeFlorida
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An old cheat for reducing powder charge is to raise the pressure by seating deeply. I’ve done it with 9mm and .45ACP loads. I think the chrony data says it was deliberate.
lordpaxman
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I would work up a few test loads with that charge weight at smaller COLs and chrono them. Try 1.145, 1.135 and 1.125. That would give you confidence your 1.115’s would be in safe territory. If you’re getting linear increases in velocity you’re fine. Don’t panic. You’re very close to published data and it was really nice the QL team chimed in. Who knows, you may discover a better load from all this. Good luck.
Fishingted
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that sounds like a great resolution to the problem.
Well, finally started the process of seating those out farther. Here's what I've found out. At 1.115, they function ok, but there is a marked reduction in accuracy. Here's the other thing I found out. Trying to find the sweet spot whacking those enough to pop the bullet out .040+ without completely pulling the bullet is a pain. If thats not the best advertisement for a collet puller, I don't know what is
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