First reloading with 9mm, bullet seating drama!

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pathdoc

New member
Hi,

Long time no see, but FINALLY managed to get out to the shed after a long delay due to work, weather and life in general getting in the way. Let's reload some 9mm Parabellum (Luger)! I have dies, bullets, primers, powder, fired cases, and a recipe. My press is an RCBS single stage Partner press.

So I wisely decide to assemble a dummy round first before getting the powder and primers out, and here is my problem. I took a fired case (Federal, boxed as American Eagle), and then going on the instructions in my four-die set from Lee, I resized it, belled the mouth just enough to accept the heel of a bullet (115gn Hornady FMJ), put in the die till it touched the shellholder then screwed it three turns back (as per die set instructions), ran it up...

NOTHING.

The bullet seating plug is screwed in all the way down. Screwing the whole die in does no more than crimp the case mouth ineffectually around/below the heel of the bullet.

I can't help but think the problem lies in the bullet seating plunger. If I hadn't belled the case mouth enough, I should be getting heaps of resistance and crumpled up case mouths, yes?

Fortunately I have oodles of ammo to shoot with tomorrow, but this is frustrating as all hell. I have gone through ALL the steps carefully, and I cannot for the life of me think of what I am missing. And yes, I've checked the dies and they most clearly are for the correct cartridge. What on earth could I be missing?

I'll be speaking to Lee Precision on Monday as a cross check, but right now I see a 9mm Luger Lee Loader in my future.
 
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stagpanther

New member
doesn't sound like the right die to me. Are you positive it's the seating die--and that you have the right stems in each die? Might be possible to have switched the stem from the expander/powder die with the seat die maybe??
 
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pathdoc

New member
Both my other die sets are bottleneck rifle for lesser calibres, and have stayed in their four hole turrets since before I bought the 9mm set. It's late now, but I will double check the identity of the seating die again tomorrow and will take apart my .223 die to compare.
 
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condor bravo

New member
With the die body turned down to where crimping is applied and the seating stem all the way down, still no bullet seating. One of two things has to be wrong, the die body too long or the seating stem too short for a 9mm, or most likely a seating die for a different cartridge, maybe a .357. No, on 2nd thought, not a .357 since crimping would not occur.
 
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overthere

New member
pathdoc, are you sure you are not using the crimp die by mistake? I have the Lee 4 die set and the crimp and seating die look very similar.

I have accidentally tried to use the crimp die thinking it was the seating die on a couple of occasions and what happens is very much like what you describe, i.e. nothing at all.
 
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higgite

New member
But would a crimp only die have an adjustable stem resembling a seating stem???
Click to expand...

The 4th die in a Lee 4 die set is the factory crimp die. Yes, it has an adjustment stem that looks like the stem on the combo seating/crimp die, but the die bodies are slightly different. I'm guessing the OP is trying to seat bullets with the FCD while following directions for the combo die.
 
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pathdoc

New member
overthere has it right, as does higgite - this is exactly what happened. Like Condor Bravo, I wasn't expecting a crimp die to have an adjustment stem. (It's nice to know I'm not the only one who's done this - misery loves company. :p )

D'oh! D'oh! A thousand times d'oh!!! :eek:
 
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TailGator

New member
I did that with my first setup, too. They look pretty darn similar. Now you made that mistake, you can find new ones for the next pistol caliber.:D
 
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pathdoc

New member
I'm quite happy with this pistol calibre and my current mistakes, thanks!

After all was said and done tonight, I loaded ten rounds as an opening salvo, so to speak. Work and other commitments mean I might not shoot them for a while, but what the heck.

Purely to see exactly what would happen if I made that particular mistake, I deliberately attempted to double-charge a case with the intended load (3.9gn of 700X). It filled the case to the brim and even heaped a little on top, which was reassuring. That blunder, at least, should be easy to detect when I switch over to the powder dispenser for production-level runs.

Thanks again to those who spotted my stupid mistake and made the follow-up easy. The seating die appears to crimp adequately - the dummy round I made up (no primer) fed from the top of the magazine without issue and the pistol (M&P 9) appeared to go fully into battery.
 
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overthere

New member
Good luck pathdoc, I think your 9mm loads will do fine. If switching the crimp die and seating die is the worst mistake you make you are doing good!
 
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stagpanther

New member
The best advice I got when I started out was a friend who advised: "When in doubt about a load, just have a friend test it. If the bang isn't followed by a scream you're good to go.";)
 
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pathdoc

New member
mikld, I've been loading for eight years now, but only bottleneck rifle. This is my first pistol cartridge, first straight-walled, first self-loading firearm... so much to think about all at once!
 
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9x45

New member
The very best way to start reloading is to have a buddy set you up who already knows what's going on. New re-loader's spend way too much time trying to figure out stuff, even on a single stage press, and still don't get it right. So I hooked up one of the guys the other day on a Dillon 550, after assembling the unit from scratch, it took about 4 minutes to get the charge weight, seating depth and crimp (de-bell) correct for his choice of bullet, followed by chamber check. Now he can start pulling the handle, and crank out rounds that will work, gaining confidence with every pull of the handle, and be free of all the worry about stuff that doesn't matter. Once you get loads that function in your gun, and are reasonably accurate, don't mess with anything. Only the shooting part counts anyway.
 
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alexcue

New member
Pathdoc, just remember, technically the 9mm isn't a straight-walled cartridge. It's tapered, and that's what leads to some issues sometimes when reloading it.
 
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