9mm Undersized sizing dies?

[Kevin]

I bought one of those Lee Undersized sizing does for 9mm.

It's .003 undersized. Oh and it might cause cancer in you live in California

But does anyone else use one of these for 9mm? I've got one of those case check gages and check each and every case. And honestly, I bet 10% of the cases I check don't fit. Maybe not 10% but definitely 5%.

The ones that don't fit seem to have a bulge right around the case head. And that is AFTER resizing. Usually out of curiosity I will shove it up in the sizer several times to see if that fixes it. Nope.

So anyway, I got one of these. Anyone else? What's your experience with them?

 

[Kevin]

Don't get me wrong, the 9mm I do reload and check out are just about perfect. I like the loading data and they seem to be as accurate as possible.

I'm just annoyed with the cases I have to toss because they are too fat.

 

[watashie00]

Yes,,, I do even with rifles. Although I have been told,, I still do not believe, that brass after ignition is molten,, I believe it is malleable, and due to incomplete chambering or the burn rate of the powder (ie still burning when the ejection tab pulls the round from the seated position in the chamber) the bottom of automatic fired ammo gets "bulged". (Part of the reason for the belt on a belted Magnum round),,,, so the brass must be "reformed" for smooth operation through the magazine, feed tube, chamber and ejection port. I used to have a hell of a time,, but a guy at Graf and Sons in St Louis,,, showed me how to reshape them,, I set up a Rock Crusher Press separately for this operation,,, I coat the brass in SAE 30 wt motor oil,,, and I run them in and out of the sizing die,, until they do NOT pinch. Then,,, I throw them in a 5 gallon bucket,,,, later,, with a beer or three,, I will sit and wipe them down with a rag... then I put them in the tumbler,, with a special batch (5 gallon bucket) of "Oily Walnut Shell media" especially kept for that purpose I tumble them overnight to get all the oil off. Then I Mic them for length and girth,,, then begin case prep.. that requires some significant lube too,, but I dont use oil in my reloading dies. Then when cut to length, and burrs removed,, back in the tumbler,,, with case lube (really heavily soaked media) I never throw out these "oiled" media buckets....Once I actually start loading the brass moves easily in and out of the dies,, if not,, I dont force it,,(broken too many pins, and jammed brass into dies never to be removed again... after about 7 - 9 reloads,, the brass is spent and will sometimes crack.. then it goes into the smelting pile to become the Tang on a knife or something else useful

 

[contender]

I shoot competition & use .9mm handloads.

I too use a case gauge to check each & every round.

I do not trash any that don't gauge properly. I just run those in a gun that they will feed in, an only for practice.
As we all know,, not all brass is made the same,, even by the same manufacturer. You can get slightly different sized brass with different wall thicknesses. PLUS,,,,,,,,,, a .9mm is a slightly tapered case. (Measures .391 at the base, yet only .380 at the mouth.)
Now add chamber dimensions of different guns,,, and especially some of the Glocks which have a "lesser" supported chamber that gives the brass what is called "the Glock bulge."

I have not tried to get a Lee undersizing die for .9mm.

I have enough .9mm brass to where is is easy to just chamber check, toss into a practice bag, & go on w/o much thought. (Gotta love owning a gun range.)

But I do know many serious competition shooters who now use a "Roll Sizer" machine thing to process their .9mm brass. Unfortunately,, those things are not cheap. A hand cranked one is $600-$700 or so,,, while an automated unit is more expensive. A company who is in the business of making "Re-manufactured ammo" can easily justify that kind of expense.
But I have considered getting one,, "just because."

(PS; The Super GP-100 .9mm is a bit picky about brass. I usually toss aside 3-6 rounds per hundred when chamber checking.)

 

[NC FNS]

Using the same process for both, I've had coated bullet not chamber where fmj does. I suspect the coated are a little larger in diameter, but haven't confirmed. Resizing the coated made things better.

 

[Hvymax]

Don't get me wrong, the 9mm I do reload and check out are just about perfect. I like the loading data and they seem to be as accurate as possible.

I'm just annoyed with the cases I have to toss because they are too fat.

That's because they were fired in Glocks. The base is unsupported. Standard press base sizing dies can't get far enough down on the case to reach the bulge at the base. The radius that allows the case to enter the die smoothly bottoms out on the holder. These cases need to be put through a bulge buster( bullet sizing die) where they are pushed all the way through the die.

 

[Kevin]

YES!!! I learn so much here! Thank you all

I did know the 9 mm is a tapered case. Like the 30 Carbine. Which to me for some reason is very hard to reload for.

But this is all good info.

 

[Mobuck]

^^^The famous GLOCK 'belted 9x19'.^^^
You can fix that but it takes a different die (as mentioned) and may not be worth the trouble.

 

[Hvymax]

I don't think the Germans are big on reloading. Glocks bulge cases HK's leave the cases looking like they've been crimped etc. Sure it enhances reliability but absolutely trashes the brass.

 

[Hvymax]

^^^The famous GLOCK 'belted 9x19'.^^^
You can fix that but it takes a different die (as mentioned) and may not be worth the trouble.

Especially with 9&40. I pretty much after initial inspection dump semi clean looking once fired in the case feeder because anything else defeats the purpose of a progressive press.

 

[anachronism]

Most sizing dies nowdays have a very generous bevel at the entry to help us cycle progressive reloaders faster. The downside it that this generous bevel does not allow full length sizing of the case and can leave a belt on the case just above the extractor groove. This belt gets more pronounced if cases are loaded to especially high pressures, and guns without fully supported chambers get the bad rap for it. I use an elderly Hornady Pacific carbide sizing die from the seventies to size pickup brass for the first time. It's a really tight die and has only a minuscule bevel at the entry since it was made before progressive presses were commonplace. Since it's a tapered case, 9mm doesn't really need much of an additional bevel but it gets one anyway.