Switched to Dillon 9mm dies, is this normal?

J McGriddle

Gunny Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Mar 1, 2017
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Middle Tennessee
It looks as though the Full length sizer is a bit on the small side; is this normal? The one on the left was done with the Lee dies, Dillon on the right.
 

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Also, make sure that you are comparing apples to apples. Different brands of brass have slightly different neck thicknesses, so one case may just have thicker brass. It becomes much more noticeable with longer/heavier bullets.

I use the Dillon dies for 9mm and .40 and have not had any issues with rounds that look like yours.
 
Normal. That "shelf" goes far in precluding bullet pushback in cases with little or no crimp. If you're like me and handload range brass varying from once-fired good stuff to bulk brass so beat up the headstamps are almost illegible, crimps are far from being consistent, if present at all.

To expound a little: After literally decades of reloading 9mm, I learned a few years ago that the higher-tier pistols (CZ TSO, a now-departed Springfield Armory full-dress 1911 in 9mm, a couple others) I was acquiring were FAR more demanding of properly-sized ammo than my older S&W, Glock, and Sig service pistols.

Dillon support guy pointed out over the phone what should have been obvious to me as an experienced hand loader; I just need to hear it: no standard size die is going to resize the case web (solid part of the case head). It's that part that was jamming my better pistols so hard that I'm fortunate that no extractors were broken.

So now every 9mm round I load goes through a Wilson case gage (their spelling). Rounds that don't "plunk" right in get marked with a sharpie and tossed into the "Glock only" jar. Glock and Sig pistols - mine, anyway - happily digest rounds that won't come close to fitting in the gage/gauge. These, of course, get used only for the most basic practice... there's never been a misfire or jam, but the rounds are out of spec.
 
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