Lee Loader

Yesterday I reloaded some 9mm 124 gn. and some 147gn. Today I went back to crimp these rounds. I crimped the 124 gn. Went well, moved on to the 147 and realized that they were shorter overal in length. When I went back an remeasured I found that the shortest was 1.090" and the longest was 1.099". The reload date says max length is 1.169", so I have a difference of .079". Are these shootable or do I need to take them apart? The 124's were all good. The good thing is I only did 20 of each so worst case is I have 20 to take apart. I did not crimp the 147's.

You need to pull them.

Ranch Dog wrote:You need to pull them.

Pressures can quickly get out of hand in the 9mm when bullets are seated deeper than specified for that load.

back to the drawing board for those.. agreed. pull them.

Thanks guys figured that would be the outcome. Can I just run the cases back through the resizing die with the decapping pin retracted (so the primers are untouched) and reuse the cases after pulling?

Backing the decapping pin out to save the primers, which seem to be getting more valuable daily, is the way to go. You might want to check your seating die stem to see if you have any debris trapped in the end that would cause the die to inconsistently seat the 147gr bullets to different lengths. (Just a thought!)

Yup, agree 1% with everything everyone said. Pull them down..

As a note, I decap brass all the time and reuse the primers. I capture the primers in a clean tube on my Challenger press or the new APP. I realize these are for the 9mm Luger, but there are times it might be for a bottlenecked case where you want the neck resized with the cartridge specific decapper. Even when I start over on pistol case, I just pop the primers out while sizing and start over.

larryw wrote:Yup, agree 1% with everything everyone said. Pull them down..

1%? Come on Larry, we're worth at least 3%!


jd

Ranch Dog wrote:As a note, I decap brass all the time and reuse the primers. I capture the primers in a clean tube on my Challenger press or the new APP. I realize these are for the 9mm Luger, but there are times it might be for a bottlenecked case where you want the neck resized with the cartridge specific decapper. Even when I start over on pistol case, I just pop the primers out while sizing and start over.

Is that for a safety factor or just a habit you have developed? That was my only question about resizing the case was if it was safe to resize with the primers left in the case or better to take them out?