i have a dillon 650 progressive press all the bells and whistles.
(even the resin detent ball & spring...shell plate thrust bearings...solid tool head that is anchored.)
i have reddings best competition bullet seater die, lees factory crimp die, reddings dual ring sizer die...this is my set up
to do 45acp
i bulge bust each and every 45 acp case i have and run each thru the dual ring sizer die.
be it known......I"M VERY ANAL to the point of ditching all known brands of case trimmers.....
and buying a taig mini-lathe.
(yes i do check and trim 45 brass...so no guff!)
now my brass ARE .888 +/- a half a thousandth to a whole thousandth.
i'm getting fairly consistant measures with the lathe...time consuming...but its my time.
i chamfer each....and i flare each perfectly...(just enough that the bullet will sit barely in the case mouth.)
read all the instructions to everything 10 times!
took each die apart and thoroughly cleaned everything...especially the seater die...
used 600 grit followed by 1500 grit on both ends of the spring inside the competition die
as it was very roughly ground flat on the contact surfaces of the spring.
my factory taper is adjusted to ONLY remove the belling ...or flared edge.
i'm using berry's plated bullets...230gn
now for the problem...
i made 30 dummy rounds using:
the same brand of brass
the same bullets
and my O.A.L. should be......
1.275 .....(hell!....i'll take anything that's +/- one thousandth close to that number!
but no.
i'm calipering out at 1.269 to 1.290!
i'm all over the freaking map!
then when that didn't do well ...i put in the rcbs seater die.
same result.
everything is tight ...no looseness anywhere.
help! what am i missing?