OAL Question

I'm new to reloading. I'm up to 10 rounds It was something like 4.2 rounds an hour (don't tell Dillon, they'll take my SDB back...)

My question, is there an OAL rounding tolerance? I'm getting +/-.001, sometimes .002 or so on a 10mm.

Thanks.

You are doing great. OAL on a hand gun IMO is not that critical. If it fits in your magazine and feeds in your gun your doing great. I honestly dont believe that it would make that much of a difference in Target rifle shooting either but a lot of us Hand loaders tend to be on the anal side. But plus minus a thou is even tight tolerance in the machine shop world if your holding tolerances that tight your doing amazingly well.
Good Luck and Happy shootn.

Don't sweat the small stuff.....it's a 10mm, .001" hear and there won't make any difference to the bad guy.

Using a Dillon?....just be sure to make complete and consistent stokes on every pull.That goes for all presses..

i would also add that OAL variation is most likely caused by the imperfections in the bullet tip (meplate). using a progressive press will also cause greater variations due to the tolerances of the machine.

minor variations (i'd say anything under .003") wont cause any problems especially in a handgun as the round isnt headspaced off the bullet tip but the case mouth.

Thanks guys! I really appreciate it.
I hear ya on the anal side, it was driving me nuts till it donned on me, maybe there's a tolerance.... LOL
I'm slow, but I'm trainable.
thanks again.

The most important thing in reloading is consistency. if every one of your rounds chamber, fit the magazine, and are all just .001 out of OAL then you should be good..

making a perfect round is being able to duplicate, round after round... so they shoot and behave the same in your gun each and every time you squeeze the trigger....

Like reload all ready said above those are good tolerances....

XbonesX wrote:i would also add that OAL variation is most likely caused by the imperfections in the bullet tip (meplate). using a progressive press will also cause greater variations due to the tolerances of the machine.

minor variations (i'd say anything under .003") wont cause any problems especially in a handgun as the round isnt headspaced off the bullet tip but the case mouth.

You nailed it perfectly Taylor!

I've got a 10mm and the only thing that I consider minorly critical is the case length and there's even a little room for error on that. Since it's a Glock 20 that I have, the round head spaces off the case mouth and bullet run out doesn't have that much to do with how your groups will be. Take more time with your case prep and your bullet seating +/- .003 and your groups will be fine as well as the function of your weapon.

If it's a revolver you have even more forgiveness all the way around..........within reason of course.

Welcome to the World of Reloading!

Thanks Mohunter,
I have a Glock 20 as well. I noticed on the new brass (Win) that they were a bit different sized, not anything earth shattering, all within the max on the reloading chart. Should these be trimed to a similar tolerance too?

When I get new brass I just make it a habbit to run them all through my Lee hand trimmer so I start out with uniform brass. It doesn't take hardly any time at all with the Lee trimmer set up in my drill press to run through about 100 cases. More than enough to last me a good long while and that will be the only time they ever get trimmed, after that I don't even check the length on them anymore just load, shoot, decap/resize, load, shoot, repeat until the brass is done with then go grab another 100 cases and start all over again.

This is what I use for all my brass whether it's pistol or rifle, I just get a different stud for the right caliber and I'm good to go.

http://leeprecision.com/xcart/Case-Trimming-Tools/

thanks again! got the link, will grab the tools