Oal question

[ogolimu]

Is it normal to have a plus or minus .005 +/-?
Was loading 9mm 147 gr plated extreme bullets on a 550b and lee dies

[joelogic]

Yes

[ogolimu]

Would upgrading my dies to rcbs,hornady or dillion prevent that?

[Germz]

no but upgrading your lock rings will. and applying the same amount of force to each down stroke of your press will as well.

the only reason I say have good lock rings is if you were using a SS press and were constantly swapping dies, you have a prog. but still, thats a lot of play in your oal. i can load 50 9mm on my lee SS with less than .001 90% of the time confidently after just throwing the die in. I'd say perfect your stroke

[joelogic]

Most calipers are +/- .01 anyway. Plus what does it even matter? 0.005" is negligible especially with pistol. The press is +/- a tenth of grain anyway and that would affect the round more than 0.005" oal variation.

[ogolimu]

I do have a single stage lee that i started with and my oal was very close to what i wanted i used lees breech lot rings for the single stage. But for the progress i use dillions rings that came with the press kit

[ogolimu]

Ahh okay was just wondering just picked up the dillion last night

[Germz]

congrats on the dillon. I use hornady lock rings on all my dies. I think they are the most secure.

[ogolimu]

Hornady and rcbs locks the same just about right?
Most if my die sets are lee. Have a few rcbs sets. But been thinking of replaceing all the lees to either dillion or rcbs if it will make a differnce .

[JagerDog]

The seating die registers on the ogive/curve portion of the bullet. The bullets vary a bit in profile. OAL is just an easy way to approximate the more critical measurement which is the freebore. 0.005" is fine and to be expected.

[ogolimu]

Cool thanks guys for answering my questions.

[J-cat]

Most calipers are +/- .01 anyway. Plus what does it even matter? 0.005" is negligible especially with pistol. The press is +/- a tenth of grain anyway and that would affect the round more than 0.005" oal variation.

No, most calipers are +\- .001"

[joelogic]

I stand corrected.

[hemiguy55]

Do u have the "c" frame lee press? I had that and was getting inconsistent OAL. So I upgraded to the "o" frame one. I figured the c frame flexed just enough to make slight variations in the OAL.

[ogolimu]

I have a lee challenger press. It gave me pretty good oal very near what i was going for .002 maybe +/-. Its when i just switch to a dillion 550b is when i noticed the .005 +/- oal.