A day at the range: Some questions

[kennyc]

Military brass is designed to eject forcefully and randomly in order to go down the collar of the person shooting on your right and thus randomise their score. Anyone who has ever fired the SLR on the century range will attest to this.

in my experience, pistol range boxes are designed to bounce the cases down the back of your neck (or cleavage for the ladies )

[Jonathan]

I’d advise seating the HP bullets a little longer than you are currently. 9mm is one of the most pressure sensitive calibres that you’ll load, and a little difference in OAL can make a substantial difference in pressure.

If you think about it, the FMJ and HP bullets that you’re using are the same weight, yet the HP has a large void at the front. Therefore, the extra mass has to go somewhere, so will obviously make the bullet slightly longer. When you consider that the bullet is seated off (roughly) the ogive, the seating die doesn’t factor for the hollow point section, but rather seats the bullet the same distance from the head of the case.

The extra bullet length inside the case results in the slightly higher pressure. Try seating the bullet 2mm further out of the case, but obviously check the round in your barrel to see that it’s not engaging the lands when chambered.

Hope this helps.

Jonathan.