I just got everything I need to load 9mm. I have LEE dies (including the FCD), coated RN(new) 125 grain bullets from SNS Castings and plenty of W231 and CCI500 primers. I’ve collected brass from factory loads (mostly American Eagle) and range pickups. It’s just as cheap to buy 9 mm factory ammo and shoot it than to buy new brass. I shoot at an indoor range and it’s hard to just pick up your own brass. When I shot outdoors at the club everyone had their brass marked and the end of the session the brass was sorted and redistributed. Not much was lost and was easy to keep track of the number of reloads. There is no such process at a public indoor range. It seems everyone is on their own. The only plus is that there is plenty of pickup brass especially 9 mm since most people do not reload.

I shoot a Walter PPQ Q5. This is a very accurate gun with factory ammo.

The first step was to set up my dies. For the 9mm I started loading on a LEE Turret press.

I created some dummies and ran into a surprise. The brand of brass makes a difference. I tested the dummies in a Wilson Case Gauge and depending on the brass brand, the dummies would fail. American Eagle (Federal) and Blazer were OK, but brand like Sellier and Bellow would fail as would some head stamps I didn’t recognize. The Sellier and Bellow cases were from factory rounds fired in my gun. Is some brass just thicker and not play well with cast bullets or some of the range pickups fired in a gun that is not kind to the brass? I don’t know. My sample set was limited but it was enough to set off a red flag.

I thought the LEE FCD was designed to fix this.

Has anyone seen this before and is there brass brands to avoid? I know steel and aluminum cases are out.

Next week I’ll try a few loads. I’m going to start out with 4 grains of W231, FC Cases, SNS 125 grain coated RN (new) coated bullet with an OAL of 1.125. These passed the Wilson Case Gauge test and the ‘plunk’ test in the barrel. Has anyone tried a similar combination?

Thanks