Now that I have my Lyman Luber, I thought my inconsistant problems with OAL would be over.

Lee tumble lube used to throw my dies off, but now I can seat a clean lubed lead bullet, in a clean die, and I'll be darn if I'm gettin' a plus or minus .003 (or dead on) from 1.165 which is where I want to be.

I'm loading 45 colt with 454 LFN 320 gr boolits for my model 94, on a Dillon 550B with lee dies.

Any Ideas?

I'm going crazy over here..

That's normal, in my experience. It's impossible to keep a tiny amount of lube from affecting the COAL. Wipe the noses before seating to minimize the effect.

Also, compressed powder charges can affect COAL. The compressed charge will tend to push the bullet out of the case.

Thanks JR,

...but non of my bullets are getting lube on them or in the dies, and I've got light loads, so no compression there.

The cast are from my LBT mold and they are all filled out and sized. I'm wondering if it's the Lee bullet seating die? Wouldn't plus or minus .003 cause a pretty wide accuracy difference?

...now that's a good point FG, I didn't check the case length on these last ones, and they were fired twice.

Gotta do that. I am doing a fairly hard Lee factory crimp, cause it's in for my lever gun.

Pat

First I don't think that +/-.003" will make a big accuracy difference. Second, I'm not sure that measuring something as odd shaped as a cartridge is possible to +/-.001", so maybe your measuring technique causes part of the variation. Third, if it matters enough, seat bullets maybe +.010", then seat them all a second time to the desired dimension. Fourth, I've seen bullets move out in cases when I held the ctg. in my hot hand.
joe b.

Another point to consider is that flat meplats really aren't flat -- they contain up to a 5 degree taper on the "flat" so they can come out of the mold readily. It all makes measuring more fun. Oldfeller

awe... I knew all that stuff guys, I just felt lonely and wanted to hear from somebody..

Good points... and I was thinking that too oldfeller.

I was going to make a gage for my Stoney Point comparator, that would measure the OAL off the side of the bullet instead of from the top, and see if they measure out closer that way. Maybe I might find out they aren't actually all that far off.

marlinlover: How about case length uniformity? If you're crimping hard against a crimp shoulder, and the cases are a bit uneven in length, that could affect your OAL. Just a thought.... floodgate