10mm OAL too short to shoot?

[zippygaloo]

Per the Speer #14 manual, I loaded up some 10mm cases with 180 Speer TMJ bullets in front of 8.2 grains of Hodgdon HS-6. The manual called for an OAL of 1.250.

I have five rounds that are under 1.250.

1) 1.248
2) 1.238
3) 1.244
4) 1.241
5) 1.245

Are any of these OK to shoot? Or do I need to pull the bullets?

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[Throckmorton]

is that a max load,beginning loaded,etc ?
if lower end load I"d feel safe shooting the loads that are longer than 1.241. If it's a high end load,I"d shoot number 1 and prolly either pull ther rest or give them a tap with a kinetic puller to move them forward then re-seat them.
before doing any re-seating I"d check the seater die for buildup inside,that will cause erratic oal's.also ,see if the profile of the seater plug matches the bullet nose correctly.

 

[zippygaloo]

The manual listed 8.2 grains as a start load. The max load is listed at 9.1 grains. Because the profile of the seater plug wasn't perfect it was causing a small ring around the tip of the bullet. Because I have a bullet seating/tamper crimp die I mistakenly thought that it was somehow putting the crimp on the bullet. I was messing with the die to try and fix this and that's when I made the OAL mistakes. Turns out I need to do bullet seating as one step and taper crimp as another. Not both at the same time. The die will do both at the same time, but my bullets get chewed up in the process.

 

[sneakboxer]

I'd give them a tap with the puller and re-seat them to the proper OAL and recrimp. I don't know about the 10mm but with a 40S&W bullet setback can really spike chamber pressures. Pulling 5 rounds would be cheap insurance. I seat and taper crimp in separate operations also. I like to keep an eye on my carry rounds (factory production) that get chambered more than once for set back and found some shrunk .007 to .010!
Best of luck,

 

[TCOV]

I wouldn't get too worked up about a ten thousands ( .010 ) variation. I just checked a couple brands of factory loads and found variations close to that. It really isn't much. Set your caliper to .010 and see that it isn't much gap. I have handloaded since the '70's and never had a problem with that little variation. Do need to clean the seat die now and then. I have fired rifle rounds that had been loaded in a tube mag 35 Rem pump a few times without being fired and you could plainly see the setback and fired them with no difference from fresh ammo.

 

[Throckmorton]

seating and crimping in two different steps is something I learned to do a loooong time ago.makes die adjustments soo much easier. yes,it can be done in one step,but it's easier to do in 2 steps,imho.