Yep you're spot on...all my brass is a great variety of range pickups, which have (naturally!) been no issue in the last 8 years I've been shooting an M&P; as far as I understand its chamber is not unsupported...and there is no one in my club who shoots a Glock so I can at least rule that out.
? Glock got a bad reputation with their unsupported chambers in Gen 1 guns in 40S&W, not the 9mm.
? Gen 1 guns haven't been made in ~20 years
? There are many, many 9's on the market with unsupported chambers
On top of all that, anyone shooting 9 Major at your club ? Cases fired in Major guns have a bad habit of expanding the head. All it takes is 0.001" of expansion at the head to not fit into any SAAMI chamber. I think you should start by measuring your brass. The head of your brass MUST be 0.391" or smaller.
Not to be snippy, but the cartridge diagram in your loading manual is there for a reason. If your finished cartridge doesn't fall below (smaller than) those dimensions, then you're in trouble. That also includes the taper crimp.
I checked the press; the sizing die appears to be about as far down as it can reasonably be when the shellplate is cammed with it:
You actually don't want the shell plate touching the die, but you need it to come as close as possible. So I use a sheet of paper as a feeler gauge. That will set the clearance at ~0.003". If you can pull the paper out without taring the paper you're OK.
The brass (no matter the headstamp) is not bulged after firing, only when loaded:
You have made the erroneous assumption that irregularities in the brass that will keep it from loading
can be seen with the naked eye. That is absolutely
NOT true. As stated earlier in this post, a good caliper and a good micrometer are needed.
The 135gr projectiles are hard coated lead, all very uniform at around 0.355".
What happened to lead projectiles being 0.356-0.357" ?
Tried barrel dropping a few, one had no chance with an OAL shorter than one which almost chambered.
The "barrel plunk test" will only prove you have issues. It won't tell you want the issues are.
My thinking was the FCD would simply make all rounds uniform without having to barrel drop every one and pull those which don't chamber.
And really that's what Lee wants you to believe.
Buy this die and all your troubles will be over. Nothing can be further from the truth. You still need to learn to adjust the FCD, which requires making several measurements, either on production or test cartridges. Even with my one-piece taper crimp dies... I still put a caliper on rounds during every production run. Modern
Quality Control mandates that the guy running the machine bring all the dimensions within spec, and make occasional measurements (checks) to keep everything in spec.
Reloading is part art and part science. If you want to load a different powder or bullet every day, or try different OALs, that's the art part.
The sky's the limit, as they say.
Then there's the hard science of numbers. You cannot be flippant about meeting the required dimensions. "Close" simply isn't good enough. In reading your post I'm getting this feeling (maybe incorrectly) that you're very casual about dimensions. That simply won't work. Your case heads must be 0.391" or smaller. Your taper crimps must be 0.380" or smaller (hopefully 0.376 to 0.378").
Have you seen this:
Taper Crimp: Everything you need to knowHope this helps.