Problems reloading 9mm?

LipscitzWrath · January 13, 2015, 09:30 AM

All, just started reloading 9mm in my Dillon XL650 and I'm having some issues.

First off, let me admit that I just started doing handgun amm. I've done rifle for years now.

Anyways, two problems. First off, handle effort is BAD. I mean real bad. So bad, in fact, that I have RUINED two shellplates sizing 9mm. Now granted, I am using carbide dies (Dillon brand) without lube. This problem is probably easily remedied by using lube, but I am concerned because this seems out of the ordinary, especially for something like 9mm. And my buddy says he has NEVER used lube for pistol if he has carbide dies. This is cleaned range brass bought online, mixed headstamp. I read some stuff online and some people say this isn't all that weird since the 9mm case has a slight taper but , good god, this stuff feels like it was shot out of a .40 chamber. I would be less concerned with this except...

Problem number two. I have an LE Wilson case gage and I'm only batting about .500 on this brass fitting in the case gage. It starts in but the stuff that doesn't gage catches about 1/8" above the rim of the case. It's almost like the case isn't being sized down far enough. Marks on the cases almost seem to confirm this. My sizing die is kissing the shellplate on the upstroke. Again, it is a dillon carbide sizer. I again have read on the internet that this could be caused by the tapered lead in to the die. I have heard that Dillon's are bad for this because they are heavily tapered for reliability in a progressive machine. This reminds me of when my buddy was battling "glock bulge" on his .40 brass. Does this also occur with 9mm? Is a portion of the case unsupported in a 9mm glock barrel? I haven't tried chambering any of this stuff in my glock barrel yet. Perhaps I should.

These two problems almost seem to contradict each other. Any ideas on what I can try?

jimbob86 · January 13, 2015, 09:36 AM

Quote:

Is a portion of the case unsupported in a 9mm glock barrel? I haven't tried chambering any of this stuff in my glock barrel yet. Perhaps I should.

You should be able to tell by looking at the fired cases.

A plunk test is certainly in order.

madmo44mag · January 13, 2015, 10:22 AM

9MM is one of the easiest brass to re-size so I have to wounder if there is not a problem with the die itself.
I re-size 9MM brass shot from Glocks all the time with no problem. You do notice a little more effort required at the end of the ram stroke due to the bulge in the case.
The only time I use case lube is on 44 mag on old work hardened brass.
I would see if I could borrow someones 9mm dies and see if the problem did not go away.
From you post the dies sound properly adjusted.
The only other thing that comes to mind is if the the shell plate is not advancing properly and the brass is sized cock-eyed.

Shootest · January 13, 2015, 10:30 AM

Is the case feeder inserting the case all the way into the shell plate? Lube or not, no way you should be damaging shell plates.

Jeff2131 · January 13, 2015, 10:32 AM

I really dont have any useful input here but i have to say, ive been reloading 9mm for awhile now and EVERY case has resized as if it was hot butter...lol. i cant imagine what problem might be present that would make it so difficult to resize a 9. Ill be watching this.thread as i am curious as to what problem may have come up.

jim8115 · January 13, 2015, 10:33 AM

after reloading 38/357/40/45/454 for years, when I first started loading 9mm I could not believe the pressure required to resize...I just gave up and started using case lube on them...the spray dillon, or homemade equivalent

Jeff2131 · January 13, 2015, 11:15 AM

Jim8115....are you being sarcastic? I reload for 9,38,357,40,45lc,454,&500 and i by far think that the 9 is the absolute easiest case to resize. Never used a drop of lube. Using just the standard rcbs carbide die set. Again, i.cant.imagine what could make a 9 so difficult to resize. Unless maybe a 380 got stuck in it while tumbling..lol.

jim8115 · January 13, 2015, 11:22 AM

No, I am serious. I thought my press would break trying to resize them dry. I am using lee dies, dont know if that makes a difference.

trapper9260 · January 13, 2015, 11:23 AM

I lube all my case no matter what die I use it is a habit of my and will not have any real problems with it,unless you use the lube that is not going to work well.If so change it to some thing else.I use Hornady unique and use it on all my case,I do 9mm and alot of other kind of case for rifle also.

madmo44mag · January 13, 2015, 11:32 AM

To jim8115; What press are you using?
I have an idea formulating.

Jeff2131 · January 13, 2015, 11:34 AM

Jim8115, are you using carbide dies? Its pretty standard for most pistol but they do make steel dies that would require you to lube. Im using a simple lee classic, single stage.

jim8115 · January 13, 2015, 11:48 AM

Lee Carbide dies , I use a lee bench press, and / or one of the lee hand presses

wogpotter · January 13, 2015, 12:11 PM

2 Suggestions for you, based on my experience converting from bottle neck rifle to pistol cases.

Check your press alignment. (mine was off & I never realized it on a RL550) till I started with strait wall cases. The bottleneck shape was completely masking the problem. Dillon will send you a free checking gauge to test with if you ask them.

Get a Dillon resizing die. They really do work way, way better than other brands in my experience. You can use all your other dies with it so you don't need the whole set replacing. Also try some spray lube. The rule is you don't HAVE to lube brass in Carbide, not you MUSTN'T lube brass in carbide. It makes a huge difference especially with nickle plated cases.

madmo44mag · January 13, 2015, 12:12 PM

Hmmmmmm

I run a LnL progressive with Lee dies.
I have seen a time or two when the die base rubbed the cut-out in the shell plate.
I have never seen that happen on all Lee equipment through.

Lunkhead · January 13, 2015, 12:40 PM

I have been reloading .40 and .45 on my XL650 for years. Just got the 9mm conversion for Christmas. I feel no difference in the three. It has to be the die. I cannot imagine having to apply enough pressure to bend a shell plate. Some brass feels a little different on the downstroke, but that is because of different chambers. You can rest assured Dillon will make it right.

BoogieMan · January 13, 2015, 03:09 PM

I was surprised at the force 9mm takes on my Loadmaster, I felt Like I was going to break something. In my case the brass was not seated in the shell plate properly and caused bining. Easy fix once I understood the problem, case feeder. I do hit about every 5-6 case with a smear of lube and it make the whole process go a little easier.

madmo44mag · January 13, 2015, 03:37 PM

Quote:

wogpotter said” Check your press alignment. (mine was off & I never realized it on a RL550) till I started with strait wall cases. The bottleneck shape was completely masking the problem. Dillon will send you a free checking gauge to test with if you ask them.”

This is what I was talking about when I said “cock-eyed”
It sounds like the case in not going straight up into the die and the further it goes the more it binds.

LipscitzWrath · January 13, 2015, 07:11 PM

Man you guys are helpful. Hadn't gotten a topic reply notification all day and was worried I was on my own. I just forgot to subscribe to the thread lol!

Yeah, I hear ya, I know it's not a rule that you CAN'T use lube with carbide, just that its optional. Yesterday I had a buddy come over that sizes pistol brass dry all the time to have him pull the handle and tell me if it felt normal. His response:

"No f*ckin' way! That is WWWAAAYYY too hard! Something is f*cked here!"

When I got home tonight, I case gaged some more brass. I was being optimistic about the 50% being okay. More cases won't gage than the ones that will by a far margin. And, as one would expect, on all the brass that wouldn't gage, they fail the barrel plunk test spectacularly. Again, catches right near the case web.

So, after I read all you guys' replies, I decided to short circuit the discussion and see what Dillon would say. Loving their customer service BTW. I needed to contact them to get another shell plate on the way anyways so why not just get them on the phone and ask them? The tech felt fairly confident he knows what it is. Brace yourselves:

"I think what's going on here is we accidentally put a .380 carbide insert in your sizer die. So I think what is happening is it is pushing excess material to your case head, which is causing them not to fit in the case gage."

Whoa! I did not know such things were possible!

When he said that, things immediately began to click into place. See, I omitted this tidbit when I initially posted because I felt it was irrelevant, but this 9mm processing run I am doing has a secondary benefit - sorting the .380 out. After all, this is range brass and I'm estimating at least 1 in 20 pieces passing through the press is .380.

You see, because I am having to pull the handle with such gusto, when a piece of .380 finds it's way into the sizer die, I wind up slamming that press against the stops. This immediately alerts me that what I just size is a piece of .380. Yes, it's rudimentary and probably hard on the press, but I'm grasping for a silver lining here guys!

On the 9mm brass after being sized, there is a pronounced hourglass shape to the brass. This too, would support the .380 theory. The tech says he personally reloads 9mm with a Dillon die without lube and has no problems with handle effort.

Long story short, he is sending out an engineer-verified 9mm sizing die with a new shellplate, as well as return label for the suspected defective parts.

So, my next two questions are:

1.) Are you guys buying it?
2.) If this turns out to be the case, is all this brass I ran through the .380 die garbage now?

snapshot762 · January 13, 2015, 08:11 PM

1. Makes sense to me. The guys at Dillon know what they are talking about.

2. Being new to reloading as of yet i'll let the more experienced here answer the brass question for sure, but if the cases had excess material pushed into the case head I think they might be ruined.

LipscitzWrath · January 13, 2015, 08:18 PM

That would really suck if they were ruined. Despite the increased effort to resize these cases, I did manage to get probably close to 2000 resized. That might shed a little light on how I managed to ruin two shell plates.

mmb713 · January 13, 2015, 08:57 PM

I load 357, 45 Auto, 45 Colt and 9mm. 357 and 45 Auto are both pretty easy to resize. 45 Colt is pretty stout to resize but by far the most effort is required for 9mm. I use RCBS dies. That tapered case is a bugger.

It sounds like Dillon may have resolved your issue. I'd say your brass may be junk. When you get your new die and after you have verified everything is good to go with it with previously unsized brass you may want to run your incorrectly sized brass through it. It may iron things out enough to salvage them. If not, well it was just 9mm range brass which is pretty easy to get. If I screwed up a bunch of my 45 Colt Starline brass I'd lose my mind.

LipscitzWrath · January 13, 2015, 08:59 PM

So what's the litmus test for if it's ruined or not? If I can re-resize it (lol) and have it chamber?

jag2 · January 13, 2015, 11:14 PM

Well, you know 9mm can be sized without lube but it will be easier with it so just do it. If it works for you forget what others say. I have a Forster press which has a short pull handle for pistol loads but it so much easier with the longer handle. Remember, 9mm is not a straight wall case like 45 or 38 special so the taper is having some effect. I give my 9mm a quick spray of One Shot and then short time back in the tumbler to clean them up. I have had the same problem with a slight bulge near the base and sometimes even a ring of brass near the base like it has been shaved. Lowering the die pretty much solved it but I am finding certain brands are more prone to doing it after a few reloads. Hopefully your new die will let you get a little farther down the case.

rdtompki · January 13, 2015, 11:24 PM

I'm a new reloaded, 9mm exclusively. I started out with a Hornady sizing/decapping die which sometimes required two hands on the level to get the case out of the die. I switched to a Lee sizing/decapping die: effort is way down and I never have a primer hang on the LEE decapping pin. I'm using a bit of case lube, but that's only to decrease the effect the sizing process has on OAL; generally I notice a .01" or so difference between rounds processing individually and in progressive mode, bu I adjust the seating die to compensate.

hartcreek · January 14, 2015, 12:11 AM

This just shows why new reloaders should be using a single stage press of single brass at a time running their progressive till they get it right.

As to if they sent you the wrong dies you should have caught that when you threaded them into the Dillon and adjusted them as the dies state wht they are for on each individual die.

Pull out you calipers and measure the die an compare what you get with the specs for .380.

If you ran 2000 9mm dies through a .380 sizer measure them and compare the results to what they should be. You should see a line on each piece of 9mm brass at the point that it could not be formed any more.

My book is out in my loading room but froms the ones that I have accidently pressed on a single stage I am afraid that ruined that bunch of 9mm brass.

January 13, 2015, 09:30 AM	#1
LipscitzWrath Member Join Date: December 30, 2014 Posts: 28	Problems reloading 9mm? All, just started reloading 9mm in my Dillon XL650 and I'm having some issues. First off, let me admit that I just started doing handgun amm. I've done rifle for years now. Anyways, two problems. First off, handle effort is BAD. I mean real bad. So bad, in fact, that I have RUINED two shellplates sizing 9mm. Now granted, I am using carbide dies (Dillon brand) without lube. This problem is probably easily remedied by using lube, but I am concerned because this seems out of the ordinary, especially for something like 9mm. And my buddy says he has NEVER used lube for pistol if he has carbide dies. This is cleaned range brass bought online, mixed headstamp. I read some stuff online and some people say this isn't all that weird since the 9mm case has a slight taper but , good god, this stuff feels like it was shot out of a .40 chamber. I would be less concerned with this except... Problem number two. I have an LE Wilson case gage and I'm only batting about .500 on this brass fitting in the case gage. It starts in but the stuff that doesn't gage catches about 1/8" above the rim of the case. It's almost like the case isn't being sized down far enough. Marks on the cases almost seem to confirm this. My sizing die is kissing the shellplate on the upstroke. Again, it is a dillon carbide sizer. I again have read on the internet that this could be caused by the tapered lead in to the die. I have heard that Dillon's are bad for this because they are heavily tapered for reliability in a progressive machine. This reminds me of when my buddy was battling "glock bulge" on his .40 brass. Does this also occur with 9mm? Is a portion of the case unsupported in a 9mm glock barrel? I haven't tried chambering any of this stuff in my glock barrel yet. Perhaps I should. These two problems almost seem to contradict each other. Any ideas on what I can try?

January 13, 2015, 10:22 AM	#3
madmo44mag Senior Member Join Date: December 29, 2008 Location: Ft.Worth, Texas Posts: 1,522	9MM is one of the easiest brass to re-size so I have to wounder if there is not a problem with the die itself. I re-size 9MM brass shot from Glocks all the time with no problem. You do notice a little more effort required at the end of the ram stroke due to the bulge in the case. The only time I use case lube is on 44 mag on old work hardened brass. I would see if I could borrow someones 9mm dies and see if the problem did not go away. From you post the dies sound properly adjusted. The only other thing that comes to mind is if the the shell plate is not advancing properly and the brass is sized cock-eyed. __________________ Texas - Not just a state but an attitude! For monthly shooting events in DFW visit http://www.meetup.com/TexasGunOwner-DFW

January 13, 2015, 10:30 AM	#4
Shootest Senior Member Join Date: February 9, 2011 Location: Just outside Cleveland, Ohio Posts: 722	Is the case feeder inserting the case all the way into the shell plate? Lube or not, no way you should be damaging shell plates. __________________ The private ownership of firearms is an American Heritage. Anyone who disputes that is Anti-American and unpatriotic. NRA Life Member

January 13, 2015, 10:32 AM	#5
Jeff2131 Senior Member Join Date: November 30, 2012 Location: Spring City, PA Posts: 497	I really dont have any useful input here but i have to say, ive been reloading 9mm for awhile now and EVERY case has resized as if it was hot butter...lol. i cant imagine what problem might be present that would make it so difficult to resize a 9. Ill be watching this.thread as i am curious as to what problem may have come up. __________________ ---I DON'T DIAL 911---

January 13, 2015, 11:15 AM	#7
Jeff2131 Senior Member Join Date: November 30, 2012 Location: Spring City, PA Posts: 497	Jim8115....are you being sarcastic? I reload for 9,38,357,40,45lc,454,&500 and i by far think that the 9 is the absolute easiest case to resize. Never used a drop of lube. Using just the standard rcbs carbide die set. Again, i.cant.imagine what could make a 9 so difficult to resize. Unless maybe a 380 got stuck in it while tumbling..lol. __________________ ---I DON'T DIAL 911---

January 13, 2015, 10:33 AM	#6
jim8115 Senior Member Join Date: July 23, 2011 Location: Arkansas Posts: 229	after reloading 38/357/40/45/454 for years, when I first started loading 9mm I could not believe the pressure required to resize...I just gave up and started using case lube on them...the spray dillon, or homemade equivalent

January 13, 2015, 11:22 AM	#8
jim8115 Senior Member Join Date: July 23, 2011 Location: Arkansas Posts: 229	serious No, I am serious. I thought my press would break trying to resize them dry. I am using lee dies, dont know if that makes a difference.

January 13, 2015, 11:23 AM	#9
trapper9260 Senior Member Join Date: May 29, 2010 Location: Iowa Posts: 119	I lube all my case no matter what die I use it is a habit of my and will not have any real problems with it,unless you use the lube that is not going to work well.If so change it to some thing else.I use Hornady unique and use it on all my case,I do 9mm and alot of other kind of case for rifle also.

January 13, 2015, 11:32 AM	#10
madmo44mag Senior Member Join Date: December 29, 2008 Location: Ft.Worth, Texas Posts: 1,522	To jim8115; What press are you using? I have an idea formulating. __________________ Texas - Not just a state but an attitude! For monthly shooting events in DFW visit http://www.meetup.com/TexasGunOwner-DFW

January 13, 2015, 11:34 AM	#11
Jeff2131 Senior Member Join Date: November 30, 2012 Location: Spring City, PA Posts: 497	Jim8115, are you using carbide dies? Its pretty standard for most pistol but they do make steel dies that would require you to lube. Im using a simple lee classic, single stage. __________________ ---I DON'T DIAL 911---

January 13, 2015, 11:48 AM	#12
jim8115 Senior Member Join Date: July 23, 2011 Location: Arkansas Posts: 229	Lee Carbide dies , I use a lee bench press, and / or one of the lee hand presses

January 13, 2015, 12:11 PM	#13
wogpotter Senior Member Join Date: September 27, 2004 Posts: 4,811	2 Suggestions for you, based on my experience converting from bottle neck rifle to pistol cases. Check your press alignment. (mine was off & I never realized it on a RL550) till I started with strait wall cases. The bottleneck shape was completely masking the problem. Dillon will send you a free checking gauge to test with if you ask them. Get a Dillon resizing die. They really do work way, way better than other brands in my experience. You can use all your other dies with it so you don't need the whole set replacing. Also try some spray lube. The rule is you don't HAVE to lube brass in Carbide, not you MUSTN'T lube brass in carbide. It makes a huge difference especially with nickle plated cases. __________________ Allan Quatermain: “Automatic rifles. Who in God's name has automatic rifles”? Elderly Hunter: “That's dashed unsporting. Probably Belgium.”

January 13, 2015, 12:12 PM	#14
madmo44mag Senior Member Join Date: December 29, 2008 Location: Ft.Worth, Texas Posts: 1,522	Hmmmmmm I run a LnL progressive with Lee dies. I have seen a time or two when the die base rubbed the cut-out in the shell plate. I have never seen that happen on all Lee equipment through. __________________ Texas - Not just a state but an attitude! For monthly shooting events in DFW visit http://www.meetup.com/TexasGunOwner-DFW

January 13, 2015, 12:40 PM	#15
Lunkhead Junior Member Join Date: July 25, 2006 Posts: 12	I have been reloading .40 and .45 on my XL650 for years. Just got the 9mm conversion for Christmas. I feel no difference in the three. It has to be the die. I cannot imagine having to apply enough pressure to bend a shell plate. Some brass feels a little different on the downstroke, but that is because of different chambers. You can rest assured Dillon will make it right.

January 13, 2015, 03:09 PM	#16
BoogieMan Senior Member Join Date: April 4, 2012 Location: South Jersey Posts: 2,217	I was surprised at the force 9mm takes on my Loadmaster, I felt Like I was going to break something. In my case the brass was not seated in the shell plate properly and caused bining. Easy fix once I understood the problem, case feeder. I do hit about every 5-6 case with a smear of lube and it make the whole process go a little easier. __________________ Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it. Milton Freidman "If you find yourself in a fair fight,,, Your tactics suck"- Unknown

January 13, 2015, 07:11 PM	#18
LipscitzWrath Member Join Date: December 30, 2014 Posts: 28	Man you guys are helpful. Hadn't gotten a topic reply notification all day and was worried I was on my own. I just forgot to subscribe to the thread lol! Yeah, I hear ya, I know it's not a rule that you CAN'T use lube with carbide, just that its optional. Yesterday I had a buddy come over that sizes pistol brass dry all the time to have him pull the handle and tell me if it felt normal. His response: *"No fckin' way! That is WWWAAAYYY too hard! Something is fcked here!"* When I got home tonight, I case gaged some more brass. I was being optimistic about the 50% being okay. More cases won't gage than the ones that will by a far margin. And, as one would expect, on all the brass that wouldn't gage, they fail the barrel plunk test spectacularly. Again, catches right near the case web. So, after I read all you guys' replies, I decided to short circuit the discussion and see what Dillon would say. Loving their customer service BTW. I needed to contact them to get another shell plate on the way anyways so why not just get them on the phone and ask them? The tech felt fairly confident he knows what it is. Brace yourselves: "I think what's going on here is we accidentally put a .380 carbide insert in your sizer die. So I think what is happening is it is pushing excess material to your case head, which is causing them not to fit in the case gage." Whoa! I did not know such things were possible! When he said that, things immediately began to click into place. See, I omitted this tidbit when I initially posted because I felt it was irrelevant, but this 9mm processing run I am doing has a secondary benefit - sorting the .380 out. After all, this is range brass and I'm estimating at least 1 in 20 pieces passing through the press is .380. You see, because I am having to pull the handle with such gusto, when a piece of .380 finds it's way into the sizer die, I wind up slamming that press against the stops. This immediately alerts me that what I just size is a piece of .380. Yes, it's rudimentary and probably hard on the press, but I'm grasping for a silver lining here guys! On the 9mm brass after being sized, there is a pronounced hourglass shape to the brass. This too, would support the .380 theory. The tech says he personally reloads 9mm with a Dillon die without lube and has no problems with handle effort. Long story short, he is sending out an engineer-verified 9mm sizing die with a new shellplate, as well as return label for the suspected defective parts. So, my next two questions are: 1.) Are you guys buying it? 2.) If this turns out to be the case, is all this brass I ran through the .380 die garbage now?

January 13, 2015, 08:11 PM	#19
snapshot762 Member Join Date: September 27, 2013 Posts: 51	1. Makes sense to me. The guys at Dillon know what they are talking about. 2. Being new to reloading as of yet i'll let the more experienced here answer the brass question for sure, but if the cases had excess material pushed into the case head I think they might be ruined.

January 13, 2015, 08:18 PM	#20
LipscitzWrath Member Join Date: December 30, 2014 Posts: 28	That would really suck if they were ruined. Despite the increased effort to resize these cases, I did manage to get probably close to 2000 resized. That might shed a little light on how I managed to ruin two shell plates.

January 13, 2015, 08:57 PM	#21
mmb713 Senior Member Join Date: March 15, 2011 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 421	I load 357, 45 Auto, 45 Colt and 9mm. 357 and 45 Auto are both pretty easy to resize. 45 Colt is pretty stout to resize but by far the most effort is required for 9mm. I use RCBS dies. That tapered case is a bugger. It sounds like Dillon may have resolved your issue. I'd say your brass may be junk. When you get your new die and after you have verified everything is good to go with it with previously unsized brass you may want to run your incorrectly sized brass through it. It may iron things out enough to salvage them. If not, well it was just 9mm range brass which is pretty easy to get. If I screwed up a bunch of my 45 Colt Starline brass I'd lose my mind.

January 13, 2015, 08:59 PM	#22
LipscitzWrath Member Join Date: December 30, 2014 Posts: 28	So what's the litmus test for if it's ruined or not? If I can re-resize it (lol) and have it chamber?

January 13, 2015, 11:14 PM	#23
jag2 Senior Member Join Date: June 30, 2009 Location: dallas Posts: 773	Well, you know 9mm can be sized without lube but it will be easier with it so just do it. If it works for you forget what others say. I have a Forster press which has a short pull handle for pistol loads but it so much easier with the longer handle. Remember, 9mm is not a straight wall case like 45 or 38 special so the taper is having some effect. I give my 9mm a quick spray of One Shot and then short time back in the tumbler to clean them up. I have had the same problem with a slight bulge near the base and sometimes even a ring of brass near the base like it has been shaved. Lowering the die pretty much solved it but I am finding certain brands are more prone to doing it after a few reloads. Hopefully your new die will let you get a little farther down the case.

January 13, 2015, 11:24 PM	#24
rdtompki Senior Member Join Date: March 15, 2014 Location: San Franciso Bay area Posts: 108	I'm a new reloaded, 9mm exclusively. I started out with a Hornady sizing/decapping die which sometimes required two hands on the level to get the case out of the die. I switched to a Lee sizing/decapping die: effort is way down and I never have a primer hang on the LEE decapping pin. I'm using a bit of case lube, but that's only to decrease the effect the sizing process has on OAL; generally I notice a .01" or so difference between rounds processing individually and in progressive mode, bu I adjust the seating die to compensate. __________________ NRA Life Member CRPA Life Member

January 14, 2015, 12:11 AM	#25
hartcreek Junior member Join Date: April 22, 2014 Location: Washington Posts: 1,549	This just shows why new reloaders should be using a single stage press of single brass at a time running their progressive till they get it right. As to if they sent you the wrong dies you should have caught that when you threaded them into the Dillon and adjusted them as the dies state wht they are for on each individual die. Pull out you calipers and measure the die an compare what you get with the specs for .380. If you ran 2000 9mm dies through a .380 sizer measure them and compare the results to what they should be. You should see a line on each piece of 9mm brass at the point that it could not be formed any more. My book is out in my loading room but froms the ones that I have accidently pressed on a single stage I am afraid that ruined that bunch of 9mm brass.