Smiley faces when loading 40 S&W

[Capt. Bob]

I loaded a couple hundred 9mm's then switched over to load some 40's. After loading a couple of dozen I noticed I was getting smiley faces on every one the primers. What changed? All I did was change out the tool head with the set up 40 dies.

[Gillie Dog]

The thickness of the rim, the top of which is held down by the shell plate to shove in the primer. This might change the bottom of primer pocket in relation to primer pin in the all the way up position.

I always hand prime one case, measure primer set and then use it to set the primer depth. I do this every caliber change. Yes range brass will have many different dimensions but I always work with SAAMI as a good starting point and HOPE the manufacturers do also.

After many thousands reloaded never had a FTF. Good luck, possibly.

Other than that, your guess is as good as mine.

GD

[Capt. Bob]

When looking down from the top through to the primer pin. It appears that the pin comes through to the left side of the hole. Just a little. It is not centered. Sort of like the shell plate needed to go just a tad farther when indexing. Got any ideas about how to fix that.

[Gillie Dog]

When looking down from the top through to the primer pin. It appears that the pin comes through to the left side of the hole. Just a little. It is not centered. Sort of like the shell plate needed to go just a tad farther when indexing. Got any ideas about how to fix that.

Mike discusses this on his site under "Primer System Talk". Might be some ideas there. I have yet to have so am not much help.

GD