I started my foray into reloading this week... starting off with 9mm. That part is going pretty well. Worked up some loads with a few different powders... it's great.
It took about 1 hour of reloading to realize... "Shit man! I need more bullets!" About 5 minutes after that I had the thought... "I really need a King Hell amount of bullets!" This made me consider cast bullets even more so and the first thing to do, it seems, when traveling down that road is to slug one's barrel. I did that... two times.
In measuring the slugs I'm coming up with numbers that just don't appear jive. Grooves at .351-ish and lands at .345ish. These seem quite a bit off from what appears to be standard, so I pulled out a Rainier plated bullet that the company says is .355 and my $25 Lyman SS dial caliper (same used for all these measurements) is telling me the diameter is .352-.353.
Now the question - and my suspicion is that the answer is "yes".
Can my calipers be off as much as .005?
I'd love to have calipers that reliably show .0001" but that seems like a pipe dream if I'm unwilling to drop several hundred in loot. Anyone have a recommendation on reliable calipers in the "around or under hundred dollar" range? Am I expecting too much to have a pair at that price that is only ±.001"?
Any help appreciated.
Oh... and have a terrific Saturday!
If I can't trust my caliper, what can I trust?!?
1“We cannot be sure of having something to live for unless we are willing to die for it.”
― Ernesto Che Guevara
― Ernesto Che Guevara