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Purchasing a case gage would be a great idea. Mine has saved me a lot of worry! This little device is used to check all of the demensions meet max/min specs.

It is worth the money!

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.e ... mid=247371

Venus Pax wrote:...
I want to make sure I'm hearing everyone correctly: my entire round should go into the barrel itself and easily slide back out. In other words, if I take the gun apart and just have the barrel on the table, a round should slide in then back out if I simply tip it one way or the other. ??
Just wanting to make sure I understand you.
Still on this. (And just when I thought I understood what I was doing. )

VP,
If by 'round' you also mean finished, completed cartridge, i.e. bullet properly seated in the shell, and putting it in the end that it would normally go into to fire it, then I think that's the method being described.
Believe me, VP, you are asking the right questions. You are actually helping a lot of us newbies in learning reloading.

You can use your barrel as a gage. The bullet should drop completely into the chamber and when turned upside down it should fall out.
The sizing die should be set to bottom out on the shell holder. Some brass will have a tendency to spring back. I switched to the Lee Factory Crimp a few years ago and that solved all of my problems of the cases not gaging. The Lee Factory Crimp die resizes the case again as well as performs the crimping operation.
I assume you are belling the case before seating the bullet. The only purpose of the taper crimp (which is only used for pistols, the roll crimp is used for revolvers) is to remove the bell to insure proper feeding of the bullet. If the case has been belled then it must be taper crimped to remove the bell. Your seating die is also a crimp die but I really recommend using a separate die for crimping. I do not like to seat and crimp at the same time.
If this does not clear up your questions let me know. I'll share what I've learned about this hobby.

Venus Pax wrote:I don't have a crimp die, so I'll have to order that if the other methods don't work.
I want to make sure I'm hearing everyone correctly: my entire round should go into the barrel itself and easily slide back out. In other words, if I take the gun apart and just have the barrel on the table, a round should slide in then back out if I simply tip it one way or the other. ??
Just wanting to make sure I understand you.
Still on this. (And just when I thought I understood what I was doing. )

What kind of die set do you have that doesn't have a crimp/seater die?

And yes, the cartridge should slip right in to the chamber, and fall right out when you turn it down. Take a known good feeding/chambering round, and use it first to get a feel of what it looks like. Then try your reloads, and it should be the same. If it doesn't, then it is most likely caused by lack of crimp.
If this checks out good, then I would surmise you have a feeding problem. And after rereading your original post,"Several wouldn't cycle out of my gun. They kept jamming. The shell casing would be half-way in the barrel", I'm starting to get the feeling that this is the case. All though if you could clarify what was happening during the misfeeds, i.e... did they hang up during feeding of the cartridge, or was it during extraction?

"And just when I thought I understood what I was doing."
Pfffft, Your just a youngun when it comes to reloading. I'll bet 'ol longtooth still learns something new every now and then. I know I still learn a little something about potential problems, and little tricks of the trade, all the time.

Dan