by plant_one » Tue Sep 26, 2017 9:12 am
from someone who owns a fair selection of ammo gauges, i'd suggest you plunk down the few extra $$ and get the Sheridan engineering style slotted one from Tromix.
plunk gauges are cool and all, but they dont help you diagnose your problem if you have a failure. they're just a yes/no tester - a true one trick pony.
having a cutout gauge allows you to see where your fail point is - where the casing is binding against the inside of the gauge (chamber) - so you know here to focus to correct it.
If you have to diagnose one bad run of ammo, even if its just a few rounds, i can pretty much guarantee you that you're going to thank yourself for spending that extra $10 - i know i have!
as a side note - just because ammo fails a plunk test in one of these style gauges, doesnt necessarily mean its going to fail in YOUR chamber. the Sheridan gauges are cut to SAAMI minimum chamber spec. which means if it passes that gauge, it'll chamber in any firearm that meets at least that minimum saami dimensions. often our guns are cut quite a bit more generous than SAAMI minimum - but still within the accepted min/max tolerance range. however its still a good idea to check if you have a fail to see where the issue is and then do a chamber plunk test as well.