Rope shrinkage from splicing

[benz]

Hi Brion

The rope is New England Vectran V-100, catalog calls it 10mm, whatever that means. I'm splicing it using the directions for core-to-core splice downloaded from NE website, using a 7/16" Samson splicing fid (you know, the pointed aluminum ones...). So total bury is three fid lengths, about 27 inches, and taper is about 17 inches. Once the splice is done, the cover is milked back over the core, and I put tension on it to make sure the bump in the core that develops as you're milking the cover over is all straightened out. But with all that, I'm losing 8+ inches per splice.
If I'm doing something wrong, I'd dearly like to know before I do too many more....
Ben