Teach me about reloading..

[RangerTim]

You don't screw around! Nice progress!

 

[Dirtbike]

All about progress brother!

 

[Ohiobellboy]

Heck no. Keep this one going. It will be easy for people to see what all is involved beside just the actual reloading process.

 

[Shawn Agne]

Berry's bullets shoot nice for me and can't beat the price.

 

[Dirtbike]

Well I think I'll have a good start going here, 9 lbs powder, (got a good deal) 3,000 small pistol primers (CCI) 1,000 rds 124 gr Hornaday fmj (didn't have time to make an order so I picked then up locally) 3,500 rds brass, and picked up a set of RCBS carbide dies in 9mm to get rolling., crimp tool and powder check system should be here in a day or two


I've got a friend of mine that's been into it for a while gonna stop out and do a little hands on instructing View attachment 562

 

[Shawn Agne]

Make sure your primers are seated in all the way. I had an issue where my hand tool didn't do this and the rounds didn't go off 4 years ago while shooting Long Range at Oak Ridge. Same thing happened to a friend this past weekend at our 1000yd match at Atterbury. If you're priming on a press you'll be fine. Hand tool just need to check that the primer is below the base of the case.

 

[Dirtbike]

[QUOTE="Shawn Agne]Make sure your primers are seated in all the way. I had an issue where my hand tool didn't do this and the rounds didn't go off 4 years ago while shooting Long Range at Oak Ridge. Same thing happened to a friend this past weekend at our 1000yd match at Atterbury. If you're priming on a press you'll be fine. Hand tool just need to check that the primer is below the base of the case.

[/QUOTE]
I'll be priming on the press for my pistol rds and 5.56 rds, after talking alot with my dad I'm gonna be loading ask of my .308 on a single stage in the future so I'll def keep the seating issue in mind, thanks!

 

[Shawn Agne]

Since you're going to be loading .308 in the future and already have .223 there are a lot of powders that work between the two. IMR-4895, H-4895, Varget, N-140, RE-15 are probably the ones that will work the best overall. Unless you're wanting to smoke the smaller .22cal projectiles then H322, N130, N135, IMR-3031 work nicely in a 223.

 

[Dirtbike]

Got the room all finished up today, I've got some bench size florescent lights that have been boxed up for ever, I think I'm gonna hang then over the bench where I noticed some shadows (can never go wrong with good lighting), I also have some rotary shelves to go under the bench which will make the most out of the area on the lower shelf. From here i just gotta do some more reading and wait on my buddy to stop out and learn me a bit View attachment 580 View attachment 581

 

[Shawn Agne]

Looks nice. Another piece of advice. For case lube get a small spray bottle, some 99% rubbing alcohol and some liquid lanolin. I think the ratio is 4:1 alcohol to lanolin. I made up a big bottle of it, works just as well as the Hornady spray lube and is way cheaper.

 

[Dirtbike]

[QUOTE="Shawn Agne]Looks nice. Another piece of advice. For case lube get a small spray bottle, some 99% rubbing alcohol and some liquid lanolin. I think the ratio is 4:1 alcohol to lanolin. I made up a big bottle of it, works just as well as the Hornady spray lube and is way cheaper.

[/QUOTE]
When using carbide dies on pistol casings is the lube still required?

 

[Shawn Agne]

No not for pistol cases in carbide dies. Was saying this for your 223 and 308.

 

[Dirtbike]

[QUOTE="Shawn Agne]No not for pistol cases in carbide dies. Was saying this for your 223 and 308.

[/QUOTE]
Rog, yea this guy has got a lot to learn lol, that's a damn good idea though! And thanks for the compliment!

 

[Dirtbike]

Got the Super Swage in today and the Powder Check, that crimp tool is pretty cool, looks alot easier than the hand tool type, after I get proficient with this thing I may end up adding a bullet feeder but that will prob be after I get back from deployment


All that's left is to insert/adjust the dies and adjust the powder check die then should be good to go, gotta deprime and size a lot of casings then prep the ones that have a crimp through the tool then I'll be ready to go! hopefully get started loading some this weekend and do some fine tuning on her View attachment 584 View attachment 585

 

[Shawn Agne]

On the super swedge, don't open the primer pockets all the way. Find out the smallest amount you need to seat the primer and go with that. Reason being if you start shooting heavy loads for 600yd or 1000yd primer pockets opening up are usually the first thing that goes on brass. So if you keep the pockets tight brass will last longer.

 

[Dirtbike]

[QUOTE="Shawn Agne]On the super swedge, don't open the primer pockets all the way. Find out the smallest amount you need to seat the primer and go with that. Reason being if you start shooting heavy loads for 600yd or 1000yd primer pockets opening up are usually the first thing that goes on brass. So if you keep the pockets tight brass will last longer.

[/QUOTE]
Rog, I'll def keep that in mind! It'll be a bit till I get to loading any rifle ammunition, do you suggest the same for pistol brass?

 

[RangerTim]

Dirtbike.....I'm officially jealous of your setup! I've been at it for a decade and don't have a setup that nice!

 

[Shawn Agne]

Pistol brass no, you are loading at a much lower pressure. Again as far as the rifle ammo that is only if you are loading at the top end for longer ranges. If you just plinking around at 100-300 no reason to run stuff hard.

 

[Dirtbike]

[QUOTE="Chris Timmerman]Dirtbike.....I'm officially jealous of your setup! I've been at it for a decade and don't have a setup that nice!

[/QUOTE]
Thanks Chris! I've always wanted a nice setup to get rolling with, this seems to really go hand in hand with my machining that I really love to do, I'm just trying to get setup what I can now before my daughter's (4) get older and suck up all the cash hahahahahaha View attachment 586 View attachment 587

 

[Dirtbike]

Well I got the decapping/sizing die set and the seating crimp die set in place, I had to go through about 15 rds to get things where they needed to be but that's what the bullet puller is for, OAL average of all test rds is set at 1.1620, the reading I've been doing is for 124gr hornaday fmj is from 1.1600 to 1.1659 max so I tried to set for the shell plate variation, out of 20 rds(after the initial setup) I came out with a +/-.005 variation in seating depth, I'm using RCBS carbide dies which are a little different than the Dillon dies (the dillon dies have a separate seating and crimp die for station 4 and 5 whereas the RCBS dies that I have the seating/crimp die are in one unit located at station 4 only, I haven't loaded any powder as of yet but that'll come tomorrow View attachment 588 View attachment 589 View attachment 590 View attachment 591 )