Reloading BS thread

Another good source for cast bullets is http://oregontrailbullet.com/

Great bullets, reasonable prices, and USPS flat rate shipping.

 

Anyone have experience with either of these two presses? I will probably just be reloading 38 Special/357 and 9mm.

$57 Lee Reloading Press Md: 90045

https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Reloadin...UTF8&qid=1470081942&sr=8-1&keywords=lee+press

$91 Lee Precision 90588: Breech Lock Challenger

https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Precisio...UTF8&qid=1470081942&sr=8-2&keywords=lee+press

i understand you get what you pay for. I am just looking to move up from a Lee Loader. At most 100 -150 rounds a month - at MOST. Kind of hard to justify a ton of money for a hobby. Looks like the only priming option for the first press is the lee ram prime or a hand primer. The second one supports an auto prime. Is it worth the $40.00 difference?

 

The "O" frame press is stronger - as is any manufacturers "O" frame compared to an open frame.

For 100 rounds a month of 38 special, the lesser expensive one would be fine. However, if/when you decide to move up (quantity, caliber, etc.) you will find it lacking.

That being said, most people have more than one press....

 

I have the 2nd press (the breech lock challenger) and I'm happy with it, it's mounted with lag screws and it's very stable (mine is screwed through 3/4" plywood into a 3x4 post).
I use the lee hand primer to prime but I like having the heavier press, when I step up to rifle calibers I know it will handle it.

 

So we're currently looking at buying a house and one of our top contenders happens to have a shop (~25x30) and if we decide to put an offer in and get the house I want to add a reloading room to the back of the shop, thinking 15x20 so i have room for 2 benches, cabinets, more cabinets, and plenty of room for powder/primer storage.
Is there any reason not to add a sprinkler system to the room? If somehow a fire started and powder wasn't involved it could be easily handled by a ABC fire, however powder has to be put out with water and if more than a little powder goes up then I'm out of there and I'm gonna go chill by the pool and let the sprinklers handle it.
I already called the county fire marshall and he thought it was a good idea, he said for a room that size and with that purpose he would recommend 4 sprinklers and try to put the powder and primers where they would get drenched the fastest.

 

Also does anyone have a recommendation for a powder measure? The cheap lee perfect powder measure that came in the kit just isn't good enough IMO, the plastic is flimsy and feels cheap.

 

I use the powder drop system on the Dillon 550, for rifle I was looking at the Redding BR30.

I've used the RCBS charge master and that works really well. Just plug in the charge weight and go.

Problem is I don't have the room for it, seeing how my reloading area is multipurpose. I do however have the RCBS scale and I'm very happy with it.

 

I wish I was in Charleston. I could take care of my reloading press wants!

http://charleston.craigslist.org/for/5711561953.html

 

Figured up a rough estimation for reloading subsonic 9mm, not including shipping or hazmat but I figure over the life of the brass it'll even out.
Cast bullets.


Plated bullets.

 

Anyone have any Barnes XLC bullets they want to sell?

 

I decided to cheap out and go with the "C" press. My logic is that the worst that can happen is that I will want another press down the road and can use this one as a dedicated "deprimer". Or, if I decide I don't want to reload anymore, I am not in too deep. Hey, I am going from a Lee Loader and a dead blow hammer, so this HAS to be a step up. I also picked up a set of dies on ebay for $35.00 (a 4 die set) that also came with the Lee case prep tools. The dies are here, but the press won't get here until tomorrow or Friday. I have already started setting up a 2X6 to mount it on. I am going to use some C-Clamps to fasten it to a Black and Decker work bench so I can deprime/size and prime in the living room while I am watching TV. I will add powder, seat the bullet and crimp in the garage so if I spill powder I don't get it all over the house. I am going to use the dippers for now, but depending on how things go, I may look at a powder measure and scale down the road. Anyone have a recommendation on either of those two items?

 

The press came in today. I had prepped my mount while waiting on it to get here so it did not take long to set it up. I was able to size and prime 172 9mm and size 70 357 cases. The ram prime takes a little getting used to, but once you do, you can get in to a rhythm, you can get a lot done. I am going to work on setting up the rest of the dies this weekend. I have enough powder and bullets to load all 242 cases I worked on tonight. I think I will focus on the 9mm first. Going to do a few to take to the range so I can make sure my load is going to work the way I want it to.

My plans are 4.6 gr of Unique with a 124 gr X-treme round nose bullet with CCI 500 primers. If these work the way I hope, I'll load the rest of them.

For the 357, its going to be 7.8 gr of Unique with a Berry's plated 158 gr flat point and CCI 550 primers (I know it is a little overkill on the primer, but it was all they had at the time I primed the cases.) I have loaded this one before and it works pretty well. Definitely not a high end 357, but it is pretty accurate. I just need to get used to loading this with the press instead of the lee loader and a hammer.

Then, off to the range at some point to try them out.

 

@docbrown
Using the 550 primers don't hurt nothing, I run the magnum primers in everything I load.

 

Yeah. Everything I have read indicates with the loads I am working up, it should not make more than a few fps. I think it would only make a difference if I were right on the edge of a hotter load. I was able to pick up a box of 1000 CCI 500's a couple of weeks ago, so that is what I will be loading with from here on out. Worked up a few of the 9mm loads and am going to try them out at the range tomorrow. (Just don't tell them they are handloads ).

 

New to the forum...just bought a 2010 Tacoma...

I've been reloading for about 25 years...started out with an RCBS JR2 and have used it exclusively until last summer when I partook of the Blue Koolaid and bought a Dillon RL550B...It used to take me 2 hours to load 50 rounds of .223 with the RCBS...now it takes me 15 minutes (and that's taking my time). I will still sometimes use the RCBS for decapping and sizing rifle brass, especially if it is mil brass with the crimped primer...

I load:
.223
30/30
45acp
38sp
357mag
.380auto
9x18 Makarov (I make my own brass by trimming 9x19 down a mm)

Up until 2 years ago, I used to load shotshells (12 gauge) but the components got so expensive, especially the shot, that I figured that with all the shells I already had loaded and the little amount I shoot, it wasn't worth my time any longer. The 1200 I have loaded up will probably last the rest of my life. I sold the shotshell loader and put the $$$ towards my Dillon.

 

Put some surplus ammo through my savage .308 yesterday, hirtenberger (late 70's early 80's) 7.62 loads that are usually hot rounds.
After the first 2 rounds (Total of 15 fired) I started getting hard extractions, the bolt handle would be easy to lift but not easy to pull back, some rounds I could pull the bolt back manual (With a good bit of force) but others I had to tap the bolt open with the handle of pliers.

The casings appear fine, no signs of excess pressure.

I have only fired 35 rounds through this rifle, 20 were monarch (Steel cased) and they worked fine, no clue of what the previous owner fired through it.
I'm thinking it's either the brass expanding to much due to the loads being hot, or I have a rough chamber and it's only effecting the brass casings due to it being softer.

I'm going to get some factory brass ammo and see if it fixes it.
If it is sticky bolt due to hot ammo i should be able to pull the bullets and pull some powder out and then reload the casings, correct?

 

I would make sure the chamber is really clean. If you pull the bullets, dump all the powder from the case into a scale and measure how many grains are in there. Only then can you work from that weight to remove X amount of powder. You can't just dump a little out.

Unfortunately, you don't know what kind of powder is used in the rounds so reducing a percentage of powder from each round may cause a squib if you reduce it too much.

 

If it's causing problems in my gun I wouldn't run it in my gun.
The bolt sticking is a sign of a pressure issue, you shouldn't have to encourage the bolt out of battery.

Does the steel cased ammo have a lacquered case? I definitely wouldn't use that in my bolt gun either, as the camber heats up that coating will transfer. As dedmouse stated you should clean that chamber.

 

I'll pull the bolt and put a borescope up in there.
Yeah I figure I can pull the bullet out of one, weigh the charge and download by 3-5% and retry if I need to.

It could be a sign of pressure or it could be a rough chamber (From my research).

Yeah it's lacquer coated, I haven't had any issue with the same ammo in my AR even after a mag dump and chambering a round and letting it sit.