My first Reloads

[joesmo]

Quite the sense of accomplishment. I'm liking this.

powder was the hardest component to find, ended up with some Red Dot and Clays. Decided to load with the RedDot first. Loaded some at 4.7, some at 5.0grains. the 5.0 was definately snappier.

I had 2 rounds that did not fire. primer was dimpled nice, just didn't fire. it was part of my first rounds, siom maybe I did not seat adequately. So here are the questions...

1) is there anything I should do special to deprime these rounds. I already used my handy dandy dillon kenetic bullet puller, and there was powder in both rounds. Any idea what may have been the problem?

2) Do you tumble your brass before or after depriming. why?

 

[rrc1962]

I tumble before depriming because the tumbler media gets stuck in the primer pocket. You probably just had a hard primer. Some guns don't hit the primer as hard as others and every now an then you'll get a hard primer that doesn't light off. If it's a revolver, you can back it up and hit it again, which usually does it. I would just toss those cases. Getting the possibly live primer out could set it off.

I went to buy more powder yesterday and they were out of Accurate No.5, so I picked up some Clays. They said it burned cleaner and faster than No.5 and thus required less. I was using 8.1gr with No.5. Clays calls for 3.8. Half the powder means twice the round per pound.

It's easier if you just stick with one powder that way once you have your prefered loads figured out, you don't have to worry about it again. If you change powders, you have to go through the whole testing phase all over agin to figure out optimal loads for you guns. For 45ACP Clays calls for 3.7 - 4.0 grain. I'll load 20 each at 3.7, 3.8, 3.9 and 4.0 and test fire each. Optimal loads almost always end up being right in the middle. In my case, I expect 3.9 will be about right.

 

[rrc1962]

If you haven't loaded handgun rounds with Clays, I can save you some time. I loaded some 45ACP at max load which is 4.0 grain. It felt like I was firing a cap gun and accuracy was all over the place. I also had a problem getting an accurate measure. Powder drops were fluctuating +-.2 grain with a Dillon powder measure. Back to Accurate No5 for me.

 

[KimberPB]

Here is a safe way to remove the primers from that case. Drop a little gun oil into the flash hole. That will disable the primer. Then you can run it back through your sizing decaping die. I'd still go slow just in case but I've removed several live primers in this fashion and never had one go off.

What type of primers are you using? Like was said some are harder then others. So some guns have a problem setting off the harder primers. How are you getting the primer on the seating ram? By hand? If so its possible oils from your hand got into the primer. I've used CCI's for my 9mm, .45acp, and .223 without any issues. May want to give them a shot.

And congrats on your first loads! Oh and I also tumble before I deprime.

 

[2beararms]

I used to reload .357 mag brass with a hand reload system 35 years ago.

I would do this sitting on the concrete garage floor. You would start with a spent shell and sit it on top of a round plate with a hole in it, stick this thing that looked like a long file into the shell and tap it with a hammer to drive out the old primer. Then you would put a new primer into a hole in the plate, sit the shell onto it and tap the shell to seat the new primer. Then pour a measuring scoop of powder into the shell and hand seat a bullet down into the shell. Then you would stick this thing that looked like a spark plug wrench overtop of the bullet and tap the whole thing with a hammer which would sit the bullet to right depth and crimp the shell to the bullet.

I probably loaded a few thousand shells like that and never thought about the fact that is was sort of like seating a shell in the chamber of a barrel and hitting the end of the barrel with a hammer! If that damn primer fired, it likely would have been the end of my reloading and breathing career.

I assume this process kit is no longer available? Had anyone else ever reloaded with this hand kit (or was I the only stupid young kid then)?

 

[wolfhunter]

2Bear, there is a video on this site somewhere of a newscrew tour of a city in Pakistan where many Warsaw blok weapons are manufactured by hand. There is a segment showing a kid reloading ammo using the method you describe.

 

[snowman]

2beararms , sounds like cowboys and indian days, pretty wild
I miss reloading it's been a while, I can't remember the na me of the reloader but it was the Blue press magazine

 

[rugerfan.64]

Lee Hand Loading Kit.

Congrats on your reloading,its a hobby you can get as deep into as you want or just stick with the basics and be perfectly happy. Probably got some oil in your primers. It happens,deprime them with a drop of oil on the old primer and you will be fine,just go slow like was mentioned previously by Kimber. I started loading with the Lee Hand kit too,scared the crap out of me every time one of those primers went off. That must have been about 30 years or so ago. I think they still sell them. I tumble after I resize my rifle brass,helps remove the rest of the lube from the case.leasantry:

 

[silentknight]

Does anyone reload 32 S&W longs?I have plenty of once fired brass and need to stock up.I also have a lot of 38 sp.brass and 30/06 if anyone can use it.Mike