new to reloading

1590 Views 18 Replies 4 Participants Last post by Geno, Apr 26, 2003

merlin

Discussion Starter · Feb 12, 2003

Howdy, I just now am collecting the equipment necessary to reload and was wondering if anyone out there could answer a question about brass. What is roll sizing and if brass can be bought for about 4 cents a pop roll sized and cleaned, ready to load, is that a good deal? Thanks for the help and keep your powder dry!:usa:

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Edward429451

· #3 · Feb 14, 2003

So what color equipment you pickin up? Got a load manual or two yet? Lymans manual is prolly the first one to pick up.

Is she makin you keep it in the closet like mine did at first? I'm up to 2 whole rooms now for my reloading room aka 'The war room'.

:cannon:

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Edward429451

· #5 · Feb 18, 2003

Sounds like you startin off better than I did. My first outfit (still in service, 16-18 years?) was a Rockchucker press, 45 dies, Lyman book, and a RCBS scale. Poured powder in a cereal bowl, used spoon to tap tap tap powder into pan till it came up to weight, then filled case. Every one.

I started out with Unique powder for 45's but graduated to WW-231 cause the results are the same if not better and it burns a whole lot cleaner than Unique.

I 'heard' that 9's are kinda persnickity to load for. Dunno for sure.
Settled on a load yet?

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Edward429451

· #9 · Feb 20, 2003

Ditto the calipers. I got away without using them for awhile cause I seated my bullets to where they'd work reliably through my Colt mags, but they're mighty useful for checking many measurments.

I've never trimmed any 45 cases. They don't grow but conformity of case length will give you real nice looking rounds.

I'm not positive about keeping powder in the cold. I know its supposed to be cool and dry but full blown cold extreme would probably not be good, I think. A visit to a powder manufacturers website may give you actual temperature ranges that are acceptable for storing powder. Personally, at least until I got the info from website etc., I'd keep it in the house where the temp stays more even. By all means empty your powder measure between loading sessions, as it will etch the plastic hopper from a chemical reaction. That happened to me once. It seems that powder measures are not made for storing powder. Dillon and RCBS both told me the same thing.

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Edward429451

· #11 · Feb 20, 2003

Headspace of the 45ACP has always been a grey area for me. I've always been told that it headspaces on the case mouth, but thinking about it I wonder if it doesnt headspace on the extractor in a practical sense. If the case is too long, it wouldnt chamber fully and go into battary. If the case is a little on the short side, it would have to be held by the extractor, being unable to reach the headspace 'ring' in the chamber, correct?

Wasn't trying to say you was wrong, just putting down my thoughts according to my experiance. If you know more than I do, by all means enlighten me. I can learn!

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Edward429451

· #12 · Feb 20, 2003

Say what? Westerville? I'm from Columbus, born and raised pretty much. Howdy neighbor!

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Edward429451

· #14 · Feb 20, 2003

Is the trimmer used for hand gun brass or just for rifle? and as for the caliper, digital or dial?

Well, thats what were discussing. Dont know yet conclusively. I have never trimmed pistol brass, so think that its really only crucial for rifle brass, however, there may be more knowledegable people on board than I and I'm waiting to hear more thoughts on the subject so I can learn too.

As for the calipers I've used both digital and dial and prefer the dial because it does not need batteries and its what I'm used to. I also highly doubt that digital ones are any more accurate than dial types, even if they did add an extra digit.

I had problems with Dillons dial caliper and returned it. I've had no problems with the RCBS dial caliper.

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Edward429451

· #15 · Feb 20, 2003

what do you think about these auto primer mechanisms and are they applicable to a single stage press as opposed to a hand primer?

I used to just wash my hands alot and single feed the primers into the RCBS press (the oil from your skin can contaminate and deactivate the primers.) I finally got the RCBS auto primer feeder thing that bolt up to the press and dont know how I got along without it, its faster, cleaner and I like it alot.

If you wind up with the RCBS press mounted primer feeder, take note that you have 100 primers staring you in the face! Safety glasses are a must IMO, if one were to ever detonate (have heard of it happening), you would get sympathetic detonation of the whole tube right at your face. When seating primers you'll develop a sense of feel for when its seating right. Anything out of the ordinary in feel or sound means 'back off right now' and see whats up. Safety is paramount. Dont be in a hurry.

I've never used a hand primer but alot of people swear by them both the Lee and the RCBS so they are probably OK.

No such thing as a dumb question so dont hesitate to ask anything, its how we learn. HTH's

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Edward429451

· #17 · Mar 23, 2003

Speaking of trimming, what kind of trimmer to you use? I've got the Lee trimmer kit that chucks in a cordless drill and the cutter rod tip bottoms out on the shellholder (through flashhole) to give you your length.

So far I've got the .223 & .308 trimmers. The problem is neither kit trims to 'trim to length'. they come out shorter than max and uniform (which is probably the most important thing) but I keep wondering if the fancy adjustable kits are really better.

They cost alot more.
If its adjustable, can it easily fall out of adjusment destroying uniformity of batch?
Are they any faster? (Not from what I can tell, its still one at a time)
Are they worth it overall?

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