What are the changes (products or processes) that have changed your reloading life? I learned how to reload from YouTube and the Lyman 50th. However, I've picked up a few things on my own and wanted to see what others found life changing.

Experience has taught me so far:

1. Ball powders - for whatever reason flake powders (Unique) + my rhythm on the powder measure + my Lyman 55 = +/- .2 grains from my target weight - too much spread for me to feel comfortable with. Switched to ball powders (True Blue, W231, W296) and bingo, dial it in, set it and go until I see the baffle.

2. The item that gave me the idea for this thread - the Lee case gauge trimming system with the adapter for a cordless drill for rifle cartridges. I was flying through the brass tonight and finding a spread of about 0.005 inches on the length of cases that were getting trimmed, and I put more of the blame there on the Harbor Freight digital caliper than the case gauge.

3. Hand priming - I was getting really frustrated when I started reloading with the Lyman T-Mag 2's on press priming system. Switched to the Franklin Arsenal hand primer and have never looked back.

Please share the tips that you want to hop into the time machine to share with yourself about reloading. (Other than buy primers by the truckload in late 2018).

When you can buy powder again try Accurate #5 or Win Autocomp. They are even finer and easy to control.

-3.-I prime [handgun ammo] on my Lyman T2 presses but their system needed some tinkering. I still use the old lee auto prime to prime my rifle ammo.

My TIP....would be to mount a Dillon 550 [or 450 manual] powder measure on your turret press, they are very accurate and work great. Speeds up the process a bunch especially the 550 measure. Here are mine.

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Good idea for a thread Dhaka, this could end up costing me money though.

My best & most recent improvement was when I switched to a LED strip light over my press! I use a Dillon 550 the most, and had added a small LED flashlight type bulb to the center of the press, (right between all of the dies), a couple of years ago.

That was a big improvement that I wish I'd done 25 years ago. But switching my overhead fluorescent tube lighting to LEDs, was......... enlightening!

Another small item I added for spot checking powder drops, was a Hornady digital scale. The Dillon beam scale is exceptional, and still my main and most trustworthy scale when I set up a new caliber. But having a small fast readout is mighty handy from time to time.

I'm thinking my next upgrade may be a Dillon Super Swage. Twisting a hand swage tool get the ole arthritis to throbing in my hands.

There's always something else to speed up or improve our hobby coming along, so I'm anxious to hear what others have found to make the process smoother.

Collet bullet puller .....

Actually a bit more mundane, but using lead bullets rather than copper jacketed and the many makers out there that produce a great product. Bear Creek, Penn Bullets, Missouri and such. Shooting spire point bullets out of a single shot or bolt action 45/70 or 246 grain out of a 455 Eley is such fun.

I'm with you on the hand primer. I use the RCBS hand primer and will NEVER go back to doing it on a press.

I was doing all my casting with a Lee pot and a hand dipper with 2 cavity molds. I finally got a Lyman Mag 25 bottom pour pot, and just got my first six cavity mold. Holy cow! Why didn't I do that sooner. Now I can crank out better bullets, way faster, and way easier. Worth it on both accounts.

I size all my bullets with the Lee sizers. You center the bullet on the plunger post and push the bullet up through the press where they collect in the red upside down plastic cup. I finally just mounted that Lee press upside down and drop them in and run the bullet down through the sizer where they drop into a bin. Way better system. Also seats gas checks perfectly while sizing.


I was wandering through Goodwill and stumbled on a cast iron cornbread pan for $8.00. Thought it might make a good ingot mold. I discovered that it is way better than the ones sold by Lyman or Lee. Each ingot weighs about 2#, and they are perfect for lowering into a pot of molten lead. and you get 8 from one pan.

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What could possibly go wrong?

Pictures of your lights?

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What could possibly go wrong?

Whoa, there have been many over the years I’ve been doing this.

The one that has certainly made the largest difference by far, no question, was when I bought a used Lee Pro-1000 with the idea of making a “brass prep machine” and creating my own hybrid semi-progressive method.

I would have loved a Dillon 650 but with a dozen and a half calibers, it was a fantasy to outfit one to cover them -AND- give me the capability to fast change. The Lee was certainly affordable but I did not trust the Lee’s handling of powder and I also wanted to seat and crimp my rounds on my single stage.

So I turned the Pro-1000 in to a machine that would deprime, size, reprime, and flare case mouths. Not only would it do these jobs quickly, it also allowed me to drop brass rather than slide in to a shell holder and it auto ejected so I handled brass far easier and much faster.

It wasn’t long before I began producing over 10k a year using this system, and I’m still doing all these calibers on a total budget that probably wouldn’t cost as much as a single full caliber conversion for a Dillon 650.

At the bench of two different friends I have worked with the Dillon and it is a fantastic machine. But I’m still using my method across more different calibers than I care to list. Been doing things with my hybrid system since maybe 2008 or so.

I still have a Lyman EZ-Loader on my bench along with a Tru-Line Jr. I learned on these 2 presses 50 years ago when carbide sizing dies were just becoming available for straight walled pistol cases. They were very expensive for a 12 year old kid but I used to shovel snow in the winter and mow lawns in the summer for spending money. Needless to say.......most of my money went into handloading/bullet casting equipment.

After changing over to wet tumbling (without pins) the cases are dryer than dry tumbling. So now I lightly mist the tub of pistol cases with lube (Dillon) and the 550 and 1050 are much smoother in sizing operation.

The KMS led lighting strip for the 550 is so much better than the single Skylight as well. I use the Starlight for the 1050. The lighting is definitely worth it.

For the Mr. Bullet feeder on the 1050 I have the speed dialed way down and this got rid of the occasional upside down bullet.

Added the JW systems extended primer plate with ball bearing to the 550, this works fantastic. No more primer plate issues.

Added two zip ties to the 1050, smooths the cartridge transition and keeps the bullet from tipping between drop and seating.

Added the roller handle early on to the 550, makes the palm of your hand happy.

Added a bushing to the Hornady Lock-N-Load auto powder measure to help with large grain powder drop accuracy. The straw mod works well too. Can't find the source anymore for the bushing I bought.

Been reloading since 1967. Nothing has changed for me. I`m an old buck set in my ways Lol

Lee Hand Press. Great for doing all the handgun case prep while relaxing in a recliner.

I use Unique for 44 Special and 44 Magnum loads, and it does not meter very well. So finally a few years ago I discovered powder tricklers - golly !

I usually set my powder measure to throw a bit low, and then trickle the final exact amount into my pan.

For progressive loaders with a case feed hopper. I have a clip on mirror ($2.99) so I can see the level of cases inside without using a step stool! I bought the mirror in a bicycling department for a rear view mirror to clip on my helmet, this kind of usage works much better.

Primer pick-up tubes have a hole about 3/4" from the exit end. I use cotter pins to keep from spilling primers. I also have 10 of each size. I fill all 10 then load until all gone. Then it is time to visit the bathroom, get a drink say hi to the wife, and then disappear for the next 1000 primers (about 2 hours).

Dillon sells a low primer alarm, so they don't like my version. Take a wire coat hanger and cut one end to look like a "J", and as long as possible on the other. The straight end will ride the primers down the magazine tube. You want it long enough to fall into the primer cup after the last primer is used. That will lock the primer bar and give you a visual sign that you are empty. The "J" lets you hang is out of the way when refill the primer magazine. I use no extra weight, a friend used a 2 ounce weight to force the primers downward. In well over a quarter million rounds loaded, I've has no detonation problems. In my friends commercial press, he had one detonation in 63 million rounds! That was at the primer feed bar, The only damage was a chain reaction of the primers, that requires a new wire rod, and a new set of underware! The primer feed tube has a outer pipe that shields the operator from any debris. BTW, my primer Magazine tube will hold 115 primers, so I can refill before running out!

In an old Highball glass (3 to 4 inches tall) I keep some tooth brushes, and some plumbers flux brushes, a couple screw drivers and large (4") tweezers, one straight and one angled. These go a long way to correct the little "oops" that happen. Like a runaway primer or a case that fell over, or powder that came out an unprimed flash hole!

A bullet tray at shell plate level is a must for any progressive loader. Dillon's is fantastic and holds about 500 45 bullets. But they are kind of expensive! I built one out of a (clean!) plastic salad bowl, on an arm to get it off the bench top and up to where it is needed, cost less than $3, held 700 45 bullets.

Depending on how and which brand of Mount your press is on, a 50 caliber ammo can won't fit close to your finished bullet shute. I have one of the Acro bins that has half the bottom cut out so the finished ammo just slides into the ammo can!

Ivan

For me the constant fighting with the large temperature swings of the thermostats of the Lyman and Lee lead pots was a major annoyance. Then I heard about PID controllers.

Home built dual PID controller for my pots.






KO

Dillon progressive loaders for all my high volume calibers!

When batch loading (on a single stage press or turret) I find proper sized loading blocks are very important, especially at the end of the powder charging phase when I can pot the block in good light and check powder level in all the cases “one more time” before moving on to adding the bullets.

I’m big on had priming tools and can’t remember the last time I used a press (other than a progressive) to prime a case.

Powder measures with fixed size rotors are great for pistol cartridges. Once you find the proper rotor, it never goes out of adjustment.

There are others, but most I’ve used so long I do them without thinking about them.

Froggie

After using hand primers for years I bought a Lee Auto Prime. Press mounted it works awesomely well. I even bought some spare plastic parts just in case it ever breaks and they discontinued it.

After using several different powder measures over the years I switched to a Lee Auto Disc Pro with the accessory brass digital controller. It works automatically as the case is flared. The calibration curve of the digital controller shows a 99.9% confidence factor.

Both the above items have been in use by me for 20 years or so.

Here’s some things I’ve done that have made loading easier and more comfortable. Some already mentioned by others:

1. Depriming with a Lee APP. I can easily deprime 500+ an hour after setting it up. Has a neat little bottle to catch all the spent primers. I never liked on-press depriming and this thing is the greatest contraption since the bread slicer for me.

2. Priming with an RCBS universal hand primer for larger cases and an RCBS hand primer with shell holder for the .32’s. On press priming lasted all of maybe 500 rounds before I realized how much it sucked and started using one of the older Lee hand primers. That lasted several thousand rounds, then broke. I first tried a newer Lee, but that sucked. Went to RCBS and never looked back.

3. Wet tumbling. Didn’t take me long to realize I wasn’t happy with the results of dry tumbling in media and all the dust. I like shiny brass and I like clean primer pockets.

4. When I went to a Dillon 550, I realized the primer tube assembly only got in my way since I do all my priming with a hand primer. I found a manual primer system, that since I don’t prime on the machine anyway, did away with the whole primer tube assembly. Makes the press look so much cleaner too.

5. KMS UFO lights. A really great addition to the press. Cheaper than the Dillon Skylight I wasted my money on and it frees up the center hole for #6.

6. Wi-Fi borescope camera. I’ve got my 550 mounted on the Dillon strong mount so I can sit in my comfy workbench chair with back support. The problem was I couldn’t see down into the cases at station 3 before I seated a bullet, especially the tall skinny cases like .327 or little bottlenecks like .22TCM. I mounted a borescope in the center hole that syncs to my ipad for a clear birdseye view of the powder charge.

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USS Brewton FF1086
SWCA#3597

Here's my light set up for the press & above. The small LED flashlight bulb was soldered to an old AC adapter I had laying around, then pushed into a clear tube to hold it in place. The overhead is a 48" LED from Rural King.

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I like a lot of light! I picked up 4 of the harbor freight 5000 lumen LED shop lights on sale for $20 each and a smart Wi-Fi power strip to control them. Turn them on and off all at once or individually with a smart phone app. You can put them on a timer to go off or countdown to turn on. I still have two outlets left, so soon as the shop lights go on sale again, I’m picking up two more. They are really bright, cost about as much as a new fluorescent ballast, and really easy to hang because they are so light.

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USS Brewton FF1086
SWCA#3597

Wish I was smart enough to take advantage of my "smart phone" and all of it capabilities. I can answer it, change the ringtone and take pictures, but if I don't do it every couple of days, it slips away......

That is a nice rig you got going on there. I'm afraid that I'd forget how to turn my lights on one day. Then it's back to the Coleman lantern.

I started reloading with an RCBS Rock Chucker that was handed down and an RCBS bean scale. Everything really changed for the better when I bought my first Dillon Square Deal B and electronic scale. I still use the Rock Chucker but rarely.

I’ll add another thing. Not too long ago I discovered “as cast” boolits. I can get them for an average of 8 to 10 cents each in bulk, shipped. I then size them and powder coat with a setup I got at harbor freight. A little labor intensive, but way cheaper than the 20 cents plus I’m starting to see for run of the mill plated boolits.

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USS Brewton FF1086
SWCA#3597

Biggest thing for me was switching from a Redding single stage to a turret press. I mounted my powder measure in the turret head and I can load a case start to finish without removing it. This saved a ton of time loading pistol rounds.

The next was switching from a beam scale to a gempro 250 digital scale.

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-Matt

I started with an RCBS rock chucker in 1974 with RCBS dies and powder throwers but then i switched to Redding products. I struggled with the the amount of force the rock chucker required when I was resizing .308, .45 colt, .38 special .357 magnum, .223 rem and 30-06. With the increased torque of the Redding Ultramag, this is NO problem at all. Also the Redding bench rest powder throwers are so accurate that I have one set up for pistols and one set up for rifles. They are easier to work with than the RCBS powder throwers. But I guess the biggest improvement in my reloading life was buying a digital scale. What a difference!

We all occasionally make mistakes. And most of us have a kinetic bullet puller to correct them. But ain't it a hassle to get the cartridge in and out of those funky collets with a o-ring around them? Instead simply use the shell holder from your die set. Cartridges slide in and out quick and easy, plus it fits perfectly in the hammer type puller. Works like a charm.