First reload and got questions

[Dmaxboy08]

hey guys...i know i have been asking alot of questions regarding loading but i just want to make i do this right the first time. i got my brass in tonight and i got started. Im starting out with Hornady 185 jacketed HP, 4.0g of 700x powder, in remington brass. the manual says the OAL should be 1.175. everything went smooth but when i measured the OAL each round kept coming up different. I figured it was because the brass was not all the same length even tho it hasnt been fired. my lowest depth was been 1.173 and i have set those aside. from yalls experience how should I deal with this situation? I ended up just reseting the die for each new round. any suggestions or info? thanks guys

 

[watergun1929]

Reloading

Dmax, not to worry! All bullets are not the same length. When I reload I get the first one right and don't worry about the others. They may be from 1 to 3 thousands off but will shoot the same as the first one. That's advice from 60 years of reloading.

 

[venomballistics]

a little walking of your OAL isnt all that bad .. those 45 autos (I am assuming) will shorten up a bit more when the slide smokes em up the ramp.
I have a feeling that you might benefit from backing off the crimp die, just use it to seat at depth on the first pass. then back the seating punch off and give em the squeeze.
that way your crimp and seat actions don't get a chance to argue

 

[Dmaxboy08]

thanks guys. i wont worry as much now. venom i dont think i fully understand what you mean...im using a 4 piece die set. so are you saying i i should back off on my crimp and just let the seating die seat the bullet then let it go?

 

[Vulcan Bob]

Hi there, you say you have a four die set, I assume your forth die is a taper crimp die, so you are seating and crimping in seperate operations and this helps as some dies seat and crimp at the same time and this sometimes does not work as well as doing it seperately. If you have a dial caliper set your taper crimp at .469", measured at mouth of the case. Just back off the taper crimp and crimp and check untill you get a .469 measurement. Keep in mind as different cases can have different thickness of brass so your setting may differ from case brand to case brand but personaly I just leave the setting alone and crimp. Hope this helps!

 

[rburg]

Well, if it was up to me (and its not), I'd suggest the OP start out by telling all us dummies what caliber he's planning on loading. It'd just kind of put us all on even ground!

OK, I figure, but with no real reason, he's loading .45 ACPs. Not that it makes much difference.

First thing you do is buy yourself a case trimmer. Like a small, had operated lathe. Then carefully set the length and run all your brass through it. It would mean you'll start with a common point. Of course the OAL doesn't care, its determined by the base of the shell holder to the bullet seating die. But it's messy to have them sitting at different levels. Especially if you've got a cannelure.

 

[rsegars]

Reloading is like riding motorcycles. So long as you have a healthy fear of either you are probably going to be ok. The minute you feel you know it all you are likely to pick up some 'pavement rash' or make a real mistake. It is only a problem if you do not catch it. For me reloading is fun but it is 'jealous mistress' and demands constant attention.

 

[OKFC05]

Beginners obsess about OAL, but as long as you don't do something like cram the bullet into the rifling or shorten the OAL dramatically, the minor variations are irrelevant.
When you can spot shorter loads by eyeball, you've got a problem. Usually the problem is you have been loading lubed bullets and your seating die is packed with lube, and needs to be cleaned.

 

[venomballistics]

thanks guys. i wont worry as much now. venom i dont think i fully understand what you mean...im using a 4 piece die set. so are you saying i i should back off on my crimp and just let the seating die seat the bullet then let it go?

you seat the bullet ensuring that the die cannot apply a crimp that way the case mouth cant interfere with seating. Then you crimp in a separate step.
in three die sets the third die does both seat and crimp operations and sometimes those operations just dont get along with eachother. a four die set like what you have is exactly the same as a three die set where the third die can cause the same issues. the fourth die just crimps which allows you to back off the body of the third die and use it expressly for seating without having to fidget with adjustments.

 

[Dmaxboy08]

alright thanks. you guys are very helpful. but...i think i ran into a problem. but first, i am reloading .45acps. sorry i didnt include that in the first post! but i shot a few of these rounds tonight and when i looked at the brass, most of them are showing dark burning color going down the side of the case. Im a tech for a chrylser dealership and to me im calling it "blow-by" lol. What is going on with this tho?
Second, when i use the 4th die, when i look at the case there is a very shiny and very thin line at the mouth of the case. Now i know this is the crimp, but how far should that crimp come down? Thanks for putting up with my questions, i just want to do this right and not hurt me or the weapon

 

[Smithhound]

The 'shiney' line you see at the case mouth is the start of the taper crimp. A good investment is a case gauge, a small round piece of steel that mimics the chamber of a .45 (you can get them in other calibers) drop a factory round into it and you will see it bottom out flush with the top of the gauge. Now you have a standard to judge your crimp by, start adjusting your taper crimp on a round, drop it into the gauge, if it goes in with a bit of crimp that's great, if not adjust your crimp die down a bit and repeat untill it drops in, and drops out, like a factory round. Now you have a proper taper crimp. Midway carries these they are not expensive and a good tool to have.
Lacking a gauge you can remove the barrel from your pistol (assuming you are shooting a SA) and do the same thing.
Also use a caliper to check the diameter of your expander die below where it starts to expand, that diameter should run .003-.004 of an inch less than the bullet diameter, this insures a good friction fit or what is called 'case tension' that helps in holding the bullet in place under cycling and pressure build up upon firing.
Hope this helps.
RD

 

[venomballistics]

your "blow by" comes at either end of the pressure spectrum .. at low pressures the case can't fully seal. step things up a hair and it cleans up till your at the other end of the scale where the seal cant hold the pressure.
fire a few mags worth of factory ammo, preferably some high end stuff and compare those primers to your own. as long as yours are less than or equally flattened your probably fine

 

[NicholasDM]

Reloading is like riding motorcycles. So long as you have a healthy fear of either you are probably going to be ok. The minute you feel you know it all you are likely to pick up some 'pavement rash' or make a real mistake. It is only a problem if you do not catch it. For me reloading is fun but it is 'jealous mistress' and demands constant attention.

As a fellow rider, I approve of your analogy!

And I totally agree with it.

 

[NicholasDM]

alright thanks. you guys are very helpful. but...i think i ran into a problem. but first, i am reloading .45acps. sorry i didnt include that in the first post! but i shot a few of these rounds tonight and when i looked at the brass, most of them are showing dark burning color going down the side of the case. Im a tech for a chrylser dealership and to me im calling it "blow-by" lol. What is going on with this tho?

Hey there! I will preface anything I say with a firm note of I'm a fairly new reloader as well, having only reloaded 500-600 9mm rounds so far, and I've been very conservative with my powder charges thus far, staying a decent ways away from max loads.

It seems to me that the lighter the load, the more of the sooty black discharge you get down the side of the case starting at the mouth (as opposed to blowing around the primer, which I've heard can also happen from light loads). No explanation as to why the discharge is shaped the way it is or is in the place that it is.

I loaded 100 rounds that ended up being too light to cycle the action fully in my Sigma 9ve and they were very dirty. Good for single-shot trigger control practice, not much else. But when I loaded up a couple of middle-of-the-road charges that ended up being compressed a little bit after seating, they burned much cleaner and that smear of black down the side of the case was fairly minimized. Those were some really nice loads, too.

Have fun and be safe!

 

[Dmaxboy08]

the min. load for this round that i have been reloading from the lyman manual is 3.5 and i have been charging them to 4.0

 

[61woody]

I'll throw my .02$ in on the crimp issue, I have never loaded .45acp but 1000s of 9s and 40s and when using a separate crimp I only crimp enough to flatten out the bell you have to put on the case to seat the bullet and I have never had an issue with the bullet moving back into the case.
you list 3.5 gr as a starting point but what is the max for that load? If you are just plinking load only enough powder to avoid(or only have a very small amount) carbon buildup on the outside of the case. You should get to that point well below the max and still have enough oomph to cycle the slide reliably.