Increasing Reloading Speed

[cds43016]

My take on mechl powder check. Yes they work, but they can, like any piece of gear, break or fail. I like them for rifle, where i cant see the charge easily, like 223. I dont worry about it for pistol because i look inside & rarely use anything like TG or BE in larger cases. If i shot a lot of such powders, then a pc die would be important & you might want 5stns.

I use 231 for my 357, TightGroup for the 327 and Bullseye for the 32 S&W Long. The charges are light and don’t take up much of the case. But the loads are nice and mild and very accurate.

I use the powder check die but like you I don’t trust a mechanical device fully. They sometimes fail. One of my powder measures when I first got it worked well and suddenly it started to throw wild charges and then none. A part broken off internally within the measure after many hundreds of accurate charges. The powder checker die caught it immediately. It works well and I can detect generally small variations in the charges. However, I still take a quick look with the swiveling mirror. All the talk about primers in this tread is a trivial matter to a squib or an overcharge.

I’ve attached a few pictures of my press with a 357 case in the shell holder. I just can’t get the angle to see inside the case without a swiveling mirror. I have plenty of light, I have a light strip and a book light. Even with all that light because of the dusting charges I use, it’s still hard to judge a double charge with just a just a quick glance. A squib yes, a triple probably but anything close to a double just maybe. Maybe isn’t good enough. I may with the right press go back to priming on the press, if it is reliable and trouble free, but I will never give up being absolutely. positively sure the charge is right.

On my last batch of 357 loads I did not clean the primer pockets. It didn’t save a lot of time but it did save some. I’ll watch the pockets to see how dirty they get after several loadings and if accuracy is affected. I don’t think that either will be a problem. Cleaning the primer pockets is more of a OCD thing than a performance or quality issue.

Old dogs can learn new tricks.

 

[cds43016]

I use the Hornady L-N-L; I can do about 300/hour (including filling primer tubes), visually checking every single round for powder presence (in 9mm I also use a lockout die).
Priming on the LnL is actually one of its strong points, as they don't overflow (it only picks a primer if the previous one was inserted in the case). Mount it on a solid table and you'll have very, very few issues with primers.

I shoot around 1000-2000 rounds / month and the LnL fits me fine. If I were to be a high volume shooter, I'd probably change over to the 650 or 1050, but I don't need it and my LnL has paid itself about 3 years ago.

Btw, I strongly recommend getting te Hornady led strip, it's super awesome for visually inspecting the cases: Amazon.com : Hornady Lock N Load Light Strip : Hunting And Shooting Equipment : Sports & Outdoors

You are where I want to be, the Goldilocks zone. Reliable priming (which frankly on the equipment I’ve use to date hasn’t been that trouble free) a reasonably fast load rate and time for a double check of powder.

9mm is a short case. Do you think I would have problems with the 357 and my light charges seeing the powder charge in the case?

 

[fredj338]

You are where I want to be, the Goldilocks zone. Reliable priming (which frankly on the equipment I’ve use to date hasn’t been that trouble free) a reasonably fast load rate and time for a double check of powder.

9mm is a short case. Do you think I would have problems with the 357 and my light charges seeing the powder charge in the case?

Depends on the charge wt & color of the powder. I really don't like loading low volume/loft powder like TG or BE. They are also black in color, making them even harder to see inside a case.
When I need light loads in big cases I look for bulky fast powders like RedDot, WST or RS Comp. Lighter in color & 1.5x the volume per charge wt. When I was shooting CAS I shot many #s of RD in my 45colt. But for the cost, I also like TrailBoss in light loads in big revolver cases. Anything that helps me put together a safe accurate load works for me. Even if it cost 1/2c more per round.

 

[carpriver]

I have been using a Lee classic turret press, I load for 8 pistols and 3 rifles, I do everything on the press, deprime, resize, prime drop powder, set bullet and crimp. I can load 100 rounds in about 50 minutes.