If you have mastered necked rifle case then reloading straight wall pistol cases, with carbide resizing dies (no case lube needed), will be a walk in the park.
To Re-Load or Not???
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If you have mastered necked rifle case then reloading straight wall pistol cases, with carbide resizing dies (no case lube needed), will be a walk in the park.
zip777
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I'm glad you guys are here because if you read the lee "instructions" I'd never get it done. I realize they are generalized because the press does pistol and rifle cartridges but they make the process seem like getting a beer from the fridge is tougher. lol
I hope so. I have my son help me. He is 13 and likes doing it. I told him that he was going to reload for his new 308. I told him that I would watch but he was going to do it all. I told him that I wasn't going to be around forever to help him out. I told him that he needs to start figuring things out and only relying on himself. I watched him and checked everything but he did all the loading. He adjusted the dies and everything. I was really proud of him. He loaded nosler 165 gr ballistic tip with varget powder and cci primers.
zip777
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I have just started reloading my .40 S & W and even the .300 is easy after the 5.56 I am glad I started with this cal first
Grover told me that as well. I'll get it...I'm just slow. Not a real mechanical kinda guy. It takes me a long time to visually "see" a process but once I understand it I'm good to go.
I have reloaded for 223,243,260,270,30-06 and helped my son with his 308. I have the dies for 7 mag,300 win mag,338 win mag, 6.5x55,9mm and 38 sp. I think the 223 has been hardest so far. Ido prefer the boattail bullets over the flat base. I chamfer most of my cases. I have loaded 223 without the chamfering tho. I just reloaded 1750 bullets, with 1000 being once fired and primed cases, using varget and 55 gr hornady vmax bullets. I have another 1000 ready to load with 55 gr hollowpoint midway dogtown bullets. I also have 2000 hornady zmax 40grn bullets. I am on the fence about loading these. The bullet are bringing some money so I am on hold with them.
I've been reading that it's recommended to anneal the cases before resizing. But the 300 cases I annealed had already been sized (which is how I found the cracked necks). Not looking forward to resizing them all over again I decided to seat a bullet and check the neck tension.
All is good. The bullet passed the push test (pushing the bullet against the bench top to see that it doesn't push back into the case). And also took five solid whacks in the kinetic bullet puller to dislodge.
Now if only Grafs can get caught up with their shipping soon so I get my Hornady neck sizing die.
All is good. The bullet passed the push test (pushing the bullet against the bench top to see that it doesn't push back into the case). And also took five solid whacks in the kinetic bullet puller to dislodge.
Now if only Grafs can get caught up with their shipping soon so I get my Hornady neck sizing die.
zip777
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How the heck did you guys figure that out?! It seems WAY different than the basic instruction I've seen. I'm assuming this process still applies when your goal is to crimp inside the cannelure - assuming they are in tolerance on the set of bullets you are loading....
...and when you say several turns on the die and plug do you mean full turns? I'm assuming so but thought I'd ask.
Yes. The objective is to back the die out far enough that it has no chance of making contact with the case.
As for crimping, the only rounds I crimp are magnum pistol reloads. But you can adjust the crimp amount by screwing the die down 1/8 turn at a time until you reach the amount of crimp you want. You do need to be careful as you can apply too much crimp which will end up deforming the case neck and lessening neck tension.
Just be sure to back off the seating plug when you're adjusting the die body so you don't change the COAL. You can reset it once you have the die body locked down again.
Don't sweat the learning process. Just be careful so you don't end up bending two decapping rods (not the pins, the actual rods,
) ) like I did when I first started relaoding .223. also your bullet seating die will have to be re adjusted when you load different types of bullets. I make a dummy round of each of the different bullets I load. Then when I change bullet types I put the dummy round for that particular bullet in the press and run the ram up and adjust the seater plug accordingly.
As far as primer seating, I use the old style RCBS hand primer and have never had an issue of any kind. I have used both CCI # 400 and # 41 primers.
As far as primer seating, I use the old style RCBS hand primer and have never had an issue of any kind. I have used both CCI # 400 and # 41 primers.
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got a question. im trying to get around buying a different manual for every brand of bullet. most data can be found online. but im looking for 223 data for barnes ttsx 50 gr bullets however i can only find data for 53 gr ttsx bullets or other 50gr bullets. can i use that data, or does it have to be specifically to that bullet head
Yes, you can use data for similar weight bullets. Just start off low and work your way up towards the listed max powder charge.
The Barnes web site does list some reload data for the TSX and MRX bullets, which the page says to use for the TTSX...
Load Data - Shoot Smart, Shoot Safe | Barnes Bullets
OK valuable lesson learned. The hand press is handy for a lot of things. I use it maybe more than I should. When it comes to resizing slightly oversized brass use the bench press. I went ahead and cleaned out my dies to try hornady one shot on the brass that has been giving me fits. Using the bench press, I can push the brass right up into the die way easier, then the resized case just comes right out. So learn from my mistake the hand press is not always the way to size centerfire rifle cartridges.
p.s. I learned this after I sent a couple of handfulls to Bill...LOL
p.s. I learned this after I sent a couple of handfulls to Bill...LOL
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OK valuable lesson learned. The hand press is handy for a lot of things. I use it maybe more than I should. When it comes to resizing slightly oversized brass use the bench press. I went ahead and cleaned out my dies to try hornady one shot on the brass that has been giving me fits. Using the bench press, I can push the brass right up into the die way easier, then the resized case just comes right out. So learn from my mistake the hand press is not always the way to size centerfire rifle cartridges.
p.s. I learned this after I sent a couple of handfulls to Bill...LOL
Now if I only had a Lee hand press to try out with these...
zip777
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Now if I only had a Lee hand press to try out with these...
HA!! Nice Bill.
zip777
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The funny thing is that just this morning I ordered a Lee Classic Cast press off of ebay...which is the same bench press that Grover has rediscovered.
I'm learning on the Lee challenger. Aptly named for me.
lol
