My ongoing pistol reloading journey

[Scrumbag]

Well my friends,

It’s Friday and I have been popping out to the garage to play about with reloading gizmo’s and such on my journey into reloading pistol cartridges for the first time.

I have for a long time had a Lee turret press but I have only used the turrets to change between calibres rather than for any progressive reloading.

However, this week given how slow I am at reloading “pistol” rounds vs the guys who do it regularly I thought I would automate the turret and see how I do. So, I have set up the 4 hole turret with my Lee 4 die 44 mag / 44 special pistol set

So, I have learnt a few things…

• I’m still not 100% sold on priming on the press and I think for my precision / hunting bottle neck rifle rounds I will still primer using a hand primer but I will persist as it might be just my lack of practice
• I think I’m going to buy a Lee auto drum powder dispenser.
• It would seem to be quicker rather than a scoop of powder for each charge (seems to take 2 hands)
• You are less likely to forget to charge your case as if you have to remember to
• Place primer on primer arm and seat
• Manually charge case
• Put bullet on top of case ready to seat
• (If I can cut of these steps seems I will be less likely mess-up something)
• If you drop a charge through your “charge-through” expander die without raising the ram all the way after priming, it is just a little messy…
• I still frickin’ hate handling Unique powder… I swear you look at that stuff and it leaves whatever vessel it is in for somewhere else (Also still not convinced I like how it throws / scoops for volumetric measures)
• I also learned that if you don’t do a full stroke, your load through expander can make any pistol bullet look like it was designed for a weird, big bore Nagant….
• I’m impressed with how clean the Federal 150 primers are vs the small and large Magtech rifle primers I use in bottle neck cartridges… (I wonder if this tells me something…)

So, despite the “learning process”, I did load 50+ rds of 44 special fairly quickly this afternoon and I think it bears working with more. (Unique and 240gr RNFP)

So, next plan of action is:

• Get Lee autodrum (Might pick up a Rifle Charging Die as well, I load a fair bit of .223 Rem with X-terminator and that does very consistent weights volumetrically)
• I’m going to experiment with priming by hand (using RCBS hand primer) and then resizing, expanding etc (For Lee Carbide pistol dies the pin isn’t needed for the case sizing so can set the decapping pin so it doesn’t decap on the up stroke).
• Order up some Hogdgon Universal (Apparently it meters well and is the single base, modern, Unique – which I like how it shoots, but hate how it handles…)

Please chime in with advice, wise cracks, anecdotes or anything else you feel.



Scrummy

 

[Choid]

No matter the progressive press, primer issues are going to cause 99.9% of problems. That's just the rules.

 

[Scrumbag]

No matter the progressive press, primer issues are going to cause 99.9% of problems. That's just the rules.

Thanks.

Good to know

 

[ShtrRdy]

I haven't used a turret press but I wonder if you would be better off doing one step on all the cases and then rotating the turret and doing the next step.

Loading pistol ammo is easier than rifle ammo from my experience.

 

[Scrumbag]

I haven't used a turret press but I wonder if you would be better off doing one step on all the cases and then rotating the turret and doing the next step.

Loading pistol ammo is easier than rifle ammo from my experience.

I do that with bottle necked rifle ammo. Do a batch then rotate turret 1 station and do that stage.

Scrummy

 

[sirhrmechanic]

Looks good! And yes, a powder measure is much better than a scoop.

I have used an RCBS lil dandy for pistol rounds for years. Very fast setup with pre-set powder drums. Not precision rifle stuff, but perfect for pistol.

And, of course, a bigger powder measure on stand.

Scoops have their places. But for speed, a rotary measure can’t be beat.

As for priming on press, once you get the hang of it, it works fine. But it’s all about prep. Chamfers out of primer pockets, primers in tubes right, clean (no stray powder or dirt grains) in the system.

But good job and nice looking example of your finished .44 special! A great cartridge and a good one to load for, esp with lead plinkers!

Sirhr

 

[Scrumbag]

Looks good! And yes, a powder measure is much better than a scoop.

I have used an RCBS lil dandy for pistol rounds for years. Very fast setup with pre-set powder drums. Not precision rifle stuff, but perfect for pistol.

And, of course, a bigger powder measure on stand.

Scoops have their places. But for speed, a rotary measure can’t be beat.

As for priming on press, once you get the hang of it, it works fine. But it’s all about prep. Chamfers out of primer pockets, primers in tubes right, clean (no stray powder or dirt grains) in the system.

But good job and nice looking example of your finished .44 special! A great cartridge and a good one to load for, esp with lead plinkers!

Sirhr

Thanks @sirhrmechanic

It's all a new experience for me. Bottle neck cartridges I load well enough for my purposes and fairly happy with my loading process but I have found it difficult to get consistency with "full house" hunting loads in a lever action.

I will order a Lee Auto drum when my usual supplier reopens after the weekend and experiment with that.

I really not a fan of scooping in charges into the top of the press though. Too many steps to get wrong I think.

I doubt I will ever get round to automating priming on the press. Just might persist with the Lee arm for a bit and see how it goes. For pistol ammo and with the decapping pin lifted you can I think so from primed brass in stock to loaded in on cycle of the press which appeals...

Scrummy

 

[sirhrmechanic]

So I have two Dillon SDB presses set up for .40 and .45. I rarely change them over.

And a 550 that I will sometimes change over. But most pistol rounds that are ‘other’ I load single stage. Just running in batch processes.

Things that speed me up a lot:

1: good loading blocks. A bunch of them. Many are just wood. But they work fine.

2: strip priming system in dedicated single stage press. Super fast to work with. You can buy APS strips with primers already in them. Or load up your own strips.

3. Lil dandy or RCBS 98840 powder measure in stand. Lee makes a good one too. Lil dandy works great with small pistol charges. Esp .38 wad cutters.

You can load a lot of pistol Rounds in a day single stage. If everything is staged.

The only thing I use scoops for is trickling powder into a scale pan. And that will change when my auto powder machine thingie I ordered is ready in a couple of months.

But you are off to a good start! Keep it up!

Sirhr

 

[Scrumbag]

So I have two Dillon SDB presses set up for .40 and .45. I rarely change them over.

And a 550 that I will sometimes change over. But most pistol rounds that are ‘other’ I load single stage. Just running in batch processes.

Things that speed me up a lot:

1: good loading blocks. A bunch of them. Many are just wood. But they work fine.

2: strip priming system in dedicated single stage press. Super fast to work with. You can buy APS strips with primers already in them. Or load up your own strips.

3. Lil dandy or RCBS 98840 powder measure in stand. Lee makes a good one too. Lil dandy works great with small pistol charges. Esp .38 wad cutters.

You can load a lot of pistol Rounds in a day single stage. If everything is staged.

The only thing I use scoops for is trickling powder into a scale pan. And that will change when my auto powder machine thingie I ordered is ready in a couple of months.

But you are off to a good start! Keep it up!

Sirhr

Blimey! Sounds serious (but fun) stuff.

By end of the week I hope to have the auto drum set up for use with pistol powders at least.

Keen to learn, hope I don't blow myself up...

 

[Dobbs02si]

I have a 30yr old SDB that has loaded thousands upon thousands of pistol rounds. My dad gave it to me so I sent dillon a few emails and they sent me everything to basically rebuild it, and it runs like it. I have 3 tool heads, each setup for one cartridge(9,38/357, and 45acp). I don't think there is any way I could go back to a turret after progressive.

Point of the story, IF I had to go back I would setup one station for auto dropping powder with the ram. Either an old style dillon with the spring or a hornady.

I handle every primer for my rifle loads on a couple lee classics so priming does bother me at all.

 

[Scrumbag]

Looks very nifty!