Reloading Equipment?

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greener

Reloading Equipment?

Post by greener » Sat Jan 06, 2007 7:23 am

During my holiday visit with the kids, my son showed me his reloading equipment. He just purchased a Lee Pro setup. Any pro's, con's advice on the Lee products or reloading in general.

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Post by Bullseye » Sat Jan 06, 2007 11:52 am

I've used a couple of Lee Pro 1000's for more than twenty years for loading pistol bullets without any real difficulty. They do require the operator to pay close attention while working.

I never let the powder hopper get below 1/2 full to keep the charge drops within 1/10th of a grain of my nominal value.

The primer feed trays work well but if the level gets below the tray and in the feed track I've experienced seating failures. As soon as the primer tray empties, I refill the tray before experiencing any misseats in the cases. It sucks to have a fully charged round with no primer in the case.

There's better set-ups, like the Dillons, but I can make a lot of top quality match reloads on my Lee's without any major problems.

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toyfj40
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Post by toyfj40 » Sat Jan 06, 2007 2:46 pm

I'm likely the newest-addition to "ReLoading" on this forum...
and have spent a few lunch-breaks with friends from the range
to discuss aspects of reloading... here are some points-to-ponder...

1. you're NOT going to save-$$$ by reloading.
anymore than you're going to save-$$$ by hunting your own dinner.
It's a hobby, plan to buy things that do not get used very much,
as you may have invisioned when you order/purchase them.

2. Brass-Handling is very time-consuming...
between firing a round and measuring the powder is a lot of handling,
to DeCap, Resize, clean, trim, prime...

3. Powder selection, measurement, dispensing can be tedious
and must be CONSISTENT !

4. cartridge and chamber measurement for consistency can be tedious.
the calipers, micrometers, OAL-gizmos, headspace... seemingly no end.

5. The FUN-PART is after the powder is dispensed and you're placing that
bullet on the neck and gently pressing it into position with your meticulously
adjusted Seating-Die... to hold the finished cartridge...

I initially wanted to work toward some precise .223(100yd) & .308(200yd)
loads specifically for my respective rifles to the point that I could determine
and notice some precise performance as a result of my "plan".
Not that my shots would be more 'accurate' than ole "So-n-So",
but that I had learned how to tweak my loads for my Stevens -vs- Tikka
and understood why they were different and how to load for each...

Then... 9mm, .380, .45, .38, .357 ... .30'06, .30-30 and .45/70 come along.
The Lee-Loader can do the basics ($15 per caliber)
but those (Forster)Bonanza Micrometer-Seating-Dies are waiting for my .223 & .308
shooting skills to grow-to-fit...

Do you want to tweak some loads for a .308 target rifle to reliably
shoot 1" 5-shot groups at 200yds ? then roll-up your sleeves and
start anywhere... there's a lot to learn and it'll take a while.
Do you want to do bulk-9mm-reloads for your handgun skills?
Then consider buying a good-basic 9mm ammo... your primer,
powder and bullet expense will likely be over half of your ReLoad
cost per bullet.

Code: Select all

 do the math...  9mm  Cheap Version at  Cabela's prices...
 (no taxes, shipping, travel, time or equipment considered )
 BerrysMfg.com  115gr Plated-RN         (250 for $10.00)  0.04ea
 CCI Small Pistol #500 Primers         (1000 for $20.00)  0.02ea
 Hodgdon HP-38, 7000gr in a pound       (1lb.for $20.00)  ~.02ea
       5gr per 9mm load
 Remington new 9mm Brass                (100 for $10.00)  0.10ea
 -or- assume 5x-ReUse for 0.02ea -or- Free-Range-Brass

 0.08ea for consumed items per round, with new Brass 0.18each
 a recent GunShow reLoaded-ammo price:  $24/200 or   0.12each
 using once-fired-Speer-brass, loaded like Win-White-Box ammo.
Sorry to get on my soap-box, just some "food for thought"...
ReLoading is an associated-hobby with my "guns".
Much like my 30+yr Astronomy Hobby... introduced me to a lot
of Camping-Gear and 4x4 (ie. Toy FJ40)... and carrying some
trail-gun just in case some critter was a threat...
and ... it's a small world... and all ties together when you get some
photos of the bullet-holes that are in the McDonald-Observatory
107" mirror
... enjoy your hobbies...

Image

Firearms are very common in Texas. Astronomer Brian Warner had his tongue only slightly in cheek when he remarked that "Jeff Davis County is about the size of Israel -- and slightly better armed." The prophecy inherent in the aphorism came to pass. The full precipitating causes may never be known, but one February night in 1970 a McDonald Observatory employee (not a Texan, but an Ohioan newly hired from another observatory!) suffered a breakdown and carried a pistol to the observing floor of the 107-inch telescope. He fired a shot at his supervisor, and then unloaded the rest of the clip into the primary mirror. Happily, fused silica is more resilent than ordinary glass, and the big mirror did not break. The craters have been bored out and painted black to reduce any light-scattering effect, and the end result is simply a slight reduction in the efficiency of the telescope. It is now the equivalent of a 106-inch telescope. the incident made the national television news, with Walter Cronkite describing it before a projection showing the wrong telescope upside down.

From pages 153-154 of "Big and Bright: A History of the McDonald Observatory"
by David S. Evans and J. Derral Mulholland, (c)1986
University of Texas Press -- ISBN: 0-292-70762-2

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Post by Ripsaw » Fri Feb 02, 2007 12:50 am

Great postings here.

I really like my Dillon. Built like a tank and loads quality ammo.
I cast and load my own bullets in .38, .45, and .30, and shoot a lot.
After tens of thousands of rounds in 16 years, my Dillon is unaffected by heavy use. I can't see any of the other progressives holding up to use like that. Then there's the Dillon warranty and customer service. Legendary.

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Post by copdills » Mon Mar 31, 2008 3:25 am

I have several different types of presses and reloading products , but if seems I always pick up my lee Dies first as I like the lee pro powder measure that sits on top of the powder die , it works great , I have loaded thousands of rds on the lee classic turret press , overall I like LEE products

greener

Post by greener » Mon Mar 31, 2008 3:56 am

Almost 4 months later, I'm pretty satisfied with the Lee for 9mm and .38. Works like a charm. The way the price of ammo has gone, Toyj40's economincs on 9mm are now wishful thinking.

My only problem is loading .45 ACP that will seat properly in my PT1911. They will fit a Kimber chamber but won't fit the Taurus. Trying to figure out if it is me, the press or the pistol.

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All Three

Post by DancesWithSquirrels » Mon Mar 31, 2008 7:56 am

Greener,

It is probably you, the press and the gun. :wink: Try playing around with the amount of crimp you are getting from your seating die. Some 45's are just tighter and since the 45 headspaces on the case mouth that is a critical dimension. Take your calipers and measure the case diameter at the mouth. I don't have numbers handy but you should be able to find a recommended outside diameter on the net somewhere.

Some people like to rely on the Lee factory crimp dies in dealing with this issue. They essentially resize the case again at crimp time.

I've got to question the reloading economics up above also. I have always been able to load pistol ammunition for half or less of the cost of WWB locally. I do agree that you are probably not going to save any money because you wind up shooting more. But individual boxes of ammunition are most definitely much cheaper by reloading especially the costlier stuff like 44 mag. I can reload that for a fraction of what factory ammo costs locally.

DWS

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Post by toyfj40 » Mon Mar 31, 2008 1:38 pm

my (archaic economics) summary was targeted to compete with
the basic-common-ammo, to show that it's not worth-it
"just to save money".

However, as ya'll know very well.
you can't buy that 'special load' tweaked for your hunting rifle
or your target rifle... or to get your competition ammo "just right".
In those cases, where you'd be comparing to a "Higher Priced/Premium Ammo",
or a non-marketed ammo... then ReLoading begins to make more
economic sense... besides it's just plain "fun".

I have a long postponed plan to get with the B-Scout leader
for Marksmanship-Merit-badges for his troop...
and I suggested that I prep/prime some brass and let them
(carefully) measure some powder and seat the bullet and
mark the brass as "theirs"... the *I* do the shooting...
but they get to see how it works... and the S.Mstr thought
they'd get all excited about that... so, as soon as school's out,
I may be trying to get some "shooting recruits" interested...
... hmmm, I wonder if they'd like me to lecture on the
economics of reloading, too... :roll:

-- toy

greener

Post by greener » Mon Mar 31, 2008 8:55 pm

DWS: Moi? Can't be, so it must be the press, ammo, gun, wrong astrology but certainly not me. :lol: I've been through the OAL, seating die and crimping die. Also, tried different bullets. I have a feeling, I have a tight chamber. The more I worked on it the more frustrated I got and less progress I've made. Decided to put it down for a while, come back and completely start over. I bought a separate carrier and turret for each caliber so I'd have easier changes. Sometime in the near future, I'm going to put the .45 set back into individual components and start over. Somewhere along the line, I'll probably have one of those forehead slaps followed by "you dummy."

I think I'm around $6/50 for 9mm reloading, so it's about break-even or just a little ahead of what I can buy the lower priced ammo. I'm well ahead of the price curve on .38. Besides, I've enjoyed putting the things together.

Toy, good work with the Scouts. I didn't look at the merit badge requirements or Scouting's push make it absolutely safe. I know toward the end of my 10 years as a Scoutmaster they were getting real picky about letting the kids on the rope bridge they built for pioneering mb. Looks like they ought to be able to shoot one of their reloads.

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Back when

Post by Yleefox » Mon Mar 31, 2008 11:39 pm

Back when I first started reloading (25 years or so ago), I did it for the cost savings. Still do, but it was actually my younger brother who got me started. He had come to town to visit for a few days and asked if I wanted to go to the range. I told him I needed to stop by and buy a box of .44 magnums. Cost .50 each. He said, "you don't reload?" When I replied that I did not. He asked why. My answer to that was, I didn't have the equipment nor the know how. He came by my apartment later that day with a single stage press and we clamped it on my dining room table (no wife) and he proceeded to introduce me to handloading the .44 magnum. Now admittedly, he used lead bullets he had cast himself, but the average cost of those rounds..... two and a half cents each. That's .47 and a half cent per round cheaper than the loaded ammo I had been buying. When he left to go home, he gave me that press and the dies. I still use that press for bottle neck cases, but .45acp and 9mm gets loaded on a Dillon. I usually load lead in those two and while I don't save a great deal on the 9mm over WWB, I do save considerably on .45acp.

Just my .02
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Economics

Post by DancesWithSquirrels » Tue Apr 01, 2008 7:56 am

That $6 per box for 9MM is about what I calculated for my reloads. I don't know where you are getting factory ammo anywhere near that cheap. Locally the cheapest 9MM runs from about $11 to $13 per box so I figure that is still a pretty good savings. For 45 ACP the percentage saved is even better. I am assuming of course that brass is already on hand. The savings get even more dramatic if for stuff like 44 magnum. Locally 44 magnum and 44 special runs well over $30 per box. I can reload them for about $7 per box for lead and stay under $8 per box for jacketed.

On a cost per box of ammo basis I see a pretty huge savings. The problem (if you want to call it that) is that I definitely shoot a lot more so in the end I guess I am not saving money. I've shot over 3000 rounds of 9MM and 45 ACP since the first of the year. At an average savings of $6 per box of those two alone I've paid for my Hornady LNL press.

DWS

greener

Post by greener » Tue Apr 01, 2008 8:45 pm

Yeah, with the price of ammo jumping like it has been, even 9mm starts becoming worthwhile to reload. Besides it is fun.

Just picked up a Ruger P90. Tried some of my .45 reloads that didn't fit the Taurus. Chambered in the Ruger with no problem. Now to figure out what I'm doing so I can make one reload for both .45's.

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