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AndyC wrote:You do know, of course, that you won't be saving money - you'll just be able to shoot a lot more

SHHH! Don't let my wife hear that!

quoheleth wrote:Before you load up a batch, did you test one or two to make sure they chamber? That OAL in a 1911 shouldn't be a problem, but double-checking now saves a lot of headache later.

Welcome to the world of reloading!

Q

Yeah, I dropped one in 10 or so in the chamber. Dropped right in, slipped right out, nice and easy. Once I get this FMJ thing figured out, I'll likely switch over to cast to save even more money.

MoJo wrote:A slight chamfer on the mouth of the case will help prevent the crushed case syndrome too. Just cut enough metal from the case mouth to break the sharp inside edge. I bell my cases just enough to set the bullet about 1/16-1/8" into the case be careful not to over bell. My experience with Lee discs is they throw light. Get the adjustable powder bar it is great!

Didn't even think about chamfering the case mouth. That would have saved a bunch of grief, along with better belling. You guys are life savers! I found out the hard way how sharp that case mouth can get. Almost removed a bit of my finger on the upstroke once. It doesn't hurt anymore, but there's a nice little blood blister there. Good thing I was wearing nitrile gloves!

Thanks! That's what I figured I'd do, but I got a little carried away with this first batch. We'll see what happens once it stops raining.

Well, I finally got all my stuff together and made some ammo. This is what the first one looks like:



Winchester LPP
Magtech once-fired brass
4.5 gr. HP-38
Remington 230 gr. FMJ
1.265" OAL

I tried to get the load to 4.2 grains (the starting load), but the Auto-Disk didn't want to go there - it was either 4.1 or 4.5, and I didn't want to go below the published minimum. With the max load being 5.3, I thought this was a good starting point.

Not all was sunshine and puppies, though. I think I need to adjust the expander die a little bit, because a few of the bullets were hard to seat - the edge of the jacket was getting caught on the rim. The Lee instructions say to screw it in until it touches the shellholder, then back out one full turn. I think I may need to use only a half-turn. Thankfully, though, I only had one of these:



That's one reason I wanted to start with FMJ instead of lead - I knew something like this would happen. Recovering the primer was easy enough - just ran it back through the decapper really slowly with steady pressure and it popped right out.

It looks like I need to add the adjustable charge bar and a riser for the powder measure and I'll be just about ready to go into mass production. Thanks for all the hints and tips, everyone!