I guess I'm now officially a reloder

[RKirby]

After much research I finally decided on a Lee Turret press kit instead of the single stage press I was originally considering. It arrived about two weeks ago and I got it set up last weekend.

The instruction sheets that came with the press and dies leave a lot to be desired in my opinion..... or maybe I'm just dense. I guess maybe I should have bought the Lee manual, too. Oh well......

It took forever to finally get a round with the right OAL, flare and crimp. Let's just say that I'm now very proficient with the bullet puller that I almost didn't buy, thinking I could put it off till later.

After I got it set up correctly my son muscled me out of the way and proceeded to load 50 rounds of 9mm. He couldn't understand what all the trouble I was having was all about.

We went to the range today and I fired the 50 rounds that we loaded and much to my astonishment, they all functioned perfectly in my Springfield XD's. I couldn't tell any difference between the hand loads and the Blazer that I also had with me.

On top of that, we both came home with just as many appendages and a lot more brass than we left home with. No exploding rounds or squib loads.

Needless to say, I'm happy with the Lee press kit. A Dillon it's not, but it got the job done at a very good price.

All's good at the little house on the prairie tonight!

Except.......I did manage to leave one of my Kel-Tec mags at the range.

The saga begins........

[Smokewagon]

Overall, except for the mag.
Did that once myself and called the range as soon as I got home. They found and kept it for me til the next week.

[phddan]

Welcome to the club!
No matter what press you got, it takes a while to get all the kinks out when its your first.
And for what its worth, a bullet puller was the first additional reloading tool I bought after the press setup.
Have you figured out your cost per bullet yet?

Dan

[fenster]

I just bought that same press 2 weeks ago.

it's a nice machine, but not one that I can look at and say 'wow. this fine machinery will be reloading rds for my grandchildren'.

still, the price was right.

funny. some things it does repeatably every time like clockwork, and other things not so much. my powder charges - every time I spot check them they are right on the money. every time. I was pretty paranoid about that so I measured it almost every round on my first batch of 50. now I just spot-check the first round, then the 10th, then crank out all I'm gonna do for the session. but my OAL is all over the place. trying for 1.200 (45acp) mine vary +/- .015. I tightened the locknuts on my final 2 dies and try to use consistant pressure but they still vary.

I logged the OAL on every round of my first 100. turns out I couldnt tell any difference while shooting. none at all.

out of my first 300 rds, I've had 2 fail to ejects (one was at my last IDPA match). I bumped up my powder charge and havent had any FTEs on my last 100.

I just finished off my first box of 500 bullets. 230gr round-nose cast lead. they were a bit dirty. I bought a box of copper-plated on my last re-supply. hopefully they'll throw less smoke and not leave as much smear in my bore.

I had the same observation on the manual. rather sparse in the details. while waiting for my stuff to arrive from midwayusa, I bought and read 'ABC's of Reloading' . very good introductory reading.

the leeprecision.com site also has some good stuff, and some useful videos.

I'm reloading to feed a pair of XDs as well. if you don't already read over at xdtalk.com that's a good resource. alot of good info in their reloading room relating specifically what loads other XD shooters are using. I picked up the valuable tip to not use 200gr SWC. my bud shoots those in his 1911. just for grins, I tried a few, and my XD had FTFs on almost every round. good thing I didn't buy a 500 box of those!

[striker55]

My first reloading press was the Lee Classic Loader that used a mallot. Did my first reloading on our livingroom coffee table.

[stroo]

Congratulations and welcome. Instructions for Lee equipment is often vague or hard to follow.

[RKirby]

Have you figured out your cost per bullet yet?Dan

Nope...and I don't even want to know. I bought new brass to start with in order to eliminate one of the variables. It turns out I could have bought new Monarch ammo at Academy for less than the cost of the brass.

Once I get everything up and running consistently I'll look at my cost per round.

I just bought that same press 2 weeks ago....

some things it does repeatably every time like clockwork, and other things not so much. my powder charges - every time I spot check them they are right on the money. every time. I was pretty paranoid about that so I measured it almost every round on my first batch of 50. now I just spot-check the first round, then the 10th, then crank out all I'm gonna do for the session. but my OAL is all over the place. trying for 1.200 (45acp) mine vary +/- .015. I tightened the locknuts on my final 2 dies and try to use consistant pressure but they still vary.

I logged the OAL on every round of my first 100. turns out I couldnt tell any difference while shooting. none at all.

Sounds like the same experience I had.

I also was suspicious of the powder measure. I can't say for sure how accurate it is since I don't have a lot of confidence in the beam scale that came with the kit, but it is very consistent. I'm definitely going to upgrade to a digital scale at some point.

I also noticed the variation in overall length. I was aiming for 1.125 and had variations up to 1.128. I can't figure out the cause of this either unless my son was short stroking the press. Or maybe that is within tolerances. Maybe one of the experts will chime in on that point (hint...hint);-)

At any rate, they all went bang.

[Tom]

I also noticed the variation in overall length. I was aiming for 1.125 and had variations up to 1.128. I can't figure out the cause of this either unless my son was short stroking the press. Or maybe that is within tolerances. Maybe one of the experts will chime in on that point (hint...hint);-)

At any rate, they all went bang.

RKirby,

It appears that you are doing fine, if not better than fine.

Trying to keep all of your OAL's within some small range will take way too much of your time
and for no really good reason.
Over time I have developed a method where I decide on a MAX OAL then start loading to not
go above the max. I usually just check the first ten or so and if they are getting close but not
going over then I am happy with that result and I will load lots before checking the OAL again.
I usually get within a range of 0.010.
For example, I load 30 Carbine to a max OAL of 1.680. Which to me means nothing will go over that.
But if I get some as low as 1.670 I don't worry about it.

As long as you are not loading for BR or long range shooting (600+ yds) don't be bothered about
getting variations in your OAL. Just ensure that you don't go below the mins or over the maxs.
Where it falls in between isn't all that important for plinking ammo. And I consider IDPA as plinking ammo.

Kind Regards,

Tom

[RKirby]

RKirby,

It appears that you are doing fine, if not better than fine.

Trying to keep all of your OAL's within some small range will take way too much of your time
and for no really good reason.......

That's what I was thinking.....being to critical again.

Thank You, Sir!

[DoubleJ]

I have a Q.
at what point do you need to worry about the deviation of your OAL causing pressure problems.
I understand that a shorter OAL means a higher pressure level, but to what extent? is a deviation of .010 going to mean anything, or would it take a deviation of .5 or something?

[Tom]

Depends on the caliber - it's more critical with low-volume, higher-pressure calibers (eg 9mmP, 40S&W) than the larger-volume, low-pressure ones (eg .45ACP).

I'd definitely feel uncomfortable shooting a 9mm or .40 which has the bullet pushed in 1/10th " deeper than normal (uncomfortable to the extent that I wouldn't shoot it, that is).

AndyC,

Deeper than what "normal"?
Deeper than min OAL? Yup, that would bother me too. I don't see where anyone suggested pushing
a bullet 0.10 deeper than min OAL. In fact, we were discussing thousandths, not tenths.

I assume that you were thinking about a min OAL, right?
If not then please define what you mean by "normal".

Kind Regards,

Tom

[Jeremae]

I had issues with OAL varying and found that REALLY tightening the lock ring on the seat die fixed the issue and I get less than 3/1000ths varience.

QA testing... I also started out checking practically every round (powder measure, OAL and crimp) but have settled into a routine of:

Start session by throwing 10 powder loads back into hopper.

Measure powder charge and throw back into hopper (I also found the Lee Autodisk powder measure to be boringly consistant using Win 231)

Measure OAL after seating and after crimp (I crimp using Lee FCD).

Test crimp (Press bullet against table top FIRMLY) and remeasure OAL.

Load 24 more rounds and repeat measure cycle.

[Venus Pax]

I have a Q.
at what point do you need to worry about the deviation of your OAL causing pressure problems.
I understand that a shorter OAL means a higher pressure level, but to what extent? is a deviation of .010 going to mean anything, or would it take a deviation of .5 or something?

I'm new at this too. I make sure that my OAL doesn't go below the manual's minimum, and that my maximum OAL is short enough to cycle. I try to keep it in the middle range.