My first reloads - misc questions

Cerdan

Cerdan

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So I finally got all the ingredients together and started reloading. What fun! I've always had great attention to detail, so I knew I'd be good at this... Here's a pic of my five first reloaded .38s:

first.jpg


I do have a couple of miscellaneous questions, however. As you can see, I bought some cast lead bullets, Excel brand to be precise. How thoroughly should I remove the blue wax wedged in the cannelure and coating the bullet? (see pic below) I've been summarily removing it from the cannelure with my nail, but not bothering to clean the bullet entirely. Will this gunk up my barrel/action?

bullet.jpg


Also, a general question about powder dies (Lee's in particular, but I imagine this can happen with any die). I can't help but notice that some powder flakes stay stuck in the die. Given that powder charges are measured to a tenth of a grain, and that it only takes a few flakes to make a difference, how accurate can this method of powder charging be? It stands to reason that some charges may be light because some flakes stay stuck, and others heavier if some flakes from previous charges get released.

The most precise way to measure charges seems to be to weigh each one and charge the case with a funnel, but man does that ever get tedious... What are your thoughts? Do IPSC guys and competitors in general hand weigh every charge to ensure consistency? What's the best (practical/precise) way to measure powder charges?
 
Hah, I should've asked sooner, I guess! It felt more like a packing agent than lubricant, which is why my instinct was to remove it...
 
I don't think it would be dangerous but depending on how soft those bullets are -and the velocity you have loaded to - you could end up with a smooth bore revolver in only 2 or 3 shots.
 
They're pretty hard cast, and I'm loading at minimum/medium powder charges for now...

I guess I'll bring my bore snake to the range when I fire that first batch. Thanks for the info!
 
What is the diameter of those bullets, they look like 38's for 38 Super which are usually sized to 0.356". If so they are they may or may not shoot well in your 38 Spl as bullets for 38/357 are usually sized to 0.358".
 
Cerdan said:
[...]The most precise way to measure charges seems to be to weigh each one and charge the case with a funnel, but man does that ever get tedious... What are your thoughts? Do IPSC guys and competitors in general hand weigh every charge to ensure consistency? What's the best (practical/precise) way to measure powder charges?
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No one hand-measures high-volume pistol rounds. I suppose some long-range handgun shooters might. The .1+- variance you get from good technique is irrelevant at handgun ranges.
 
Silverback said:
What is the diameter of those bullets, they look like 38's for 38 Super which are usually sized to 0.356". If so they are they may or may not shoot well in your 38 Spl as bullets for 38/357 are usually sized to 0.358".
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You're right, they're .38 Super, and it says .357 on the box. I told the guy at the store I was reloading .38spl and he said I'd be fine. Was I misinformed?

acrashb said:
No one hand-measures high-volume pistol rounds. I suppose some long-range handgun shooters might. The .1+- variance you get from good technique is irrelevant at handgun ranges.
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OK thanks. I'm still trying to get a sense of how precise one has to be, specially when loading DO NOT EXCEED loads.

The first few rounds, I had to hand-measure because there wasn't a small enough cavity in the powder-measure to get 3.1gr of Titegroup...
 
Cerdan said:
You're right, they're .38 Super, and it says .357 on the box. I told the guy at the store I was reloading .38spl and he said I'd be fine. Was I misinformed?
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They should be fine but ideally you would want bullets 0.358" which is the standard bore diameter for 38 Spl/357 Mag revolvers. I recognized the bullets because I have used them in my 9mm's before and they worked great in them too.
 
Silverback said:
They should be fine but ideally you would want bullets 0.358" which is the standard bore diameter for 38 Spl/357 Mag revolvers. I recognized the bullets because I have used them in my 9mm's before and they worked great in them too.
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Good idea, I might keep the rest to load in 9mm, get some standard diameter ones for my remaining .38spl shells...

blacksmithden said:
Oh My God!!!! You're Not Going To Fire Those In A Gun Are You!!!?????:eek::eek::eek:
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Haahaha, I really thought you too were gonna rain on my party for a second there!

Thanks for the welcome. I like this club. Looks like my kinda place.
 
I'd check the overall length if I were you. That groove is not the "cannelure" but the lubrication groove. I think those bullets were designed to be seated deeper by the look of it, and crimped on the straight portion above the groove.
 
you may want to chamber one of those rounds and determine if the round extends past the cylinder they appear a little long. For acuracy you may want to sort your casings, brass with brass, nickle with nickle. I found the brass ones load better, shoot better and last longer becasue they are softer than the nickle. As for the powder in the die, I use all Lee stuff for close to 20 yrs, when using the Lee auto disk, I found it beneficial to give the side of the auto disk a little tap with the handle end of a small screwdriver when when the die has engaged the casing and the powder has fallen .. this for the most part makes all the powder fall.
 
Thanks for your concern, fellow reloaders. They are a bit on the long side, but they chamber just fine, it's the first thing I checked :) If they were too long, I would've shot them in my 686!

Longwalker, they are indeed crimped just above the groove, aka cannelure.

BrockPython, I do something similar with the auto-loader: I shake the handle about on the way down in an attempt to dislodge any stuck powder-flakes. Every once in a while, I'd weigh the automatically-measured charge, and it was pretty damn precise every time, to my surprise. Good to hear some people stick with Lee!
 
Update time!

I went out to the range today and shot all those lubeless, OAL-defying abominations from my model 15 and they worked just fine! All of you who warned me about spectacular lead fouling, were you speaking from experience? 'cause I didn't have any such problems. I shot two JHPs out of every cylinder just to be on the safe side, but didn't notice anything out of the ordinary in the barrel.

Also, I was expecting so-so accuracy, given that the diameter is a couple of thous under regulation .38spl bullet diameter, but they shot quite nicely! I was pleasantly surprised.

I do have a question though. The one thing that surprised me was the amount of unburnt powder that was left in the barrel and shell casings (not with these lead-bullet cartridges, other ones I loaded with 800x powder). Is it normal to get a noticeable quantity of unburnt, discoloured (greenish) powder flying around, or am I doing something wrong?

This isn't too much of a problem with revolvers, but I also shot a box of reloaded .45s, and I worry about those flakes getting in my 1911... Any thoughts?
 
Also, a general question about powder dies (Lee's in particular, but I imagine this can happen with any die). I can't help but notice that some powder flakes stay stuck in the die. Given that powder charges are measured to a tenth of a grain, and that it only takes a few flakes to make a difference, how accurate can this method of powder charging be? It stands to reason that some charges may be light because some flakes stay stuck, and others heavier if some flakes from previous charges get released.
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A few flakes of powder isn't going to make a difference either way. However the powder should not be getting stuck in the charging die. If the die is new it probably has some light machine oil on it. Wipe everything down with alcohol or something that will take off any oil or other sticky stuff without leaving behind a residue.
 
Get yourself some proper cast bullets, preferably some semi-wadcutters with a crimping groove and a proper lubricant, ask for .358" med hard for light loads or hard and gas check for heavy loads. Without a proper crimp those bullets could move out and bind up your cylinder or move in and raise pressures. The lube they use is useless and is only there for show, recovered bullets still have the lube on them, meaning that it didn't do it's job. Don't try to save a few pennies on something as important as reloading.
 
um, thanks ben hunchak, but that was over three weeks ago. I've reloaded close to 1000 rounds since then and have learned much. As you can see from my previous post, I've since shot those first reloads with much success, despite everyone's warnings. And please don't assume I bought those bullets to "save pennies". I've spent thousands on reloading equipment, books, powders and bullets. I've bought hundreds of brand name FMJ and JHP bullets since my first post in this thread.

My most recent question is about unburnt powder in the spent casings and barrel, why is it there, is it normal, what can I do to stop it.
 
Cerdan said:
My most recent question is about unburnt powder in the spent casings and barrel, why is it there, is it normal, what can I do to stop it.
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It's there because not all the powder burns. It's normal with most powders. You can stop it by switching to titegroup (very low ejecta). You can reduce it with heavier loads that burn more completely (higher pressures).

http://comrace.ca/cmfiles/titegroup.pdf
 
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