Reloading adventure has begun... now with pictures and a broken decapper : (

scotty

scotty

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I've been doing some research on reloading and it looks like a good hobby, I'll learn a lot and will save me a whack load of money down the road. After doing some research I decided on the Lee Deluxe Turret Press Kit, 9MM Luger Dies and the Lee Reloading Manual.

Hopefully that will give me a good start into reloading, and I'll read the book cover to cover twice before trying anything.

Higginsons was great about answering all my questions and hopefully I'll have my order on Thursday as Friday is a holiday. : (

Anyways, its off to buy some more factory 9MM for 13 bucks a box : (
I gotta have something to shoot, and I can save up my brass this way.

Anyways, get ready for lots of questions!
 
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Scottie;
My advice to you, one new reloader to another, is to get a good library of reloading manuals. I have been calling around to used book stores over these last months and have not a bad little reference collection. I am also going to buy the latest Lyman 48 th edition reloading manual, to round out my collection, but I am always on the lookout for reloading manuals. And lots of questions is part of my MO as well……:rockOn:
Good luck,
Bill.
 
wcmd said:
Scottie;
My advice to you, one new reloader to another, is to get a good library of reloading manuals. I have been calling around to used book stores over these last months and have not a bad little reference collection. I am also going to buy the latest Lyman 48 th edition reloading manual, to round out my collection, but I am always on the lookout for reloading manuals. And lots of questions is part of my MO as well……:rockOn:
Good luck,
Bill.
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X2
This point cannot be over stated. Manuals are the most important "tools" you will purchase.
 
Just went up to LeBaron. I picked up 1LB of HS-6 powder, 1000 CCI 500 Small Pistol Primers and 500 excel 125GR Round Nose lead bullets.

How did I do?

Total was 80 bucks, 24.76 for bullets, 22.36 for primers and 22.86 for powder.

Question- These say .357/.358 - should I of gotten .355 or will these be okay?
 
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What am I finding this production code?

The box I got says;

Premium Excel.
Hard Cast Match Grade bullets
125GR RN 9MM .357/.358

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Scottie: Should be good to go. Cast bullets are normally chosen to be slightly larger than groove diameter of the barrel. Helps maintain a good seal and prevent gas blow by and lead cutting. As long as your chamber accepts the cartridge after loading you should be right on track.
 
Cool thanks. I just went up to crappy tire and bought a digital caliper which should help me. Alot of the bullets are showing up as .356. I wanted to see what the lead looked like in the brass case and I see what you mean. I put it on the top of the case and hit it with a hammer and the sides were slightly shaved off to fit snug with the case. The lead is very mailable so I should have good luck.

Hopefully I get my stuff on Thursday (as quoted by Canada Post, closed Fri-Mon for long weekend) and I'll be sure to post pictures and document my process.
 
For 9mm jacketed .355 is the recommended diameter.

For lead .356 to .357 seems to be more common. I've never shot .358

In the Le Baron catalogue, those bullets are described as 9mm (.356-.357). Odd.

How is the lube? Is it restricted to the bullet grooves? Or is it sloppy and everywhere? If it is everywhere, watch your bullet seating as the lube will gum up the die and bullet will end up seated deeper.
 
Scottie: You do not want to shave any lead off the bullets when seating them. Get a Lee Universal case mouth belling die and flare the cases slightly before seating the bullets. Your seating die should straighten the flare back out if adjusted correctly.
 
Fall Guy said:
For 9mm jacketed .355 is the recommended diameter.

For lead .356 to .357 seems to be more common. I've never shot .358

In the Le Baron catalogue, those bullets are described as 9mm (.356-.357). Odd.

How is the lube? Is it restricted to the bullet grooves? Or is it sloppy and everywhere? If it is everywhere, watch your bullet seating as the lube will gum up the die and bullet will end up seated deeper.
Click to expand...

Excel bullets alway but ALWAYS have the lube sloppy all over the bullet. Half of them have no lube in the grooves though.
I cant stand excel. Sloppy ####ty quality.
 
Well I got my press today which was a nice surprise as I was not expecting it till tomorrow. I set it all up and everything looks good and I'll get some pictures up so you can see what I think was a great mounting system. My only comment is that the spent primers are going everywhere but I now started to catch them before they can go to far. Now...

I was practicing reloading some cases without the powder trying to figure this OAL length thing. I am going to load it using the .43 powder measure which will give me 6.0 grains of HS-6, apparently. The Hodgdon tables lists HS-6 with a minimum load of 5.9. My question is, I cant find any exact loading data for HS-6 powder and 125Gr Lead RN bullets. Hodgdon lists Lead conical nose but thats different from RN so the OAL will be different, correct? They want 1.125 for that, and with my caliper I could get 1.110 to 1.130 depending on pressure levels and if I adjusted the bullet die up or down. Anyone have any good websites which list good loads for 9MM?

QUESTION - does OAL have to due with how much powder? IE less powder the bullet base will seat further in the case resulting in a shorter OAL, more powder the bullet is higher because the powder can only compress so much?

Anyways, I really don't like these lead bullets, and I keep hearing that Excel blows so I am going to go to LeBaron tomorrow and picked up some plated or copper or something else, lead suck. They make my hands dirty, look ugly and (insert anti-lead comment.)
 
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The Press - Lee Turret Press. Seems very solid and stable, I've been having to put alot of pressure to get the spent primers out of the casing, the first ones were MUCH easier. Maybe I need some lube (I thought carbides dont need lube?) Perhaps the dipper is not low enough to spit the primer out. Sometimes it will go half way and I can't remove the casing because the primer is locking it into the shell holder. I have to re-seat the spent primer to get it back out of it. Or are these forces from the case resizing taking place during the primer removal? DEFINATLEY will be getting one of those factory crimp dies to fill up the 4th slot in my turret as I hear they are the s**t.

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Picture of the table I setup. I did not want to put holes in that table because of the ass whooping I would of received so I came up with this. Its a 31 inch long by 9 inch wide peice of 5/8" plywood that I got for 2 bucks from HomeDepot. I then drilled the three necessary holes, and bought some 1/4x20x2 1/2 countersunk bolts and so when I screwed it in it would sit flush with the wood and not make it rock on the table. I put them head down because it was just easier to get them flush that way. Then I just C Clamped it x 3 and its dayum tight on that table. Pretty good I say so. :D



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This is the artistic shot. I call it " The Reloaders Point of View "
Just shows what I get to look at, and my cat is around most of the time so I have to deal with her. What else but the military channel on the TV showing the battle of midway.

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Congrats on getting into a great hobby. Some observations based on personal experience. Haunt ebay and get more used manuals, it was good advice, get more. Lose the TV. You do not want any distractions while loading. Do you know what a sqib load is, and what would happen if you fired a round overtop a squib? Also and someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I understand there was is a warning not to use Federal primers in the Lee press. I don't use a Lee but I remember hearing that warning at one time. Apparently they are soft or something and tend to explode. Have fun but be safe
 
Thanks Jed.

I went and picked up some new bullets today. Winchester 115Gr FMJ Flat Base.

I have started loading up some of them. I mic'd a factory WWB 115Gr and had a OAL of 1.158. I have mine coming out at 1.145 (Lee Manual says MIN OAL is 1.125 with HS6 and 115 GR Jacketed so I should be okay?

I am loading it with 6.5 Grains of HS-6 using the .46 auto disk as dictated by the Lee Manual.

Going to load up 50 with this load and try and get out to the range today and see how she goes.

Any comments?
 
You also want a chamber gage.
Some reloaders just use the barrel of their gun(out of the gun)
and some use the chamber gage. I prefer the gage.
Dillon make a great one.
 
I load up ten blanks with no powder just bullet and case and put them in the mag and it tried it in the gun. All 10 bullets chambered and ejected with no problems. I'll look into getting a chamber gage.
 
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