Posted: 6/15/2009 2:09:17 PM EDT
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I just got one of these dropped off today.
It means that we can use it to reload a few rounds at a range for those here that want to learn how to reload. We can load some 223s and some 9mm handguns rounds to give you a basic understanding of how it is done. Who wants to do this at some range in the near future? You load it, then you shoot it to see how it works. |
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I just got one of these dropped off today. http://www.midwayusa.com/mediasvr.dll/image?saleitemid=410804 It means that we can use it to reload a few rounds at a range for those here that want to learn how to reload. We can load some 223s and some 9mm handguns rounds to give you a basic understanding of how it is done. Who wants to do this at some range in the near future? You load it, then you shoot it to see how it works. I'd be willing to give it a shot. I don't know what the heck could be the problem with giving it a try. What do you need? Primers, gun powder, bullets, and virgin brass? I assume you have the dies we would need to use. |
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That hand press is JUNK. They will not consistently seat your OAL as they flex too much. Well, excuse me. If you have a portable set up that you want to come down and show some of these youngsters the basics of reloading, feel fucking free to do so. 
Right now I don't think they are going to worry about OAL, neck turning, neck tension, neck thickness, case volume, etc. until they've been loading some. |
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I'd be willing to give it a shot. I don't know what the heck could be the problem with giving it a try. What do you need? Primers, gun powder, bullets, and virgin brass? I assume you have the dies we would need to use. Higgie, I'll supply the components. You supply some once fired brass or not. It doesn't matter. I've got plenty. We're not going to load but a few each, just so you get the very basics. That's as far as I intend to go right now with those who want to. |
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If we ever do this I can bring some brass that should not be a problem. I'd like to see it done sometime. It would probably be better if I size the rifle brass first and just let you guys do it also. I'll do that at home on my RCBS Rockchucker then you guys can redo it at the range just to get an idea. That hand press doesn't have enough hoss in it to fully resize the brass unless you are the Hulk. 
Being the Bulk that I am, I can do it easily but you younger and weaker characters probably can't. 
The straight walled pistol cases are probably what every one is interested in the most anyway. And that JUNK  handpress will do that easily.
Like I said, we'll do a few each and then you can shoot them to see that they work. 
It'll give you a little confidence that you can do it without much trouble. |
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That hand press is JUNK. They will not consistently seat your OAL as they flex too much. I've used 3 different Lee hand presses and have never had a problem with any of them. Are they as good as a bench mounted O-Frame press? No. But they require less table space to use, are much more portable, and will make serviceable ammo. |
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Sorry didn't mean to be a dick, I was just trying to give you fellas a heads up.
I take my Rockchucker ot turret press to the range and bolt it down to a 2x8. The 2x8 should be about the width of the table you are going to put the press on. Then you can use 3-4 C-clamps to mount the 2x8 to the table, usually 2 in front and 2 in back. Make sure you run your bolts up from the bottom of the press and countersink them so they are flush with the bottom of the 2x8. One more thing I should have mentioned about that Lee hand pree is that it can be kind of awkward while holding the press with one hand and keeping it upright so powder doesent fall out and seating bullet in case mouth. Wish I had a few pic for you guys. |
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The idea is to give a basic idea of how reloading is done. It doesn't have to be the fanciest equipment and doesn't have to be the most expensive. It just has to work.
You have to keep it simple or they will go into overload with terms they have never heard of before. It's easier to carry that little hand press and a cheap digital scale or even spoons to a range than it is my Rockchucker or my Chargemaster. It's simply a matter of convenience for ease of instruction. And it beats using a Lee Loader. |
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One morning next week work for you? There is some bullshitting to be done. That's understood. I have to take an uncle to the dentist tomorrow. He's likely to have a tooth pulled and doesn't want to drive afterwards. Ndenway is going out to the OKC Gun Club with me but Thursday - tomorrow - didn't work out. We'll do it next week when he can go to the range with us. |
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The idea is to give a basic idea of how reloading is done. It doesn't have to be the fanciest equipment and doesn't have to be the most expensive. It just has to work. You have to keep it simple or they will go into overload with terms they have never heard of before. It's easier to carry that little hand press and a cheap digital scale or even spoons to a range than it is my Rockchucker or my Chargemaster. It's simply a matter of convenience for ease of instruction. And it beats using a Lee Loader. I'd like to give it a try also. However Ken has a rockchucker and all the needed goodies right behind the shooting benches at T-bird range if you wouldn't mind putting on a demo there. |
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The idea is to give a basic idea of how reloading is done. It doesn't have to be the fanciest equipment and doesn't have to be the most expensive. It just has to work. You have to keep it simple or they will go into overload with terms they have never heard of before. It's easier to carry that little hand press and a cheap digital scale or even spoons to a range than it is my Rockchucker or my Chargemaster. It's simply a matter of convenience for ease of instruction. And it beats using a Lee Loader. I'd like to give it a try also. However Ken has a rockchucker and all the needed goodies right behind the shooting benches at T-bird range if you wouldn't mind putting on a demo there. That's cool with me. I would have used the pick up tallgate to do it so everyone could see it's not that hard to do. It's like rifles - you can buy a cheap one and it will work or you can buy one that costs more than you can afford. This is going to be simple. |
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I'll add this,
basic reloading is fairly simple and straitforward, it's as easy or difficult as you make it, but if you'll just do the reading and ask any questions you might have, you most likely won't have any issues. I didn't know anyone that reloaded, had never even seen a complete reloading setup other than in pics, but I thought it'd be pretty cool to know how to do, so I bought a speer #11 reloading manual and read the rifle, pistol and loading for accuracy section(s), then I started saving up some funds, I hit the gun shops and did some window shopping, didn't find anything I could afford until I seen a lee add in American Rifleman, I bought the challenger kit, dies and case cutter/trim pilots and began loading 38/357 and 308 win, total cost delivered was approx $100, hell I even used the lee dipper(s) kit that came with the challenger kit for a year or so until wanted to fine tune my rifle loads. first scale I bought was a lee beam scale, it went on the shelf pretty quick and I bought a magnetic dampening lyman 505, a set of calipers and a hornaday powder drop, then added a lee 1k for 38/357 and 45acp ammo in 86'. I didn't know the lee presses were cheap, since I never used any other press, but after 10s of thousands of rounds the challenger press broke. I had a bit more funds by then and had spoken with other reloaders and read a hell of a lot more reloading articles and I headed up to sw shooters and OA to check out the presses, ended up with a rcbs spec 5 that I was content in using until I started loading for 223 several years back, (to think of the hundreds of thousands of times I cycled through on a single stage loading other rifle/pistol calibers) military 556/762.51 case prep sucks ass on a single stage press and if you like to shoot more than a couple of hundred rounds in a outing, you'll look for equipment that speeds up the prep/loading processes. after lots of reading, asking for opinions and a few phone calls to dillon I bought a 550b and later a rt1200 trimmer, I've since loaded approx 20k worth of ammo on it since buying it a couple of years back and like the hell out of it, if I'd known about dillon presses 20+ years ago I'd of saved up for a bit longer and bought one then. the rt1200 I mounted on the lee 1k press, it works great and speeds up the case prep greatly by sizing/trimming in one step, the cases still have to be deprimed and crimp removed (military cases) first, but thats not nearly as tedious as case trimming, with the rt1200 mounted in the lee1k I can size/trim approx 1k 223 cases in about an hour. what I do for 223 case prep (I could eleminate a step if I'd just mount it on the dillon 550) is deprime with a univesial decapper, lube them with frankfort arsenal spray lube, then run them through the size/trim die on the rt1200, then I remove the primer crimp (if needed) with a rcbs swage die and then throw them in a tumbler to clean the lube off and they are ready to load. to keep large case lots (several+ k) from getting too monotinous I do case prep in steps/batches per sitting by keeping one bin ready for deprime, one bin deprimed/lubed ready for size/trim, one bin sized/trimmed ready for primer pocket swage, one bin swaged ready for tumbling etc. |
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Brother L, I think you would be a fine instructor if you want to do this.
I'll bring the portable stuff I've bought and have coming if we want to do this some week end at Lexington or even at the T-bird range. I remember buying the stuff to reload 38 Spl, setting it up in my dad's garage, then trying figure out what procedure and sequence to use the dies. I had Dad out there with me, making suggestions, cussing me and calling me stupid, then slapping me on the back when we figured it out. 
The only thing these guys will get out of this is just saving time and some money. Most of them are smart enough to figure out how to do it from a book but we'll just give them a boost up the ladder and they won't be starting from Ground Zero. They'll be a little more informed as far as buying equipment and getting started. Ndenway is one of the very few whose opinion I respect when it comes to firearms related information. He may be full of shit but not when he talks about shooting.
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if someone wants to bring the stuff, I don't mind showing a few steps in the loading process. I've just about got all the stuff together. I'm waiting on the below even though we probably will use spoons. 
I'm thinking we might do a pictorial for those who can't be there. Pictures work so much better with this illiterate group anyway. 
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Let's do it when it's a bit cooler. I ain't gettin' along with the heat real well right now.
So here's a brief description with pictures. Lube pad, brass, shell holder, resizing die, press 
Lubing the brass 
Lubing the neck 
Sizing the brass 
Sized and decapped brass 
Priming tool, brass, primer, and loading tray 
Priming the brass 
Weighing charge for brass in beam scale 
Dropping the charge into the brass via funnel 
Visually checking for powder charge in case 
Bullets, charged case, bullet, seating die 
Bullet in case ready to be seated by seating die 
Seated bullet in press 
Finished round 
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NOPE!!! Good pics and best description of how to I have ever seen. I'll admit I have not sen many though. But I have a better idea of the process now. HIggie, that is a 5.56 case and that leaves out a lot of stuff like adjusting dies, powder drops, belling the mouth on straight walled pistol cases, adjusting bullet seating depth. etc. What this does is give a basic out line of the very basic reloading steps. We'll flesh it out some with more detailed photos and more detail for some of the other items I left out. Like cleaning cases, chamfering, cleaning out primer holes, etc. With pistols you don't really go to whole lot of trouble other than cleaning and sorting. Rifles take a little bit more detail for best accuracy. I'll let Ndenway get in here and throw his very experienced opinion in here. This is no substitute for doing it yourself but it does give you a basic idea. |
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also left out trimming to length, cleaning/removing lube from case and where you got the load data Well, fuck me funny, like you say all the time.
I know. I've got the basic framework/outline up and will flesh it out. Don't want to overload some of these guys. After all, a few of them are Glock shooters. 
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also left out trimming to length, cleaning/removing lube from case and where you got the load data Well, fuck me funny, like you say all the time.
I know. I've got the basic framework/outline up and will flesh it out. Don't want to overload some of these guys. After all, a few of them are Glock shooters. UMMMMMM........Was that directed at anyone in particular? You shouldn't pick on SysOps like that!!!
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UMMMMMM........Was that directed at anyone in particular? You shouldn't pick on SysOps like that!!! See, that's what I mean. I'll have to go slow and easy or it'll blow right over the top of some of their heads.
A good website for you guys to look at loading data is Hogdon's site. Try this link: http://data.hodgdon.com/main_menu.asp And another one that might be worth looking at: http://imakeprojects.com/Projects/how-to-reload-rifle-ammunition/ |
| I talked to Ken at T-bird this evening about a reloading class at his range. He has the NRA material, powerpoint slides, three or four presses to set up for various loads, and of course the range to test em' out. He said just let him know when. I told him it would probably be when it got a little cooler. |
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I talked to Ken at T-bird this evening about a reloading class at his range. He has the NRA material, powerpoint slides, three or four presses to set up for various loads, and of course the range to test em' out. He said just let him know when. I told him it would probably be when it got a little cooler. Sounds good!
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