I am new to reloading and have been reloading 9mm with my father. He is very old school but I want to see how his processes match up with some of you here.

when cleaning brass he advised me to put them in a 'bucket' of soapy hot water give them a good shaking and let them set for days. Then empty the water, rinse them off and dry them. He puts them all in a small toaster type oven and ensures they are dry.
-This process did not seem very effective. A 'pollen' like dust was found in several of the brass and we had to clean them by hand.

We then visually inspect every piece of brass and mic'd them. (inside and out)
We then primed them with a hand primer.
We then test fit a bullet in each brass to ensure the brass was not too large and allowed the bullet to drop in too easy. (several allowed the bullet to fall inside the brass without effort) If they allowed the bullet to drop in too easy he crimped them and we proceeded.

We loaded them each by hand with powder using his powder dispenser. We weighed every 5th one to ensure it was consistent.

We used a single stage press and pressed the bullet in, mic'd it. We then crimped it a bit and mic'd. it again.

To me if we used a multistage press we would eliminate alot of steps, I asked him about it and he said even on a multistage press you have to mic and check before the final product, which seems pointless then to use a multistage press.

His cleaning method is cheap, I'll give him that. It doesn't do as good of a job as dry or wet tumbling, but is cheaper.

He seems to be measuring a lot. Pistol ammo isn't usually made to such precision as match grade rifle ammo. Many here use a progressive press and churn out pistol ammo at a couple hundred (400-600) rounds an hour.

I agree. I didnt care much for the cleaning method. It seemed ineffective to be honest.
I thought we measured a ton as well, he acted as if our lives depended on it too.
if you use a progressive press do you mic all that much? after its setup no mic-ing?

Ill do that thanks!

Like most replies above have stated, you could probably stand to improve your cleaning method the most.

Here are the benefits of a tumbler:
- less hands on intensive
- highly polished brass shows defects better, a cracked case sticks out like a sore thumb
- kinda fire and forget when you use in conjunction with a timer ( I usually do 3 hrs per step)

What I do:
1. universal decapping die to drop out primer.
2. walnut tumble for 3 hours.
3. carbide resize die (this takes out need to test a bullet in each case to see if it is oversized) (I will also clean out primer pockets if they are excessively dirty, or ream if they have a military crimp)
4. corn or walnut tumble with polish for 3 hours.
5. when taking out of polish I check each case for cracks and punch out any stuck media from the flash hole with a small nail, this is my case inspection step.
6. prime with a hand primer tool.
7. bell mouth of case with Lee charging die and either charge with Autodisc charger or individually meter out charge (depends on my mood)
8. seat bullet with Lee seating die (I measure each one for the first 5 to ensure I have correct depth set, then measure each 10th to ensure nothing has changed)
9. crimp loaded cartridge with Lee Factory crimp die.
10. final visual inspection as I put completed cartridge into a box.
11. label each box with load data and date.

I usually do the "case prep" separately (steps 1-5) in bulk.
The loading process (steps 6-11) usually takes me about 15 minutes per 50 rounds on a single stage press.

I tried to tell him we should remove the spent primers first and he refused. He said it would ruin his machine somehow...
He is very strange and doesnt listen to reason at all. Anything outside his way of doing something is incorrect.

If your old man were to watch a Dillon 550 cranking out 500 9mm an hour, his head would likely explode.


Step 1, put brass in tumbler overnight.

Step 2, Inspect/Sort brass, pull out damaged cases, swaged (WCC) or wrong caliber (.380 commonly gets mixed in)

Step 3, Saddle up to Dillon, rock and roll!

Yes, there are a few different ways to go about it. You need to work with what you have. You can go pretty auto with that turret if you want but you would need to get some options for it. Here's a part one of two of a video showing what you would need and how to set them up. Same, same for the four hole or classic.:

Part one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM54KBOf4IY



Part two:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=xRn_twi9B0g


If it helps, here's a write-up I did which may explain a lot of what the others are saying.
http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_42/377402_I_said_I_would_write_up_my_style_so_I_did__enjoy__I_hope____.html