Re: Made my first cartridge - and three failures

51
Marlene wrote: Sun Jan 20, 2019 8:05 pm Your Lee Loader set is a kind of multiple function die. Presses use a die for each operation and offers more adjustment and sophistication by adjustment of each.

Sorry I accidentally sent you looking for a chamfering tool. The Lee instructions used to suggest chamfering case mouths with a pocket knife, and that's what I had in mind. A chamfering tool will do you no harm though.
They do mention a pocket knife, but I'm not about to pass up an opportunity to get a new tool. :D
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Re: Made my first cartridge - and three failures

54
Well, today I got the range and tried out my first hand loads. The result?



I shot 30 rounds. Had one misfire, two failures to feed, and the last shot was a squib. It went click, instead of bang, so I dutifully waited 30 seconds in case it was a slow fire and then ejected the cartridge: it came out empty. The bullet was stuck halfway through the barrel. I borrowed a cleaning rod from the range and tried, but failed to push it the rest of the way out of the barrel. Then they took it into their workroom and beat on the rod with a hammer, but only managed to get it more firmly wedged in it would seem - the back of the bullet now has a nice hole in it from the cleaning rod pushing into the soft lead. So in the end I left the barrel with them for their gunsmith to look at when he comes in this week.

I suppose I just was loading too little powder in the cases. I wasn't actually weighing the powder, but was instead using a scoop provided with the Lee loading kit, and I could never get the scoop to be exactly level, so I erred on the low side and most of the loads had a bit less than a level scoop of powder. I guess in one round it was just too little.

So, lesson learned! Now I'm going to order a proper powder scale and a trickler, which I just learned about from an article in the Lyman reloading book.


But I do have a question for you guys. I noticed that most of the empty brass I recovered had scorch marks on the outside of the case. I've never picked up used brass before, so I don't know if this is normal or not. Is it normal to have scorching on the outside of the case after firing it?
106+ recreational uses of firearms
1 defensive use
0 people injured
0 people killed

Re: Made my first cartridge - and three failures

59
A scale and a trickler sound like a great idea.

Proper technique for using scoops consistently:

Pour some powder in to a small bowl. A clean dry tuna or cat food can is perfect if you put a saucer under it to catch spills. Make sure you have enough powder to fully submerge the scoop. Sweep the scoop, open end first, through the powder, emerging with a heaping scoop of powder. Push the helping powder off the scoop with a business card, credit card, razor blade, butter knife, Garand en bloc clip, etc.
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Re: Made my first cartridge - and three failures

60
Not sure what route you will go with your choice of scales, I have no experience with electronic ones and if you go with a beam scale and trickler make sure you set it up at eye level. I use a powder thrower set light and dump right into the pan and the trickler is right next to the scale so it only takes a twist of the nob or two and its topped off.

Re: Made my first cartridge - and three failures

65
When hammering out squibs I find it’s easier to push the bullets back toward the breech rather than forward toward the muzzle. Does anyone else find this to be true?
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

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