Re: (Re)Loading New Brass

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yes, the scoop works. :beer2: if you're looking for precision ammo, though, use a scale. accuracy is repeatability, and repeatability is consistency. same everything all the time, if that's what you're after. since i'm where wooglin is with handgun cartridges, the scoop is fine. rifle, not so much for me.
i'm retired. what's your excuse?

Re: (Re)Loading New Brass

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You will need a manual, Lyman is a good start. Usually some very good articles on pressure and its dangers and how to harness it properly. Next you will need a reloading scale that measures in grains.

A powder trickler is cheap and makes weighing out the powder much easier, and last but not least a powder funnel. Don't know if you have any case lube yet, if not I like a good lanolin and alcohol lube.

I remember a thread years ago on a different board where a guy made the mistake of putting bullseye powder into his powder measure that was calibrated to throw his usual charge of 2400 powder.

He still had all of his fingers and both eyes but he showed a picture of a totally destroyed S&W 629, top strap gone and the cylinder in pieces.

Re: (Re)Loading New Brass

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bajajoaquin wrote: Tue Feb 18, 2020 11:11 am If I start buying extra stuff, it kinda defeats the conceit of doing this with free stuff! :)
Do you just have one scoop or the whole set? Lyman reloading books give a range of powder measures for each powder, from starting point to max load. I just find a powder that, with one scoop of a given size, puts me in that range. Preferably towards the lower part of that range. So far, so good.

Re: (Re)Loading New Brass

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you're on your own, bucko.
no, i'm not sending you my scale, or primers, or bullets, or powder. use the scoop, it'll be fine. you want more precision, suck it up, get a scale.

when i first started shooting smokeless powder, (garand, 30-06) someone gave me a lee loader which i used for a couple of months until i saw a dillon press at a gun show. meanwhile the LL worked fine, probably no worse than the cheap misurp ammo i was buying.
i'm retired. what's your excuse?

Re: (Re)Loading New Brass

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:)

My scale will be fine. It’s not like I have to do the math different for each load. I’m going to do a single loading at a time.

Only issue I have now is that I have 400gr JSP and 4198 powder. The online version of the table has a loading for that. My chart has a 405 gr lead bullet. For whatever reason, I wanted to do this with the dipper the first time around. So to use my powder I’ll need new bullets. I think I’ll buy some 300gr jacketed bullets for my initial loads.

Seems that this is an old kit, with only Trapdoor-safe loads. I’m not complaining, just realizing out loud.

Edited to fix and change formatting.

Re: (Re)Loading New Brass

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Furthermore, 45.3 grains come out to a more manageable 2.94 grams, which is well within the resolution of my scale.

At some point, yes, I'll get more stuff (I just bought a powder funnel, because it was $4.99 and if I spent $4.61 more on my order with Midway, I got the $15 shipping for free), and I might even buy a press. It kills me that I gave away a full Dillon progressive setup 10 years ago. I had inherited it from my step father, and just didn't use it. So I gave it to his best friend.

Re: (Re)Loading New Brass

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So... being impatient has left me with some stuff that doesn't match up. My order for 4198 never came in, and I didn't find it locally, either. I brought my table with me, and the only powder they had which was on that table was IMR 3031. I have a load for that on the table, but it's for 405gr lead rather than 400gr jacketed.

For my first loads, I'm not going to use a charge that's not explicitly listed in one of my tables, but I'd like thoughts on this anyway.

Also, what do you think I should do next? Kinda the point of this exercise was to use the Lee Loader. I don't have what I need to do that. I bought a Ruger No3, so action strength isn't an issue. I can either:

1. buy 405gr lead bullets, and leave me with a LOT of .458 projectiles. I also imagine that cleaning lead from the bore is more effort than cleaning after jacketed bullets. Yes, I'm using a Lee Loader, but still lazy about cleaning.

or

2. Use one of the loads from the Lyman manual (50th ed) for 3031 powder and bullets I have. This would mean using the scale and not the dipper.

Not a crisis or a moral dilemma, I know. But thoughts welcome.

Re: (Re)Loading New Brass

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bajajoaquin wrote: Tue Feb 18, 2020 11:11 am If I start buying extra stuff, it kinda defeats the conceit of doing this with free stuff! :)
This is just such an adorable statement--like wearing a target. I mean, we're kings, queens, and knaves of enabling.

:love:

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: (Re)Loading New Brass

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I may be adorable, but I am certainly out of space in the safe. I don't know how the No 3 is going to fit.

I might have to face up to my gun-buying impulses lately and get a bigger safe. Since my wife really dislikes guns, and only tolerates my interest, that's going to be an awkward conversation.

Re: (Re)Loading New Brass

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bajajoaquin wrote: Wed Feb 26, 2020 2:21 pm I may be adorable, but I am certainly out of space in the safe. I don't know how the No 3 is going to fit.

I might have to face up to my gun-buying impulses lately and get a bigger safe. Since my wife really dislikes guns, and only tolerates my interest, that's going to be an awkward conversation.
Be careful and get a quality safe. Mine shrank after just a year.

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

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