At the present time, I have all Lee gear on my reloading bench. One of those is the Classic Turret Press (LCTP). This is one of two Lee presses that uses the "Safety Prime" system that uses a PEZ-dispenser-like mechanism to put primers into the primer ram. You have four stations with the LCTP. That allows for the following setup, by die station.

1.) Decapping/resizing die
2.) Powder-thru-expanding die (charges the case and flares the case neck)
3.) Bullet seating and crimping die
4.) Factory Crimp Die

Normally I use the first three, because usually I size my cast boolits before reloading if the mould drops them a bit large. However, that doesn't work for .45 Auto (ACP) because modern 1911 chambers seem to have a pretty tight adherence to the 0.451" (or 0.452") spec. So, I use the Lee FCD for .45 Auto.

Anyhoo, this evening I was in the reloading room. There were some 200gr cast boolits that I had made about 4-5 years ago, for use in .45 Auto. They were just sitting there. The LCTP was set up for .45 Auto, just as I had left it a few years ago. I don't know what got me in the mood to do so, but I loaded up the primer feed with some LPP's, put some Titegroup powder in the hopper, checked the powder drops for the proper weight of powder (5.4 grains--my standard powder charge with this boolit), and got to pulling the handle. I started kinda slowly since it'd been a while using that particular press. Figured I'd do a box of 50 and call it an evening.

Nearly a couple of hours later, I ran out of cast boolits. And I had 140 rounds of .45 Auto sitting in front of me.

This just felt too cool. It's actually been a few years since I loaded up any handgun ammo. In that time, I'd been using up what I'd made before (.38/357, .44 Spl/Mag, .45LC, and .45 ACP). Reloading your own just gives a sense of accomplishment.

This was a reminder why the LCTP is one of the best all-around presses for, I would say, most people who enjoy the sport of marksmanship. The darn thing is built like a tank, easy to use, affordable, and user-friendly. While it doesn't bang out the rounds like a progressive press does, it's reliable and still produces ammo at a decent rate. Typically I would get about 120 rounds/hour, not rushing, when using it regularly. That's probably fast enough for most people. Oh, and it does rifle rounds very well, too.

Sometimes, you get reminded of how cool it is to do something, and how useful and fun the tool is to use. This was one of those times.

This is one of the products I've been eyeing but have not yet bought.

CDFingers

Thats cool! Can't wait to get mine set up. Just figured out I need more space. So another table is needed so it's just for reloading.

I can get about 100 pistol rounds in 1:20-1:30, not rushing, on my Lee Challenger single stage. I find it it relaxing and intentional, and my ability to load on a single stage far outstrips my ability to afford primers these days. I like to run several batches of the same caliber in a row during a week, so that I don’t have to re week my settings before setting up another caliber. Rifle rounds take a bit longer as you have to do more case prep.

How clean do used rounds need to be?
Do I need to buy one of them tumblers?
They remind me of what rock hounds use to polish rocks.
Bet they didn't have them in the old days so what did they use?

You don't need a tumbler, but shiny brass sure is pretty. I didn't get my tumbler for a year or two. Walnut shells, but I'm up here in Butte County, CA, where we haz walnuts big time. Shells out the wazoo. I went to the thrift store and picked up a colander for a dime so I can filter the brass out. DO NOT BREATHE TUMBLER DUST.

Dang. I don't think I've written more than one word in all caps for about six years. I did it here to emphasize that there's lead dust in there from the brass.

CDFingers

So you tumble brass in walnut shells?

Yeah, I didn’t have a tumbler for like the first 7 or so years I reloaded. Dirty brass is fully functional. Just clean your dies.


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It is not a requirement, no. Most of the .45 ACP that I made last night was with unpolished brass. With that said, I typically do tumble my brass in a 50/50 mix of crushed walnut and Lyman's treated crushed corn cob. They get about 3-4 hours in that mixture. The brass looks beautiful.

Also got a wet tumbler with stainless steel pins recently. That'll get the brass looking just like brand-new, and without any lead-styphnate dust concerns.

Since it's not required, it does beg the question: why do people polish their brass?

Clean, shiny brass helps me find cracks in the brass more easily. That's a good thing for safety. It's also a bit of a point of pride in workmanship for me; I just like new-looking ammo. And yes, it is somewhat easier on the resizing die, though the tungsten-carbide resizing dies that we have today for handgun rounds are pretty much immune to grit. The cases, though, eventually can get scratched up by accumulanted grime, which is why you clean your dies every so often.

If you load grimy brass, everything else quickly gets grimy as well, from the press/dies, to the workbench, components and trays, etc… Dirty guns also sit in the safe and seem to fire fine too. But they are not as nice to fondle in between range trips. There is an aesthetics to firearms that cleanliness helps to support. Clean brass is one big step in that direction when you start to reload.

Depending on your system for tumbling brass, I find detergent with SS pins to be safest method to avoid accidental lead dust ingestion/inhalation. Rock tumblers are also quiet and pleasant to watch when working.

tonguengroover wrote: Wed Nov 09, 2022 10:15 pm So you tumble brass in walnut shells?

The shells are ground up sort of chunky , and there are many other options for tumbler medium, including ground corn cobs. The only downside to tumbling I've found is sometimes a bit of medium gets caught in the primer hole. Easily remedied. Inspect, remove, prime. Stainless steel is harder than brass, so I never pursued it.

Did I remind everyone to not breathe tumbler dust? Oh, check.

CDFingers

The decapping process will pop any piece(s) of tumbler medium, be it walnut or corn cob, right out of the flash hole when it's popping the primer out. So, no worries there.

Dry-tumbling has worked for decades for cleaning brass, and it will continue to work as well going forward. It works. And yep, avoid breathing tumbler dust. Keep the back to your wind when separating the brass from the tumbling medium.

When I tumble, it's after decapping.

CDFingers

Do you do so with a universal decapping die, or do you use the resizer/decapper combination die?

On the .45's I use resize/decap die.

CDFingers

Ah, I see. In that case, I would suggest going ahead and tumbling before decapping/resizing. That's been my strategy for all of my handgun rounds. So far, it's worked pretty well. You don't get the primer pockets cleaned, true, but for handgun ammo, it doesn't seem to matter. I've got 20+ reloads on some cases (especially .38 Special) with no problems. Just a thought.