rskent
Member
9)Date your powder and primers on the container they came in.
Great idea, never thought of that.
9)Date your powder and primers on the container they came in.
I'm guessing my statement is true of the LnL and really any of the high quality progressive presses available.Don't own a Dillon so I can't comment on that part but excellent write up.
Thanks for sharing it with us.
LOL! Yeah, the funny thing is that I never even thought about the cost. It was my OCD that got the better of me. I load in lots of 50 at the minimum. If I lose a primer I'll only have 49 rounds.7a) Primers are cheap... really cheap... if the case gets scrunched TOSS IT... primer and all. LOL!
7a) Primers are cheap... really cheap... if the case gets scrunched TOSS IT... primer and all. LOL!
I find I am very gentle with the lever on my press and use steady pressure as well. The spent primer seems to drop into the chute more consistently and not ricochet out with gentle pressure, and the seating of a new primer just seems a little less worrisome. None the less, we are in a time of plenty so I probably should just tell the OCD side of myself to shut it.For those of us who formed a lot of our reloading habits in a panic-stricken, primers-can't-be-found environment, gently removing and re-seating a primer is not an alien experience! I probably would never have done it the first dozen times if I hadn't been keeping one eye on a dwindling pile of primers that I worried I couldn't replace at-will. After those first dozen or so times, you realize that primers require impact to pop, not steady pressure. In fact, I have thorough crushed/mangled a couple of mis-aligned primers in my 650... no bang, though, because I'm not violently slamming the primer in.
I guess I mentioned it just because it can be done, but I'm not making a habit of it.I only deprime a live primer in that rare occasion I want to save the case but feel the primer was damaged. I never "reuse" primers. As Mike said they're pretty cheap.
Yep, I keep my powder in a lockable chest. The only powder than visits the bench is the one I'm using for that loading session. If I change cartridges I've made it a habit to put powder and primers away first. Then change toolheads. THEN I get out the new powder and primers I'll be using.Congratulations on the 1 year of reloading without any major lessons learned. It seems a common lesson learned by most reloaders is to keep only one powder on the bench. You did not mention it, so I assume you have not had the need to fertilize the lawn yet. I joined this forum in August 2014 when I started reloading, and immediately learned from the forum to keep only one powder container on the bench. So far touch wood, no accidents.
I just checked my records and I have just passed 15k rounds loads with just over 4 years of reloading. Looks like I do about 3,600 per year, in the same ballpark as you.
It is a fun hobby. Keep at it and keep on being safe.
Agreed. It's a good habit.Only thing I’d add is that, on a progressive, if you get distracted or interrupted, PLEASE empty out all cases that have any powder in them and start fresh with them. Helps avoid a double load or squib.
The 650 auto indexes right?Since I leave my 650 up and mid-load at all times, I don't empty out cases. I leave the press fully up, with each case in the die. Since the indexing takes place on the downstroke, there's no way to somehow forget... I just raise the handle/lower the ram and put the next bullet on top of the powder.
True. I have had distractions occur and as you said if you leave the ram up an fully engaged you know everything is safe and sound. This has become my practice also.Yep. But I think I'd take the same approach even with a non-auto-index press. With the rounds up in the dies, you know what the status of each one is. The one at the crimped station is now crimped. The one at the seating station now has a bullet seated over powder. The one at the powder-drop station is expanded and has powder. The one in the sizing die is sized and de-primed. The only way this can be wrong is if you screwed something up before you raised the ram. If everything was right when you raised the ram, that's the condition of everything in the dies. When you lower the ram, that's the condition everything will be in. If you have to advance the holder, then advance the holder. But there's no memory required about where you were. And there's also no way for a bug to crawl into a case or a drop of oil/grease to contaminate an open case filled with powder.
I don't do nearly as much check-weighing on my 650 as I do on my LCT. Because the powder hopper/dropper isn't swinging around on a turret, I'm less worried about it getting bumped in some way. I might check-weigh one in every 200 charges these days, if that. Not counting setup, of course.
That's scary stuff. Glad you weren't injured in a serious way.One thing I learned this summer that the OP pointed out is do not force! You would think after 40 years of loading I would know this, but the case alignment got off on my Dillon 650 and every so often I was having to force a primer to seat. I had bought a bunch o off brandf once fired brass at a gun show and I just figured some of the holes were slightly smaller and was I wrong. I forced the lever up and it set off a chain reaction that fired close to 100 primers at once! It was quite an explosion. It blew out the aluminum primer tube and everything on top along with damaging the primer feed system. Thankfully the steel sleeve around the primer tube protected me. Dillon was kind enough to replace everything under warranty but I didn't care. I was so glad they built in the safety of the steel sleeve around the primer tube I would have gladly paid for all the parts. When I was replacing the parts is when I realized the alignment guide was out of line and a 10 second adjustment was all it took. By the way, I do wear safety glasses when loading no matter how dorky it looks and when I had the explosion, there was 2 burn marks on the lens that could have meant eye damage. Maybe, maybe not, but when you have an explosion and parts are flying all over the room, it gets your attention in a big way.
^^^This.Don't make more than you can shoot. Unless you keep a detailed log book of your loads you'll forget what you have loaded.
That's scary stuff. Glad you weren't injured in a serious way.