Reefinmike
Member
Dont get complacent... I sure learned my lesson tonight :banghead: Always verify your powder charge each time you sit back down at the bench! It has been a year since I last loaded 38 (bullet mold went to junk and I had plenty of loaded ammo to shoot up) and after working up a load and testing out a new boolit alloy with a new powder (bullseye), I settled on a 3.1gr charge behind a relatively soft lee 158gr TLSWC sized down a thousandth or so to .358.
Yesterday I loaded up 250 at 3.1gr, switched my powder measure over from the .34 disk to the .43 disk and loaded up a box of 45acp 230gr LTC. After that I swapped the measure back on my 38/357 turret and loaded up a box of "premium" 357 with pre trimmed/sized/primed/chamfer/deburred brass loaded with a manually weighed charge of H110(it causes all my measures to bind up) and a 158gr xtp. No need to flare the case out so I didnt mess with the powder measure
Back to today- I hop back on the press with some shiny primed headstamp sorted ready to go 38 brass. Charge, seat... ooh silly me, I forgot I had it set for 357, lets just adjust my seating/crimp die and get back at it. My autodisk measure has thrown very precise charges since the day I bought it two years ago so I for the first time ever- didnt bother weighing the powder charge :banghead:.
600 rounds after I started I decided to weigh a charge as the cases looked fuller than I remember. Then it hit me- that .43cc disk was NOT the .34 disk I should be using. 3.9gr... thats the charge I throw for my cast 45's. DOH! I loaded up 600 rounds using the max 38 +p bullseye load. I know this will be just fine to shoot through my 357's. My only concern is that When I go test these out at the range tomorrow, my rifled barrel will be a smoothbore within a few shots. I got away from any serious leading in 38 loads once I stopped quenching boolits so hopefully these will be fine
Anyone know of any good boolit grippers to pull lead boolits? my pair of cheapo vice grips slip when I try to pull it using the press. I might have 600 to pull and recast and im sure as heck not using my impact puller for that.
Yesterday I loaded up 250 at 3.1gr, switched my powder measure over from the .34 disk to the .43 disk and loaded up a box of 45acp 230gr LTC. After that I swapped the measure back on my 38/357 turret and loaded up a box of "premium" 357 with pre trimmed/sized/primed/chamfer/deburred brass loaded with a manually weighed charge of H110(it causes all my measures to bind up) and a 158gr xtp. No need to flare the case out so I didnt mess with the powder measure
Back to today- I hop back on the press with some shiny primed headstamp sorted ready to go 38 brass. Charge, seat... ooh silly me, I forgot I had it set for 357, lets just adjust my seating/crimp die and get back at it. My autodisk measure has thrown very precise charges since the day I bought it two years ago so I for the first time ever- didnt bother weighing the powder charge :banghead:.
600 rounds after I started I decided to weigh a charge as the cases looked fuller than I remember. Then it hit me- that .43cc disk was NOT the .34 disk I should be using. 3.9gr... thats the charge I throw for my cast 45's. DOH! I loaded up 600 rounds using the max 38 +p bullseye load. I know this will be just fine to shoot through my 357's. My only concern is that When I go test these out at the range tomorrow, my rifled barrel will be a smoothbore within a few shots. I got away from any serious leading in 38 loads once I stopped quenching boolits so hopefully these will be fine
Anyone know of any good boolit grippers to pull lead boolits? my pair of cheapo vice grips slip when I try to pull it using the press. I might have 600 to pull and recast and im sure as heck not using my impact puller for that.