Epicurean
Member
I've been away from shooting and reloading for several years (health issues) but I'm back in the saddle now. My press (LCT) and associated gear have been sitting idle in a less than ideal environment.
About a week ago I forced 100 rounds of of 38 spl. through the press, loading as a single stage (what a struggle) just to make sure my old powder and primers would ignite. Fortunately they all went boom. Yesterday I stripped everything down and polished and lubed all contact surfaces and after much ado everything seemed to cycle smoothly. I reset all the dies and the merry-go-round circled smooth as glass. So today was my return to loading in earnest. Everything seemed to go haywire. I know loss of muscle memory is a large part of it, but that has nothing to do with primers rolling over in or being ejected from the primer arm. As has always been the case, powder (Bullseye) was dripping everywhere. On one occasion something didn't feel right with the charging stroke; it started dropping very light charges. Turns out the disc wasn't traveling all the way over the charging hole. I stripped the entire station down but I could not get it corrected. Then suddenly, for no apparent reason, it straightened itself out. All confidence in what I was doing was gone. I wound up checking about every fifth round out of paranoia. In about five hours I produced less that 400 rounds.
My LCT has always been temperamental (I understand all presses have their quirks) but it's very important to me that I can trust the machine not to produce a catastrophic failure. I'm seriously considering a move to a LnL; or maybe blue, but proprietary dies and long change overs tell me otherwise. So here's the question: for those of you that have made an upgrade from a LCT, do you feel that you are now making more consistent, and therefore more safe, ammo? I'd love the improved productivity but more important is safety.
About a week ago I forced 100 rounds of of 38 spl. through the press, loading as a single stage (what a struggle) just to make sure my old powder and primers would ignite. Fortunately they all went boom. Yesterday I stripped everything down and polished and lubed all contact surfaces and after much ado everything seemed to cycle smoothly. I reset all the dies and the merry-go-round circled smooth as glass. So today was my return to loading in earnest. Everything seemed to go haywire. I know loss of muscle memory is a large part of it, but that has nothing to do with primers rolling over in or being ejected from the primer arm. As has always been the case, powder (Bullseye) was dripping everywhere. On one occasion something didn't feel right with the charging stroke; it started dropping very light charges. Turns out the disc wasn't traveling all the way over the charging hole. I stripped the entire station down but I could not get it corrected. Then suddenly, for no apparent reason, it straightened itself out. All confidence in what I was doing was gone. I wound up checking about every fifth round out of paranoia. In about five hours I produced less that 400 rounds.
My LCT has always been temperamental (I understand all presses have their quirks) but it's very important to me that I can trust the machine not to produce a catastrophic failure. I'm seriously considering a move to a LnL; or maybe blue, but proprietary dies and long change overs tell me otherwise. So here's the question: for those of you that have made an upgrade from a LCT, do you feel that you are now making more consistent, and therefore more safe, ammo? I'd love the improved productivity but more important is safety.