MacTech
Member
Today, I took a big first step in the reloading hobby, I took my first batch of .45 ACP reloads (35 rounds) to the range today, along with a 100 pak box of WWB to compare them to, my first two mags were loaded with one round each, the WWB first, then the reload, so I could compare the performance of each round, and in the event of a squib or other failure in the reload, the risk would be minimal, I fired off the WWB round first, and it performed well as always, I ejected that mag, and slid in the mag with my single reload, racked the slide, and prepared to fire my *first* reloaded round....
I had been nervous on the drive to the range, visions of squib loads failing to fire, or my gun blowing up on me because I got the formula wrong, I was apprehensive, to say the least
I brought my sights on target, shooting from a seated position with arms braced on the shooting bench, my finger found the trigger, and pulled it back....
I was rewarded with a *BANG* and a bright yellow splotch appearing in the center of the target, the round worked, and not only worked, it worked brilliantly! I then loaded up an alternating mag, 4 rounds of WWB, 4 reloads, one after the other (WWB, RL, WWB, RL....)
There was a clear difference between the loads, my reloads had half the recoil, and half the report of the WWB loads, they were a nice, manageable, accurate load, very pleasant to shoot, they felt like they were actually milder than my WWB 9mm rounds as well
I then proceeded to fire off the rest of the box of the WWB, mainly to use them up, saving my last 24 reloads for the end of the .45 shooting session, just before I got to my reloads, I put up a fresh target and proceeded to fire off the last 24 rounds at it
Shots were taken from 22 feet away, bracing my arms on the shooting bench, and bear in mind, these are my first reloads, and I'm also new to the Kimber Custom II as well, I've had it about two weeks, and have only got out to shoot it three times so far (two times last weekend, and today)
Needless to say, I'm quite happy with this load, it's got a nice, pleasant recoil, and reasonably quiet report, and it's quite accurate to boot, I was actually disappointed when I ran out of my reloads
On the upside though, one of the other shooters, running a nice Dan Wesson 1911 in .45 ACP as well, doesn't reload, so I wound up with a good amount of his brass, hey, can't argue with free brass, once I become more comfortable with my reloading skill level, I'll load him up a box as thanks for supplying me with brass
Oh, and I was also wrong about the Lee Auto-Prime hand priming tool, I thought it was a cheap, gimmicky device, and that on-press priming was superior, not so, the on-press priming on my Lee Pro 1000 is a headache waiting to happen, unreliable, slow, constantly misfeeding primers, heck, it even jammed one in sideways, I had been reduced to manually placing each primer on the post, raising the ram far enough to slightly rotate the shell plate to slip in a case at station 2, and rotating the plate back to position 2 to seat the primer to reliably prime the case, a major headache, the Auto-Prime is much easier, and actually works, not a single misfeed, jam, or sideways primer, it just works
So, I'm changing my reloading strategy a little, I've pulled the depriming/resize die off the press, and will probably use it in a hand press or something, Station 1 now becomes the Expander/Charging station, Station 2 becomes the Bullet Seating station, and I'm thinking of installing a Factory Crimp die in station 3....
So, needless to say, I'm quite pleased with my first batch of reloads, and have just finished up a new batch of 150 for the range trip tomorrow
I had been nervous on the drive to the range, visions of squib loads failing to fire, or my gun blowing up on me because I got the formula wrong, I was apprehensive, to say the least
I brought my sights on target, shooting from a seated position with arms braced on the shooting bench, my finger found the trigger, and pulled it back....
I was rewarded with a *BANG* and a bright yellow splotch appearing in the center of the target, the round worked, and not only worked, it worked brilliantly! I then loaded up an alternating mag, 4 rounds of WWB, 4 reloads, one after the other (WWB, RL, WWB, RL....)
There was a clear difference between the loads, my reloads had half the recoil, and half the report of the WWB loads, they were a nice, manageable, accurate load, very pleasant to shoot, they felt like they were actually milder than my WWB 9mm rounds as well
I then proceeded to fire off the rest of the box of the WWB, mainly to use them up, saving my last 24 reloads for the end of the .45 shooting session, just before I got to my reloads, I put up a fresh target and proceeded to fire off the last 24 rounds at it
Shots were taken from 22 feet away, bracing my arms on the shooting bench, and bear in mind, these are my first reloads, and I'm also new to the Kimber Custom II as well, I've had it about two weeks, and have only got out to shoot it three times so far (two times last weekend, and today)
Needless to say, I'm quite happy with this load, it's got a nice, pleasant recoil, and reasonably quiet report, and it's quite accurate to boot, I was actually disappointed when I ran out of my reloads
On the upside though, one of the other shooters, running a nice Dan Wesson 1911 in .45 ACP as well, doesn't reload, so I wound up with a good amount of his brass, hey, can't argue with free brass
, once I become more comfortable with my reloading skill level, I'll load him up a box as thanks for supplying me with brassOh, and I was also wrong about the Lee Auto-Prime hand priming tool, I thought it was a cheap, gimmicky device, and that on-press priming was superior, not so, the on-press priming on my Lee Pro 1000 is a headache waiting to happen, unreliable, slow, constantly misfeeding primers, heck, it even jammed one in sideways, I had been reduced to manually placing each primer on the post, raising the ram far enough to slightly rotate the shell plate to slip in a case at station 2, and rotating the plate back to position 2 to seat the primer to reliably prime the case, a major headache, the Auto-Prime is much easier, and actually works, not a single misfeed, jam, or sideways primer, it just works
So, I'm changing my reloading strategy a little, I've pulled the depriming/resize die off the press, and will probably use it in a hand press or something, Station 1 now becomes the Expander/Charging station, Station 2 becomes the Bullet Seating station, and I'm thinking of installing a Factory Crimp die in station 3....
So, needless to say, I'm quite pleased with my first batch of reloads, and have just finished up a new batch of 150 for the range trip tomorrow
