Step by step reloading of a 30-06 Round With Pictures and Precise Data Recording

[gfanikf]

I figured instead of continuing to do a million threads asking disparate different questions and raising well meaning concerns about safety....I'm going to do this the right way...patient, careful, and in order with a small number of rounds from cleaning all the way to loaded and labeled and stored. I think it will cut down on threads I posted here about 1000%. This might be a useful tutorial by the end. With the snow coming...I'm going to have some free time. Oh If people help maybe I'll ship them some of my goof rounds they strip for components...no way I'm trying to deprime a live primer...and its not any real loss in cost.

Tools available for use
Lee Hand Press
Lee Classic Turret Press (took out middle part to make it single stage)
Once Fired Lake City brass
Hornady Sonic Cleaner*
Hornady cleaning Solution
1000 cci 200 primers
100 Winchester LRP
300 Hornady .308 FMJBT bullets
Lyman Tumbler and Tuffnut Media
Two Loading Blocks
Cabelas Digital Calipers
Lee 3006 Deluxe Die Set
Lee Factory Crimp Die
RCBS Primer Swager Set
1Lb Varget
2Lb IMR 4895
Lee chamfer, primer pocket cleaner, case gauge and trimmer power drill chuck
Hornady LNL Auto Charger*
Lee powder funnel
Lee Case Lube
Hornady One Shot
Lee Ram Primer and XR Primer
Hornady Digital Scale
Lyman Hornady Lee Loading Manual
Lee Powder Dipper set
Lee Shell Holders for the primer and press
Think I listed everything. Have a rubber mallet. Small screws, ikea tool set, and power drill and drill set

*Debating whether to keep or return..I'll figure out my choice after this.

Step 1 Cleaning Brass.

Last night I ran 19 pieces of once fired lc brass in the sonic cleaner...meh results for one wash. Not bad, more may help.

Should I tumble now or do some more cleanings? If I tumble, how do I then clean out tumbler media from a case?

I'll post pics and organize my gear list vs straight what I recall I have when I get home.

I look forward to all the help I know THR posters will deliver and to me reloading with ease soon.

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[Certaindeaf]

Make that a round 20. Get a bullet puller! It's OK to pull loaded/live rounds.

Good idea with the thread. I'm sure there'll be a lot of good input and scrutiny.

 

[Blue68f100]

If your using liquid cleaners you need to rinse and dry before any thing else is done. The primers should also be removed before using liquid cleaner. A universal deprimer die is good for this since the brass will be dirty.

With tumble media you just empty the brass as you take them out. I use the 20/40 corncob which is fine enough it does not stick in the primer pockets. Just knock it out when you run through the sizer die. For straight wall it just comes out with the separator.

 

[ranger335v]

"...no way I'm trying to deprime a live primer...and its not any real loss in cost."

And why woud you not? Experienced loaders do it routinely.

 

[gfanikf]

"...no way I'm trying to deprime a live primer...and its not any real loss in cost."

And why woud you not? Experienced loaders do it routinely.

Because I'm not experienced

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[Josh45]

Well, There is one way to get experience and that is by doing it.
Not saying to do anything your not comfy with it, But you will end up doing it eventually.

Just do it very slowly. Wear protective lens and some ear muffs. You will be fine.

 

[bob4]

Because I'm not experienced

I'm not very experience either and have done it. Nothing wrong with waiting until your comfortable though. Just put those shells aside till then. They'll wait.

 

[blarby]

Last night I ran 19 pieces of once fired lc brass in the sonic cleaner...meh results for one wash. Not bad, more may help.

cycle three times using 480 second cycles.

 

[StretchNM]

Gfanikf, you can take some reasonable precautions when decapping live primers. I've done many and haven;t had one pop yet.

Turn your shellholder (and top of ram if it will turn, so primer arm groove faces away from you) to face away fro you. Run your ram up slowly and gently pop the primer loose. Make sure the spent primer catch tray is clean so you don;t get styphnates, carbon, and other primer juice on your unfired primers. I wear glasses anyway, so that's my eye protection, but you could wear goggles (and even hearing protection) for this certain operation. Again, they don;t pop. In fact, I don;t think I can even remember another forum member saying he had one pop on him while decapping, but it certainly is possible, or it at least seems possible. I just never had one pop, so maybe they can't from the backside? I don;t know. Anyway, you should decap and reuse them.

 

[gfanikf]

Okay I returned the sonic cleaner so I'm starting again.

I put in around ~110 rounds of once fired Lake City Brass into Lyman Turbo 1200 with about two pounds of the tuffnut media.

It's been spinning for about 2 hours. I'm going to let it go another 2-4.

So after I pull the plug on the tumbler, how should I proceed?



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[bob4]

Just my opinion but 6 hrs seems a bit much. I guess it's all what you want in the end.

 

[gfanikf]

Just my opinion but 6 hrs seems a bit much. I guess it's all what you want in the end.

It's more that I'll be out for awhile so its not like its delaying me from other things.

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[rsrocket1]

Get a lamp timer to shut the tumbler off after (insert time here) hours.

 

[T Bran]

Take the tumbler outside before you open it up and be sure that the wind blows the dust away from you as you sift the media from the cases.
Also be sure to wash your hands after wiping down the cases.

Lead exposure from the spent primers can be pretty nasty. It's good to include a bit of caution from the start.
T

 

[gfanikf]

Take the tumbler outside before you open it up and be sure that the wind blows the dust away from you as you sift the media from the cases.
Also be sure to wash your hands after wiping down the cases.

Lead exposure from the spent primers can be pretty nasty. It's good to include a bit of caution from the start.
T

Oh yeah, I do it all outside on my balcony. I have a 10 month old daughter, so I also wash my hands religiously. I think I might get a rotating tumbler/sifter since I don't like how with the Lyman the other option is to leave it running and use my hands to sift it. Even with gloves it's kicking up a lot of dust.

So some updates.

1. Brash tumbled fine, but leaves that red dust residue inside (Tuffnut...I think I need to just get the Pet Store stuff people use). But they came out really nice and shiny after 6-8 hours. Unless it's some massive power drain I think I'll just go with that time length.
2. On some brass I needed to use a decapper die first, as it wouldn't deprime and resize on some. Oddly it was a mixed bag, for some I could use the deprime and full length resize and others I couldn't with no rhyme or reason.
3. I used lots of Hornady spray lube (I know the warning about over lubing, but I checked the cases). My theory is that the lube was only briefly effective due to the near freezing weather outside* were I did it...either way I had to spray early and often.
4. PRIMER CRIMPS ARGHHHHH. I have the RCBS Primer Swager set and it doesn't seem to do anything. I was able to mount it on the hand primer and my turret press and perhaps it needs to be only on a single stage press, but I can't seem to get rid of those primer crimps. So what I did was after trying drill bits (seems it only works with a countersink), was I stuck the round upside down in the drill (locked it in), spun it around and used the lee chamfer in my hand to get rid of the crimp (not all of it, but a lot more than before), it also works nicely for other case prep things (using the lee case holder).

I think I might just get the Hornady drill pocket reamer. Ironically I was going to get it initially, but I felt there was no way I could use a drill late at night at home....sigh. Well I might just sell off the swager set to cover the cost.


*I do a bunch of tasks on the balcony (no powder or priming) since it blocks any real noise, even if my daughter is asleep I can tumble, use power tools, etc (it has grounded outside three prong sockets), the apartment next to us is college students (who have given no issues to us...or complaints) and on the other side (to the left) there is no apartment. It's also on a second floor where there is no one below us, but a side entrance. Concrete exterior helps bleed away the sound too.

 

[cfullgraf]

Get a lamp timer to shut the tumbler off after (insert time here) hours.

That's a good idea. Some day i will remember to buy a timer when I am at one of the big box hardware stores.

I let my tumbler run over night mostly because I am not awake when it has completed two or three hours of running I hate to be around when it is running, I start it when I leave the reloading room for the night.

Run the tumbler with the lid in place and dust is a non-issue. In fact, my dogs generate way more dust tracking in barn yard mud than the tumbler does when it is running.

 

[readyeddy]

Are we trimming cases yet?

 

[gfanikf]

Are we trimming cases yet?

I did one yesterday but just to test the drill bit. I'll be trimming them tonight.

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[CHALK22]

That's a good idea. Some day i will remember to buy a timer when I am at one of the big box hardware stores.
QUOTE]

Yup. I think I got mine at home depot for +/- 7 bucks. Works great.

 

[gfanikf]

That's a good idea. Some day i will remember to buy a timer when I am at one of the big box hardware stores.
QUOTE]

Yup. I think I got mine at home depot for +/- 7 bucks. Works great.

Funny enough I have one still sitting in a package. Then again like I said if no one is complaining and it's not a money waster, I'm not sure if I should bother. That said I guess I want to see how very long tumbles will work vs shorter ones and look for an optimal time and using the timer eliminates that being an issue.

Okay after a lot of great help from people in the crimp removal thread. I think I can move ahead.

Now last night I took ten Federal Once Fired Cases I had and went to work with them. These have no crimps. I didn't tumble them as I get home around 730 and honestly they were pretty clean. I resized and deprimed them (and got my resize die nicely fine tuned). I case prepped them using a chamfer, pocket primer cleaner, and lee case trimer and lock stud. For the hell of it I tried trimming one without the lock...no surprise it keeps trimming, thus I have 9 left.

I'm going to try and prime them tonight vs ones that (theoretically) have had the crimps swage and compare pressure needed (using the Lee Prime XR) to hand prime them. Some that I already primed needed a lot of pressure and I don't know if they may have issues due to the crimp not being properly swaged enough and those potential pressure dangers.

After that I guess the next step is to get my bullet seating die set just right (using of course a round that is NOT primed...I learned my lesson). Once I do that I'm going to reorganize all the brass I had from previous failed reloading attempts, mostly stuff when I thought the red rouge from tuff nut might be an issue, concerns of pocket crimps, etc organized and then start figuring out what needs to be resized vs just case preped, pocket cleared, etc.

After that I'm going to just do batches of resizing, crimp removal, cleaning inside the case...and then just start making ammo. I kind of wish I had an auto charger, but for the moment I'll just do them slowly using the Hornady Electronic scale I have...then I'll ask for the chargemaster.

 

[readyeddy]

I'm not sure why you wouldn't use a primed case to adjust your seating die. Eventually all of your primed cases will go through the seating die.

I guess I'm not very patient. Use the Lee trimmer thing-a-ma-jig so you don't trim too much and you're done in a few turns of the wrist. Chamfer the case mouth so it's smooth.

Also I've never cleaned a primer pocket. They've looked okay to me so far and the primers seem to slide in there okay.

Weighing every charge on the scale is not that time consuming especially when you're loading 10 or 20 rounds at a time and each case is taking about 55 grains of powder.

For bullet seating, just follow the directions on your die box, except if you don't want to apply a taper crimp then back out the die a couple of turns. Get your caliper adjusted to your desired OAL and then turn the seating die about half a turn at a time. After every push of the seating die, compare it to the caliper. When you start getting close to the caliper, turn the seating die 1/4 turns until the cartridge fits into the caliper.

Then Voila! You're done. If you feel like it you can put Lee FCD crimp on it. But some people don't use any crimp on rifle cartridges.

 

[gfanikf]

I'm not sure why you wouldn't use a primed case to adjust your seating die. Eventually all of your primed cases will go through the seating die.

It was because I didn't (still need to order) a bullet puller and the risk (so I was told) of potentially mixing it back up.

I guess I'm not very patient. Use the Lee trimmer thing-a-ma-jig so you don't trim too much and you're done in a few turns of the wrist. Chamfer the case mouth so it's smooth.

Yeah, I was just trying to figure out how it prevented from over trimming.

Also I've never cleaned a primer pocket. They've looked okay to me so far and the primers seem to slide in there okay.

More that I bought the tool at some point and I was like, eh why the hell not, but I hadn't tumbled the brass.

For bullet seating, just follow the directions on your die box, except if you don't want to apply a taper crimp then back out the die a couple of turns. Get your caliper adjusted to your desired OAL and then turn the seating die about half a turn at a time. After every push of the seating die, compare it to the caliper. When you start getting close to the caliper, turn the seating die 1/4 turns until the cartridge fits into the caliper.

Then Voila! You're done. If you feel like it you can put Lee FCD crimp on it. But some people don't use any crimp on rifle cartridges.

Thanks. I just want to get it done nice and right and I just haven't had the time and I didn't want to use up to many bullets (hence why I need to get a bullet puller).

 

[readyeddy]

I think I understand your approach to making it right.

One other thing you could do is to separate your components into batches. Separate your cases by brands, and then weigh the cases so your different batches are uniform. Same goes for your bullets. And of course, weigh your powder charges. Once you have a batch that uses uniform components and are loaded using uniform measurements, then they should shoot more consistently, i.e. tighter groups.

And if later you want to go with an easier but more expensive option, I would recommend loading Sierra bullets on Lapua brass. Uniform out of the box.

 

[gfanikf]

I think I understand your approach to making it right.

One other thing you could do is to separate your components into batches. Separate your cases by brands, and then weigh the cases so your different batches are uniform. Same goes for your bullets. And of course, weigh your powder charges. Once you have a batch that uses uniform components and are loaded using uniform measurements, then they should shoot more consistently, i.e. tighter groups.

And if later you want to go with an easier but more expensive option, I would recommend loading Sierra bullets on Lapua brass. Uniform out of the box.

Thanks I'm currently doing that now working with Lake City 1969 and 1972 Brass separated from each other.

I do have some great news as of last night I loaded two rounds (from an earlier primed batch. Two LC1969 Brass with WLR Primers, 49gr of IMR 4895, 150 gr Hornady FMJBT bulley with a crimp. Bullet is seated right around 3.185. Hearing the shake of powder in them felt great...I dare say even my wife was happy for me.

I plan to resize/deprime 50 LC69 tonight and case prep them.



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[readyeddy]

Also, write everything down in a journal and keep track of your cartridges. Shoot at paper for groups and save your targets with notes including date and load data. The journey to finding your pet load can take a while and documentation is helpful.

When shooting, use a bipod or sturdy rest and let your barrel cool for at least 3 minutes between shots. A chrono is nice, but the speeds published in the Sierra manual is accurate in my experience.

Have fun!