Still having problems with reloads
- Thread starter alan6271
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P95Carry
Moderator Emeritus
Just adding re belling - it is a fine line between not enough and too much. Excessive belling of course stresses the brass and you get more work hardening and shorter life.
The bullet base should, if offered up by hand - just engage the inside of case mouth - by maybe only a 1/64" or less ... but once base is safely started then those probs you have described should be gone.
The bullet base should, if offered up by hand - just engage the inside of case mouth - by maybe only a 1/64" or less ... but once base is safely started then those probs you have described should be gone.
TooTaxed
Member
Two problems: Your powder problem sounds like you have tumbling media stuck in the flash holes. If you decap, and then tumble, you should still run the cases through the decap operation when you resize just before loading, to ensure the flash hole is clear.
Case mouth belling is often unnecessary when you load strongly-jacketed bullets with a slightly beveled base. But belling is essential when you use lead or thinly-jacketed bullets such as the Raniers. Just don't over-bell...it makes the loading operation more difficult and can reduce brass life.
Case mouth belling is often unnecessary when you load strongly-jacketed bullets with a slightly beveled base. But belling is essential when you use lead or thinly-jacketed bullets such as the Raniers. Just don't over-bell...it makes the loading operation more difficult and can reduce brass life.
OK. Narrowing down the problems here. I went and shot PPC last night. After tightening the spring screw in the grip things were much better. Nearly all my bullets shot OK. Nearly! I had my buddy load up 60 rounds using 230 gr bullets, clays powder and Winchester primers and every one of those worked perfect. Not any problems, all powder burned, etc. They shot really well.
So he and I went home and took my powder charge apart on my press and it had a lot of "gunk" in it. Looked like old powder, grease, etc. caked on the inside of the tube running from the powder hopper to the nozzle. We cleaned everything out. Also we removed the lock out die and put a bullet seating die in its place and put the crimp die on the next station. That solved my problem with crushing cases and damaging bullets. I made up about 24 rounds to take over to my range tonight after doing all this to test those. If this doesn't fix it, I am going to quit shooting and take up a different hobby. Maybe electric trains or something!
So he and I went home and took my powder charge apart on my press and it had a lot of "gunk" in it. Looked like old powder, grease, etc. caked on the inside of the tube running from the powder hopper to the nozzle. We cleaned everything out. Also we removed the lock out die and put a bullet seating die in its place and put the crimp die on the next station. That solved my problem with crushing cases and damaging bullets. I made up about 24 rounds to take over to my range tonight after doing all this to test those. If this doesn't fix it, I am going to quit shooting and take up a different hobby. Maybe electric trains or something!
BluesBear
member
There ya' go.alan6271 said:
You were contaminating your powder and more than likely throwing inconsistant charge weights.
And the mainspring screw should always be tight. A loose strain screw is a sure sign of a kitchen table gunsmith.
Check out this thread for my hint of how to keep your seat/crimp dies in spec.
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