Tried something new...downhill fast.

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jr_roosa

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I'm trying to get my friend into reloading on my bench so we tried to do some .30-06. I resized a few last night and checked one or two to see if they were over length and make sure my dies are in good shape. I don't have a .30-06, but the dies and came with my gear from my dad. Everything looked good.

So we resized this morning, and about 75% of the cases were over length (I happend to pick 2 that were fine last night). No big deal, but I don't have a case trimmer.

We decided to resize enough to get a dozen or so within spec and planned to trim the others at a later date. No problem.

Unfortunately almost all the good cases were military surplus that I thought had been reloaded once. Two stuck primers later and we discovered that the crimps were still there, and guess what...I don't have a crimp removal tool.

Gotta buy some new toys.

Unfortunately my friend looked like he had about enough of reloading. We'll see if we can get him hooked again after we get the cases trimmed and the primer pockets opened up.

-J.
 
Yep as soon as you get the case length guage and case trimmer. these are seperate parts trimming is easy. a side note. most bottle neck brass will have to be trimmed as the brass has to go somewhere when your pressing it back into shape. that somewhere is forward. Now if you only neck size the brass then you would not have to trim them. At least not for the majority. Neck sizing is best used only if you are firing from the same gun. AND not prefered on guns with magazines. Ok for bolt action though. I would also suggest a primer pocket cleaner to uniformily get the primer pockets uniformily done.
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The primers got stuck on the way back in. I deprimed them again (a little pucker factor on that) and they were mangled. They were then dispatched with a hammer on the concrete patio...no need for one to go off in the garbage truck and start a fire or something.

I'm looking at the RCBS primer pocket swaging die. I don't shoot .30-06 yet but there is an M1 and maybe an AR on the shopping list, and therefore probably more surplus brass.

We decided the Lee trimmers were the way to go. They are inexpensive and everybody seems to think they do a great job.

I got faked out on the bottlenecks becuase my .30-30 doesn't seem to stretch the brass very much...I only had one case out of 20 over the line when I reloaded those. I guess the higher pressure of the .30-06 makes a big difference.

I only have a full-length die. We'll see if a neck sizer is worth the investment. I think my buddy is planning on working up a load, loading up 50 rounds for hunting, and calling it a day. Again, I think he'll be hooked and really dive in once he gets a taste for it.

I'll probably put in an order to Midway today for the trimmer and swager and of course some other "necessities."

-J.
 
Next time you want to introduce someone to reloading start out with a nice easy straight walled Pistol case/caliber like the 38/357 ,45 acp or even the 44special/magnum .

Why would you do a "Show n tell" on a caliber and brass you aren't familiar with anyway ?
 
Yep, I agree with BigO01. You might want to read up and do a goodly number yourself before trying to show someone else how it's done. Otherwise, it's a good way to make yourself look like a dunce.

Dave
 
I'm used to looking like a dunce, so that wasn't a big worry. ;)

I'd rather have started with pistol, and we were going to do .40SW but he was worried about lead bullets in his glock, the higher cost of jacketed bullets, the added startup cost of getting a die set (I don't have a .40), etc. etc. and the decision was to hold off on .40 until he is in a better financial situation in a month or two. I'd have done .38 or .45 but he doesn't have either of those.

We picked .30-06 as more of a "what the heck, let's give it a try maybe we'll both learn something" rather than a teacher-pupil sort of thing. Also, we had everything we thought we needed on hand, so it negated some of his financial concerns.

I'd have loaded some ahead of time, but I don't have an '06 to try them in so it would have been a pretty academic exercise.

I'm also exaggerating a bit on how fed up with the process he was for the sake of the story. He says that he's definitely going to start reloading on his own at some point, and this was just an opportunity to try some things out using my gear before he makes a big investment in his own setup.

Certainly this should be a cautionary tale for those who want to teach somebody to reload....start with easy stuff you've already done yourself or risk looking like a dope!

-J.
 
you can use your chamfer tool to take the crimp out of the primer pocket edge
Click to expand...

I've done that in the past and wondered if it would cause loose pockets too soon. It works though.
 
Crimped Primer Pocket

"you can use your chamfer tool to take the crimp out of the primer pocket edge "

"a single flute countersink makes a good primer crimp remover and is generally available for a good bit less than the purpose built crimp removers"

Even a pocket knife will work well for a few but is too slow to do much volume.
 
"Even a pocket knife will work well for a few but is too slow to do much volume."

That is why I like the countersink. Chuck it up in a drill and you can do a lot of cases quickly.
 
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