Thread: First crack at reloading

Originally Posted by muka88

I have a health stash of remington saved up ,
Whats wrong with Winchester?

of 50 new cases i purchased all new in a sealed bag, 1/2 were tarnished and slightly dented but how these 2 made it out the factory i will never know.
after 3 reloads (all mild loads) all the cases are now binned whereas my lapua and remington are going strong.

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

Yep this^^^ but 1/4 to 1/2 a turn is way too much....an 1/8 to 1/16th a turn at a time or you can end up with excessive headspace and case head separation issues.

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Sorry I'm on a shitty lee press that fucker has heaps of play in it, you should start small and test after each adjustment.

Reloading can be a lot of fun and has multiple benefits. I started with a Lee Hand Press to see if I liked it, now I have a mega set up with 3 benches and two permanent presses. In an average year I am loading about 8000-10000 rounds. I always recommend take it slow because you are going to learn a lot of little nuances about reloading and make small changes always plus double check your work.

Ill have a try on the weekend.
Just brought lee quick trim.
Need it eventually in any case i suppose.

How meny times approx can you reload brass with a warmish load?

Not really a thing, just keep an eye on it, when it's getting to near max length, trim it.
Lee quick trim is great I have one and it's so simple to use, beware though you still need to chamfer the inside and outside of the neck post trimming, even if you get the deluxe cutter that's meant to do that.
In order it should be done:
1 resize
2 trim
3 chamfer
4 prime
5 load

Originally Posted by muka88

Ill have a try on the weekend.
Just brought lee quick trim.
Need it eventually in any case i suppose.

How meny times approx can you reload brass with a warmish load?

Warmish is a very subjective term. Do you mean at or close to max ?

Originally Posted by muka88

Ill have a try on the weekend.
Just brought lee quick trim.
Need it eventually in any case i suppose.

How meny times approx can you reload brass with a warmish load?

Depends on a lot of factors but if your primers fall out after a couple of times it is way to warm!

Loose primer pockets is one of the first to go on hot loads.
Imminent case head separation is more due to excessive head-space or lots of full length sizes.
Split necks can be avoided to a degree by annealing and or bushing or collet dies minimizing the working of the neck.

Originally Posted by gonetropo

of 50 new cases i purchased all new in a sealed bag, 1/2 were tarnished and slightly dented but how these 2 made it out the factory i will never know.
after 3 reloads (all mild loads) all the cases are now binned whereas my lapua and remington are going strong.Attachment 118191

Quality control done good.

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

Yep this^^^ but 1/4 to 1/2 a turn is way too much....an 1/8 to 1/16th a turn at a time or you can end up with excessive headspace and case head separation issues.

Sent from my S60 using Tapatalk

Im still trying to get my head around this bit....if the dies go down far enough to contact the base.....the round CANT be any shorter,or can it??? using the hornady new dimension .308 dies no matter how hard I try or how much I screw them in I cant get them to touch base.ther seems to be a mm or so of case still that doesnt get touched.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Im still trying to get my head around this bit....if the dies go down far enough to contact the base.....the round CANT be any shorter,or can it??? using the hornady new dimension .308 dies no matter how hard I try or how much I screw them in I cant get them to touch base.ther seems to be a mm or so of case still that doesnt get touched.

Depending on the lenght of the chamber and the lenght of the die the die would normally have clearance from the shelholder......so winding it down further than nessacary will shorten the case more than nessacary and it will streatch back to chamber lenght on fireing.....this streatching all happens in the region of the case just above the base and if it is excessive and repeated many times then the case head falls off the case and the rest is stuck in your chamber.
The opposite situation is a short chamber where you cannot size short enough and the die is bottomed out on the shell holder.
All presses streatch a bit and some cheaper ones a lot .So thatwhen sizing the brass even tho the die is set to bottom out it doesn't touch it because the pressure of sizing streatchs the press....can be fixed sometimes by winding the die slightly lower than contact to take up some flex or sometimes the die or shell holder will need to be ground a bit to let them size short enough.

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yip its the last line of what you wrote that I cant get my head around.....if the two pieces base and die are touching that MUST be minimum spec so screwing die in further cant make it any smaller/shorter. if the two ARENT touching case should be too long???
sorry for being thick I just cant figure it out.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

yip its the last line of what you wrote that I cant get my head around.....if the two pieces base and die are touching that MUST be minimum spec so screwing die in further cant make it any smaller/shorter. if the two ARENT touching case should be too long???
sorry for being thick I just cant figure it out.

They may touch when setting up but streatch apart when sizing because the press streatches.

ok ta for that.

Originally Posted by gonetropo

of 50 new cases i purchased all new in a sealed bag, 1/2 were tarnished and slightly dented but how these 2 made it out the factory i will never know.
after 3 reloads (all mild loads) all the cases are now binned whereas my lapua and remington are going strong.Attachment 118191

How many reloads do you get out of Remington brass?

Originally Posted by Max Headroom

Warmish is a very subjective term. Do you mean at or close to max ?

i am half a grain of ADI book max and i think that hopefully i am coming up to the second accuracy node( groups getting better again)
no signs of pressure.
i was thinking the book max would be a bit conservative , lawyers and all that
i did start at the starting load "safety first", also being supervised by someone with experience in these things