Thread: New to reloading and have some questions

Are you guys now talking about O.A.L, I'm in the same boat as the OP, very new to reloading. My factory ammo OAL length was way shorter than my reloading manuals. I just went with the manual for length. I'll start a new thread re OAL

Originally Posted by widerange

I would suggest some time on youtube watching and learning the process

^^^^
This.

Originally Posted by widerange

I would suggest some time on youtube watching and learning the process

or mke your own video of what you are doing and whats happening and post it here (via you tube)

Or someone could call round and show him

If you’re having trouble seating and also getting the expander ball back through the neck, often it’s just the necks are dirty. Cleaning the inside of the necks with a cleaning brush (likely there’ll be a handle in your kit that will fit a normal cleaning brush) will help a lot. If you’re tumbling or otherwise cleaning then no issue. A cheap way to clean when getting started is Birchwood Casey solution - not as shiny as tumbling but all you need is the solution, a couple of icecream containers and hot water.

Also some dry lube to dip the necks in (mica, or powdered graphite) will help. And of course keep the lube off the case shoulder, body only. Lastly, bin the hornady brass - if that’s all I could use I think I’d quit reloading! Seriously, it is dreadful stuff - you might get lucky and have a decent batch but it’s completely hit and miss.

Stefan, you have to debur your cases everytime you seat bullets.

The guys on the forum shared some good advice. Feel free to ask, we'll keep on helping and giving advice.

how come

Cheers guys for all the info, a lot to learn and i new found respect for reloaders.

So I use the libe that came with the kit.. I lubed the whole case (even the neck and shoulder??) dunked the neck in the lube and the brass went smoothly through the die.. But form the info read here is it not good to put the neck of the shell in the lube?

What brass would you recommend to shoot?

No shells had to be trimmed, they were all under max shell length of 2.500 inches

Cheers for all the info guys

Yeah haven't trimmed any

Thanks for the info. So I resized the shell, confused of I'm doing a full length resize or just the neck.. but never the less the bullet won't fit into the mouth of the shell, just the boat tail will sit in there if that makes since.. maybe that's normal

that lee tooth paste is shite........a great deal of issues have been caused by it over the years...some swear by it..I swear at it..... you lube case body, and case neck inside n out but NOT the shoulder area or you will get wee dents in it.
there are still some of those manuals mentioned in the forsale section....
hornady is ok but be aware of headstamps s there is more than one type doing the rounds.

cant push a projectile into neck by hand......when you resize case it squeazes it down and then when you lift handle the button inside the die opens it back up to just undersize...when you push projectile down into case using seating die it has to be a tight fit to hold projectile in place....

I,m wondering if what your experiencing is that you haven't seated the bullet and are just trying to fit it in, it is normal for the boat tail to slip in and the seater seats the rest of the bullet in the resized neck which should be tight, it is of no use if you can push the bullets in.

Maybe I have the wrong idea of what you are trying to do, maybe a photo will help, don't dunk your brass in liquid lube
For neck lube I just use a graphite powder of some description , messy but easy to clean and inert.

Awesome, I think I've resized the brass right as the bullet doesn't fit in the neck and will do when I use the seating due to do so.

Okay why is it a bad idea to put lube in the mouth of the shell?

I just lube the outside of the case up to the shoulder sparingly with either liquid or wax type lube then use the graphite in the mouth , others may do things differently
To much lube and you will end up with dented shoulders or necks, they will fire fine just make sure you wipe all the lube off after resizing, as I currently use hornady liquid lube and the graphite I wipe my cases down with meths then chamfer and deburr and finally and then brush out the necks.

I stress, this is what I do