My first 6 hand loaded cartridges

I just loaded my first half dozen 44 mags with my 'Classic Lee Loader', which is the kit that goes for around $25 (which is an amazingly low price in my opinion). As I began loading I discovered what I didn't have; case lubricant and a plastic mallet. I made due with candle wax, a block of wood and a regular hammer. I'll buy a mallet tomorrow. Figuring out the correct amount of powder was a bit confusing. The sheet that comes with the loader says to use 1 scoop of powder (1.3 cc's), but it also shows in grains how much powder to add. Every bullet/powder combination listed a different amount of grains, but they all say one scoop. Is the single scoop the starting load for all component combinations? The chart listed 19.8 grains for a 200 grain jacketed bullet with Accur #9 powder. I set my scale for 19.8, filled the scoop, dumped it on the scale's tray and it didn't balance. I had to add another 1/3 scoop to make it level. I've been watching YouTube videos and they all show that I should be using 1 level scoop so I wasn't comfortable adding more. The second time I weighed a scoop it came very close and I'm not sure why. Who knows, it's an old scale and it could have gotten stuck. With these light weights I'm sure it doesn't take much to hang it up. Once I got this settled in my head, I was ready to load.

At first I was a bit uneasy hammering down on the primer, but after a couple of times when it didn't explode I felt better about it, hammered harder and setting the primer faster. By the sixth round they were only taking a couple minutes and I have a feeling I'll quickly reduce the time down to about one. I had bought a box of 44 magnums, so I used one of the cartridges to gauge the depth to seat the bullet. When I was done the hand loaded cartridges looked much like the bought ones, except the Hornady hollow points are of higher quality and are more deadly than the Remington store bought cartridges. Dirk just sent an email suggesting that I check to be sure they chamber before I do too many. He said that if I over crimp, the casing could get distorted causing it to hang up in the chamber. Since I don't have a place around here to play with a loaded gun, I'll have to wait until I can get to the range to test this. I'll post a movie and some photos when I feel that I know what I'm doing. At least I broke the ice tonight.