Some reloading observations

As you know, I'm new to reloading as you might be, so as I come across something that works for me I'll pass that info onto you. I have 100 rounds that I need to reload after last week's shoot, so yesterday I hammered out the primers all in one step. This is my new method of production line assembly. Instead of reloading the cartridges one at a time, I'm doing each step 100 times. It requires that I juggle tools less and allows me to get into a rhythm. When I'm doing something messy like lubricating the cases, I only have to wipe my fingers off once instead of 100 times.

DEPRIMMING
After knocking the primer out of the 3rd case last week, the tip of the decapper rod broke off. "Wonderful!" I said to myself. "What do I do now?" First I went to my computer and emailed Lee, asking them for a free replacement. I'm happy to report that they emailed me back the following day to tell me that they were shipping one out. Then I remembered the kit that Dirk gave me for reloading my 38s, and it has a decapper in it as well. It's obvious that the material quality has gone done substantially since the older kit was made. The old decapper is much better made. I hope the new decapper lasts a lot longer than the first.

A QUICK INSIDE CLEANING
Using the old decapper tool I knocked out the primers from all 100 cartridges. That evening while at WalMart, I bought a 410 shotgun copper bore cleaning brush for $1.50, sawed off the screw end, locked it into my drill and used it to quickly clean the inside of the cases. They make a unit that does this but it's expensive. I'll keep an eye out for a small motor that I can mount to my bench and use exclusively for this purpose.

CASE LUBRICATION
I got rid of the candle wax I used to lube the cases because it was messy and the new cases didn't require it. The used cases didn't hammer into the sizing die as easily, so I picked up a bottle of Hornady case lube for about $3, put a dab on my fingers and rolled all 100 cases between my fingers to lightly lubricate them all at once.

HAMMER ON A SOLID SURFACE
If you watch the YouTube reloading video near the bottom of this page, the guy does the reloading on a board that's sitting on his lap. Not that you would ever try that, but one thing I discovered is that the more solid the surface you're working on, the easier everything goes. Someone gave me a very old vice some time ago which I bolted to my work bench. I've discovered that if I hammer the cartridge case into the sizing die while it's sitting on the flat anvil part of the vice, I can hammer the case in with only a few wackes of the plastic mallet. The same is true when I use the priming rod to hammer the primer in place. My workbench is solid, but even so, when I hammer the priming rod while on the vice, I can feel the primer seat into the base after only a few taps. And it happened consistently for 100 primers. When hammering on the bench, I have to hammer much harder and longer, and when the primer finally does seat, I can't feel it because the table itself has so much give. When I set that primer off by accident last week, it was because I was hammering on the workbench surface. I had to hammer harder than I should have, and because the table flexes, everything moved out of position until the primer was in a position to ignite. Since I'm doing everything in an assembly line fashion, to be safe I can keep a glove on my left hand throughout the procedure because that's the hand that's positioned right over the top of the case.

Now that I have 100 primered cases ready to rock, my plan is to set up a series of experimental loads that I can compare the next time I'm at the range. All I'll need to do is drop in the powder, seat the bullet and crimp. That should go very quickly. Before the 2nd reload, I'll have to buy something to check my case length to see if I'm getting any stretching. But I'll worry about that tomorrow Rhett. Right now I feel like I just put a small deck on my house.

Please don't forget to have on eye protection.