New Reloader: Share your wisdom please

[Zaydok Allen]

My Thumler's Tumbler came home with me on Saturday. Sunday I put it together and threw 250 45 acp cases in with half walnut, and half corn cob media, and a teaspoon of Hornady Oneshot polish. They came out looking pretty dang shiny after only 4 hours of tumbling, and they look ready to go.

The tumbler certainly makes some noise as expected. I put it in my attic with the rest of my reloading setup. I noticed it made a metallic clanging noise and determined it was the guide on the roller hitting the barrel's edge. After a few hours the sound was quieter, so I figure what ever the friction point is, it is being smoothed out.

Last night I threw in 350 cases, and I noticed the rollers making a little more racket than last time, and I figure it's just due to the heavier load. I may try 300 and see how that works for noise. I know I could be cleaning a lot higher volume with a vibe cleaner, but I like the warranty and fact that the Thumler's is a lot quieter. My critters don't seem to mind it at all, and just walk right past it.

I did throw a Sterilite tote over the entire contraption to muffle the noise. I could only barely hear it intermittently when the TV go quiete here and there. I did notice though that when I checked it, the entire unit was warm, as was the air temperature in the tote. So there is definitely some heat produced by the unit, and I don't think covering it up is a good idea in the long run as excessive heat could damage the motor.

Now I need to adjust my bell on my powder funnel, and my seating and crimping die. When last I got to experiment I had a little too much bell. Looking for ward to actually dispensing powder. Wish I had more time...........

 

[Hokie_PhD]

I tend to be a guy who saves his money and goes with the "Buy once, cry once" attitude. That doesn't mean there aren't some really good values out there for low cost, but I don't mind spending a little more and waiting a little longer to get what I really want. I also try to avoid clutter this way.

I've heard you mention Ohaus scales a few times now. I know they make the RCBS 505 scale, and the Dillon beam scale available on the market. However, in looking on Amazon and visiting their website, I was a little unsure what to look at for their electronic scales. Do you have a recommendation in that regard Hondo 60?

I'm with you on buying quality to save money.
That said I've seen the same device with different brands have huge differences in price.

For instance RCBS calipers are the same as a few other brands and cost $30 or more. At Harbor Freight they're the same exact ones and cost $20. These is well documented if you do some web searches.

I've seen the same with scales but haven't confirmed whose are similar to whose as I bought my RCBS before I figured this out. But I may be looking for a spare to put in a travel setup (Lee hand press, small electronic scale, calipers, Lee dipper, and dies) so will dig deeper when I do.

 

[divingin]

One other note on the scale question: I saw you're loading (or will be) on a Dillon 550, and for a single caliber? That means you'll use the scale perhaps at the start of every loading session (or if you're a little less anal, every third or fourth loading session.) You'll set or verify the powder drop to the correct charge weight, and you'll put the scale aside. Don't get too hung up on the scale question (yet.) When I was loading on a Dillon, the only time I rechecked was when I changed calibers.

Charge weight for 45ACP is not all that sensitive, assuming you're not going for all the power you can get out of it. Odds are you'll balance power and comfort and go with a somewhere in the middle(ish) load. If that's the case, a tenth or two over or under isn't going to hurt anything. You'll see far more inaccuracy in your shooting technique than from powder variance.

That said, if you start loading for something where you are near the top of the load scale, you may want to measure a little more often just to be safe. Ditto if you're loading for, say, precision rifle (for me, that means measuring every load.) Same holds true for powders that don't meter all that well (usually extruded stick powders), as what you measure the first few times may settle out to something else down the line, and it's much easier to catch that early. Should you be planning any of that, then choice of scale (ease of use, accuracy, speed, whatever) may be a little more critical (but probably not any easier.)

 

[Zaydok Allen]

Well, 8 months, two international trips, and a variety of home improvement projects later, I finally at long last sat down last night and got 50 rounds of 45 ACP loaded. I tweaked my dies a few weeks ago and I am happy to say the press is producing "plunk test" worthy cartridges. Last week I got my powder throw set up to drop 6.1 gr of Unique. According to Lyman's 49th. 5.9 is the lowest charge, and 6.6 is the max for a 230 gr FMJ. Since I don't want powder puff loads, but don't need nuclear loads either, I decided to start on the low end of the spectrum, as is always a good idea when developing a load, but not at the very bottom. Anyone feel I should have started at 5.9?

After a little fiddling around and interpretation of the Dillon instructions on the primer feed mechanism, I got it loaded. And it unfortunately would not feed primers. So I had to pull the feed tube, remove the primers and figure the problem out. Unfortunately it appears that in packaging at the factory, the little plastic tip got buggered up and it would not drop the primers. Fortunately Dillon includes a spare, so after replacing it, and reloading the feed tube, the press was de-priming and re-priming brass as it should.

After the first few rounds, I found the Dillon 550B very easy to use. Feed a casing, place a bullet, cycle the press, and repeat. Every 8 or 10 rounds I pulled the retaining pin on the powder dispensing and belling station, and checked the powder charge it was throwing. It was very consistent and I estimate any variance was under 1/20th of a gr. That's just based on the slight variation I could see after my scale stopped bobbing. It may be less or more, but it is at least under 1/10 of a gr.

I picked through my brass and grabbed what I thought was all Herter's once fired brass. I counted out 50 ahead of time, and loaded 50 primers. Then something went wrong.

As I tried to prime the 46th case I was sending through, the primer simply would not go in. I pushed with a little more pressure, but didn't want a primer detonation, so I stopped. I pulled the case and gave it a look and discovered that a Blazer Brass case had slipped into my pile. I found that disturbing as I swore I had looked at every single piece of brass. But it made no sense to me why there was a difference. So I grabbed my calipers and measured the primer pocket. On the Herter's it all measured about 0.2005". On the Blazer brass the primer pocket measured 0.1704. Obviously that is a noticeable difference, and enough of one that the primer would not seat. I measured a Federal case also, and it measured the same size as a Blazer. So then I recalled hearing, or at least I think I recall hearing, that some companies use a smaller primer on 45ACP to cut costs a bit. Is that correct and my memory is correct? I was using CCI 300 Large Pistol Primers.

So will I be able to load smaller primers into this brass with small primer pockets with a change of the primer feed mechanism? I assume it would be small pistol primers, whatever the number is.

I also learned a very valuable lesson. When I pulled the Blazer casing from the shell plate to check it out, I realized that since I had already de-capped it, I had dispensed powder into the previous case by pulling the handle down. I pulled that case also to avoid an inadvertent double charge so I could put in a casing with an adequate size primer pocket. I always wondered how a double charge could happen if you are paying attention. Well when using a progressive press, this little hiccup is a perfect example of how it could happen. If I'd pulled the lever again to de-cap a new casing without removing the already powder charged case, I would have double charged it. It also helped me appreciate the need to sort your brass well ahead of time by brand, so if an issue like this comes up, I can narrow it to a particular manufacturer's brass, and avoid this type of issue in the future.

Guess I have a lot of brass to sort!

 

[Jim Watson]

Yes, there are numbers of .45 Auto with small primer pockets.
Yes, sort them out. They won't OFTEN pop a large primer but it has happened.

Only you can decide if you have enough of them to be worth changing out the primer feed.

 

[Reloadron]

So I grabbed my calipers and measured the primer pocket. On the Herter's it all measured about 0.2005". On the Blazer brass the primer pocket measured 0.1704. Obviously that is a noticeable difference, and enough of one that the primer would not seat. I measured a Federal case also, and it measured the same size as a Blazer. So then I recalled hearing, or at least I think I recall hearing, that some companies use a smaller primer on 45ACP to cut costs a bit. Is that correct and my memory is correct? I was using CCI 300 Large Pistol Primers.

Not at all unusual. The .45 ACP is currently factory loaded using both small and large pistol primers the small pocket range being 0.1730" to 0.1745" and the large being 0.2085" to 0.2100". Yes, just setup for the primer(s) you are loading. Also, stopping as you did is a wise move. Never try to force a primer.

<EDIT> I see Jim covered it as I slowly typed. </EDIT>

Ron

 

[Havok7416]

If you find you have a supply of either large or small and you don't have a use for them there are people here who will likely trade or buy either size. I keep both sizes around (and separate), but not everyone wants that hassle.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

If you find you have a supply of either large or small and you don't have a use for them there are people here who will likely trade or buy either size. I keep both sizes around (and separate), but not everyone wants that hassle.

I have a friend loading on a progressive press and he hates changing priming sizes from small to large when loading for the 9mm and 45 ACP. I trade him all my small primer 45 ACP brass for 45 ACP brass that uses LPP and we are both happy.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

Thanks for the comments all. I guess I don't have a problem with using different primer sizes, it will just take a little time to switch the feed mechanism out. This is supposed to be fun, and I am not a once a week shooter, even though I would like to be, so cranking out hundreds of rounds a week isn't really necessary. though, I'm hoping that a more readily available source of practice ammo will lead to a lot more shooting.

However, I will sort through all my brass so I know what I have. I only have large primers right now, because I didn't realize this was a thing, and I only am set up for 45ACP at the moment. If it's mentioned in either of my reloading manuals, I missed it, which means I need to read them both again.

If I only have a little small primer stuff, then I'll likely take them to my LGS as they trade store credit for used brass. However, I've shot a lot of Blazer and a lot of Federal through my guns in the past, so there may be a fair amount.

Are there other common cartridges out there that have this same variance in component use? I also plan to load 10mm in the not too distant future, so I'm curious how common this is among different cartridges.

 

[Havok7416]

Speer, Blazer and Federal are all heavily invested into SPP now (and are basically one and the same). Winchester and most smaller brands like CBC (Magtech), Herters as you found out and a few others will still be LPP. I will go through my supply if I have time and look for headstamps.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

Good info. Thank you.

 

[Franky50]

A quick check on Amazon & ebay show Ohaus powder scales for less than $50.
Ohaus being a very good brand name.

To the best of my knowledge RCBS scales were made by Ohaus. My only beam scale is a RCBS 5-0-2 (if memory serves me) and it is the only one I trust. I have digitals too.

 

[Franky50]

Scale - Check prices on RCBS 505 or Dillon Eliminator (nearly identical scales). Some one had the 505 on Amazon for $49 not long ago

OMG! 460Shooter: If you can buy a RCBS 5-0-5 by $49 do not hesitate. Here they ask some $150 for those. Rats!

 

[dgod]

I have, and absolutely trust, my RCBS 5-0-5 scale, it has never failed me. I have several Electronic scales, even a 250. I trust the 5-0-5 and the 250 only,

The 250 is great, just slow and expensive. The 5-0-5 is not real expensive and consistent.

Good Luck
dg

 

[Zaydok Allen]

Thanks gents, but if you read the thread you'll see that I already picked up a Dillon beam scale. I also did a quick search on Amazon, and I failed to find $50 5-0-5 scales. Maybe I didn't look close enough, but if anyone actually finds that, please post a link.

 

[spitballer]

...
0.1 grain accuracy is plent for my needs...
.

...same here, in fact my ohaus which weighs in grams and was purchased for weighing aquarium chemistry only measures to about .015 grains. I bought a 5 mg check weight to cut accuracy to .0075 grains but it's a hassle and I seldom use it - wish I had a modern reloading scale like you're shopping for.