Finally joining the club

[JAB]

Well, I finally hemmed, hawed, read and researched enough. Got my powder measure and Lee Challenger press mounted to a thick board and even bought a small work table (old, small computer desk - got it at Goodwill for fifteen bucks!) I have the board to which the reloading equipment is mounted clamped to the desk with 'C' clamps so I can use that table for workspace for other things simply by unclamping the board and moving the reloading stuff out of the way. One good thing about the fact that I am now living alone is that there is no one to complain about me doing my reloading in the living room (well, there is my puppy but she doesn't get a say.)

Anyhow, last night I decided to quit talking about it and do it. It took me a bit to get going because I had to assemble and zero the scale that came with the kit so I could double-check the charge being thrown by the powder measure on the scale. In a fit of paranoia, I then dug out another scale that I bought at a gun show a couple of years ago (yeah, I have been intending to get started for that long) so I could double check the first scale that I was using to double check the powder measure. Once I was satisfied with that, I was ready to proceed.

I had a couple of false starts - I had the die that bells the case mouth set too deep at first. Expanded the case too much so the first round I loaded to check everything wouldn't go in the chamber on my 642. Adjusted that to get the cases expanded enough but not too much (double checked that I could get the bullet into the mouth of the casing to be seated but that the empty brass would still chamber) and loaded another one. It chambered fine but then I realized I had been concentrating on the expander so much that I had forgotten to charge the case before I seated the bullet. D'oh! So the actual first two I loaded are in an unused drawer (I'm calling it 'The Drawer of Shame: Lessons Learned') with 'No Shoot' written on the casings in black Sharpie.

Not intending to brood over my errors too much, I moved on and loaded a few more complete with a charge of powder. I decided to just load eleven to begin with - one full load (6) to test in my Taurus 66 and one full load (5) to test in my S&W 642. I plan to shoot them this evening after work to test them out as long as we don't have yet another thunderstorm. And without further ado, here they are - the products of my first ever reloading session, eleven successfully loaded rounds:

*125 grain lead semiwadcutter bullet from HSM (looks more like a tapered flat point, to me, but the company calls them semiwadcutters.)

*5.5 grains of Accurate #5. That was the starting load recommended when I contacted Accurate - their data said it should do about 795fps which, according to the online calculator I found, should give me about 175.4 foot pounds. Those paper targets will never know what hit them - we'll see whether or not I have to up it a little to get good accuracy. Their recommended max load for standard pressure .38 using #5 and a 125 grain lead swc is 6.5 grains for about 932fps so I should have some 'wiggle room'. Accurate #5 was recommended to me by someone I trust - he said that, for a beginner, a powder that uses a little more powder per load than some others makes double charging a case less likely. I might experiment with other powders later on or, if I really like the results from #5, I might not.

*CCI small pistol primer

*Once fired brass saved from previous shooting sessions. Mix of Remington and Winchester .38 Special brass.

My mistake with the expander caused me to notice something about the brass. Since I had several primed casings that were over-expanded (primed them on the downstroke after expanding on the upstroke) before I thought to check, I decided to run those back through the sizing die to see if they could be salvaged. Most of them went okay and were sized back down but I had about a dozen that either crushed or split (only two or three split, the rest crushed.) The thing I noticed was that the majority of the cases that couldn't be saved were Winchester - only one or two Remington cases were among them. That makes me wonder if Remington brass is a little stronger and might give more reloads before I have to toss them.

Edited July 10, 2012 by JAB

[Sidinman]

Sounds like you have done alright, and congrtas on getting your feet wet finally. When you get a chance get a bullet puller and you can recoup the couple of mistakes you made and I'm sure you will use it more than you think. I'm pretty new to the reloading game myself, and made a couple of booboos simlar to what you spoke of. It is rewarding to know that you can manufacture your own ammo, I enjoy reloading ALMOST as much as shooting. Congrtas again and be safe.

[JAB]

I will probably pick up a bullet puller before too long. I was kind of wishing I had one last night when I realized what I had done. I think I will probably end up keeping those first two screwups just as a reminder to pay attention and double check each step before running a bunch of casings/rounds through. For the future, though, I'll probably want a bullet puller. I only need so many reminders of my screw ups and I'll want to recoup any components that can be salvaged, if any.

[gregintenn]

The bullet puller is like an eraser on a pencil for the reloader.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Congrats JAB!

As long as bullet weight and powder charge is reasonably consistent, I'd expect you to be pleased with the accuracy of light loads. When I was making "minimum charge" .357 loads and 9mm loads just barely strong enough to work the action, they seemed to me "more accurate than factory practice ammo". Offhand shooting with the light reloads consistently shot tighter groups than with factory practice ammo. But nowadays my groups have loosened up enough, probably couldn't tell a difference any more between reloads and factory loads. The loose groups are not the ammo's fault.

Edited July 11, 2012 by Lester Weevils