For what it's worth, this ammo came from my late father-in-law's collection.
I went through all of that last night. Factory loads (Winchester and Remington) were exactly 50 mm long. Some of the handloads were 1 to 1.5 mm longer. So maybe...
But the real difference, and I'm guessing the reason these rounds (six of then) wouldn't load is that the necks were bigger; fatter.
4 or 5 thousanths? Could that make such a difference?
I need to go back to school reading inch micrometers. My large frame ones are all metric, but he small ones are inch. I confuse easily these days...
You need to determine the design sizes for your ammo - in the case of
30-30 it is 2.0395 long (51.80 mm) but in addition you need to have the shoulder in the right place - it starts 1.4405 from the base - but this is hard to measure so most people initially full length resize the case. than when fired the case expands (fire forms) to fit your chamber and from then on you just measure the length of the case and trim if necessary.
Generally speaking you can figure that any factory chamber will be safe with any "standard" cartridge case.
AS for mixed measuring instruments, it can be a problem. I recently had the use of a fellow's shop in Singapore for a week. His lathe and milling machine were both metric and his measuring tools were imperial :-)
Make and model of gun and history? Bullet style, powder and weight, OAL amd headstamp of brass and finished round, dies used? Lots of causes. Auto reloads are trickier than revolver reloads. It took me months to get a 1911 to be 100% reliable with semi-wadcutters.
I don't have room for one so I set up a lighted web-cam that peers into the case after charging and records the video and displays it on a monitor in front of me. See:
But that is usually (at least partially) a mechanical problem. Usually you need to reshape the feed ramp a bit and polish it. and, of course, your recoil spring needs to match the loads which, if you shoot "hardball" out of a wad cutter gun (to use bulls eye terms) or vis-versa you'll figure out right smartly :-)
I found a Lee LoadMaster .223 in stock for $243 and ordered it. I plan to set up for 9mm also, ordered a couple spare 5-hole turrets but the shell plates for 9mm were out of stock.
A video I watched showed a setup where they ran the cases through to de-prime and trim, not sure about sizing. Then through the case tumbler to polish and deburr. The 2nd time through, the cases were loaded. For the .223 I'm planning to dedicate 1 shell plate for case preparation and have turrets set up for loading prepared brass. I guess if I leave resizing to the 2nd pass, there may not be that much change over to convert the brass preparation turret (1st pass) to different cartridges.
I saw you have a ?guide rod? coming up from the shell plate through the turret on yours? I guess that helps keep the ram straight? Seems like a good idea as the shell plate gets further from the lower guide, the upper guide would be good support, plus could be handy for actuating things on top if needed.
I do have the right compromise, i use bot hardball and SWC's with equal reliability. Any gunsmith will cringe when ramp work is discussed...unless it's obvious. In my case it was a SA Loaded 1911 that should NEVER need smith work for tens of thousands of rounds. I do have a knock-off that spent a lot of hours on my bench before I liked it.
The bore in my press is a bit more sloppy than I like so the pin keeps the pressure on the shell plate even in all stations. Lee offered to replace it but my solution is better that a perfect bore.
Very. I've gotten extras to upgrade my setup from hamfests and eBay. (In particular, going for the carbide sizing dies for revolver rounds.
Agreed. I've never felt the need for that, actually.
And -- somewhere between factory jacketed bullets and ones with gas checks are the ones made with a swaging press. A top-end RCBS could handle both that and the normal reloading tasks.
For cast bullets -- you want an alloy which is harder than plain lead. Find things like old linotype metal or used wheel weights -- though I understand that they are now lead-free thanks to the worry-warts. :-)
For swaged bullets, you start with soft plain lead.
I don't remember seeing swaging tools being pushed these days.
Interesting.
I tend to prefer (for revolvers) half jacketed semi-wadcutters. And soft-point 3/4 jacketed bullets for the .22 Jet (no semi-wadcutters for that caliber, and I'm n to sure how they would like the velocity from the .22 Jet anyway. :-)
Including tuning the alloy.
Hmm ... my RCBS A2 was closer to 1970 or so.
*Very* good tools.
I passed mine on to a friend who was getting started.
:-)
Or -- for swaged bullets, you need the swaging dies, a more powerful and rigid press, but you don't need the mold, melting pot, and lubricator.
[ ... ]
However -- if you use this, be *sure* to wear safety glasses. I started with one of these (.38 Special, FWIW). Fine-tuning the force generated by the hammer is tricky, and you will pop a certain number of primers. (Maybe having just the right weight hammer would help, but I did not have a variety to try back then. :-) My eyes never got hit, but I got primer blast on my forehead a few times, and a lot more often on my fingers holding the rod. :-)
Anyone have or use one of those electronic automatic powder weighing systems? The ones I've seen have something like a motorized powder dispenser that dispenses powder on the scale until the set weight is reached.
I have heard these things work good but are slow, I was wondering if they would work in addition to a regular powder measure. Say for example if you wanted 50 grains, you could set your powder measure to throw maybe 48 grains and let the automatic dispenser finish to the correct weight. Just wondering if it would work that way, thought it might compensate for powder errors.
I'm thinking a little on automating the reloading process, my progressive press should be here tomorrow. I have an Allen Bradley PLC5 with a high resolution card that can work with load cells. I could weigh powder out to a specified tolerance and "Out of tolerance" charges could go back to the powder supply. The PLC could also be used to monitor for mistakes that an operator might not catch. Maybe someday we'll get ammo back on store shelves, until then....
The automated scale bit is a solution in search of a problem. Just not needed. The benchrest guys use measures and they're looking for caliber-hole-sized groups. So minor weight variations in powder isn't the main cause of group expansion. But if you've got the money to blow, the equipment guys will thank you for your donation. All factory ammo is made using powder measured by volume as well.
The other, really big, problem with those progressive presses is the primer feed. All I've seen in production right now use stacks of primers in a tube, anvil to face. If one goes off, you've got a grenade. The manufacturers usually supply a chunk of pipe to mount on the feeder so that if that happens, the blast goes up and not out. Doesn't help at all if you drop the tube or fumble it outside that shield. Guys have gotten skewered when that happens. The primer dust needs to be removed from the working parts frequently. Priming is the most dangerous part of handloading. One reason I like using the RCBS hand primer is the blast shutter between the priming punch area and the primer tray. Haven't popped one yet, but have mangled a few. The trays are light plastic and the primers aren't stacked, not going to generate a lot of shrapnel if they do go off. You'll be working with little bits of primary explosive and they CAN bite!
Thank you for the note, Stanley. Sounds like experience talking there.
I picked up the new Hornady reload book today. Read the front section already and learned a lot of new stuff. The proprietor at the local ammo shop offered to help, and also suggested finding a local NRA instructor for the personal touch.
I'm ready to get started now. My biggest concern is where to set up the bench...
I worked off a Workmate for years when I had a small apartment, the press got tee-nutted to a chunk of plywood, that got clamped to the Workmate. It all broke down and fit in a closet between sessions. Had both shotshell and metallic presses fitted up that way. When I built a more permanent bench, I kept the plywood mounts and bolted those down to the benchtop. Lee has a somewhat similar idea, although it isn't as fancy as my bench(or as cheap). I have the lubri-sizers, one powder measure and a case trimmer all set up the same. For hunting trips, I've got one of the Lee hand presses plus a full outfit of stuff that fits in an HF tool box, handles .44, .223 and .204 as currently packed. So you don't HAVE to have a giant loading bench to get going.
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