Stories of a wannabe reloader......

[strebblo]

Zackly.

tac

Doesn't excuse rudeness though...

[strebblo]

Having read this thread, I shall be telling my daughter not to waste money on driving lessons and time practising, instead I shall tell her to get a book on the subject, read it thoroughly and will have all the knowledge and skill to go and pass her test straight away. You cannot beat book learning over experience.

Would she then reply by saying that there's no harm in trying to learn as much as she can about driving before her lessons start?

Give the guy a break, everyone has to start somewhere. He's just taken to time to try to learn as much as possible instead of filling the reloading section up with questions like "what's a primer then?"

[tacfoley]

Doesn't excuse rudeness though...

'worthless...as a man' - 'exposed you as being what you are? Your snide and presumptive'.

I'M rude?

I see. Find an insult of any kind like this in my posts, please.

The OP needs to lighten up somewhat.

tac

[Blackbaronfish]

Shame....i was enjoying this untill the upmanshipihavegotbiggerballsthanyou started

Any chance a mod could put it back on track

BBF

[GaleForceEight]

I would firstly like to thank all those who have read this thread and commented (or even criticised) in a constructive manner.

Tac seems determined to prove time and again that while he supposedly has great deal of experience he has nothing to contribute aside from venom and ire. I sinvcerely hope that the thousands of posts he was banging on about are not of the same nature. Very sad

Strebbo, thank you for your reply to Fenrir. I was about to ask him whether he would prefer to send his daughter out driving and just sit there without giving her any benefit of his experience or what he knows of driving at all, and let her learn through trial and error - after all, it is experience that counts right? I hope she survives his Darwinesque teaching methodology!

My 'book learning' has drawn on the experience and skills of others, from a number of different sources from a number of different reloading disciplines. This is the wonder of writing - communication and sharing of ideas where having someone to show you face to face is not possible. This indirect communication is one of the fundamental differences of that destroyed the Neanderthals and handed the evolutionary baton to Homo Erectus; the ability to communicate and share ideas more effectively.
Would the people who criticise my sharing of this book learning advocate not using reloading manuals - which is in effect drawing on other peoples' findings and calculations - or did they just go by their own experience and guess their way along to success or failure?

Blackbaron, I wholly agree - if a mod can't put the thread back on track I can always remove it and repost it in the hopes that the highly experienced asinine people can refrain from their jibes. I only ever wanted to share my journey towards reloading, explaining the motivations, approach, and later on any trials and tribulations I encounter that may help or encourage other aspiring reloaders.

[strebblo]

GF8, posting replies like that isn't really going to help! People take offence on here easily enough, there's no need to offer them even more offence.
There's a definate air of know-it-all about your original post, so it might be best to wind yer tits in a bit and stop provoking people.

This is the reloading section isn't it??!

[GaleForceEight]

GF8, posting replies like that isn't really going to help! People take offence on here easily enough, there's no need to offer them even more offence.
There's a definate air of know-it-all about your original post, so it might be best to wind yer tits in a bit and stop provoking people.

This is the reloading section isn't it??!

I have already sent Tac a PM.

I most certainly do not know it all, nor pretend to, and apologise if it comes across that way.

I fully agree with you that some people seem to go out of their way to be offended here though! (perhaps I should include myself among them - Tac caught me on a bad day!) I see my sparring with Tac akin to a story I heard once of a CSM on a parade ground poking a soldier in the chest with his pace stick and saying "There is a piece of **** at the end of this stick!" to which the soldier replies "Not at my end, Sir!". There won't be a winner on either side, so I would suggest that if nothing positive can be said then nothing should be said as it detracts from the purpose of this thread. So for that I apologise.

The point of my original post was to share my reasons for reloading, encompassing the route and decisions I have taken in sourcing the right gear to start out on this journey, the gear I needed, and the reasons why I might have selected one piece of gear in favour of another.

Later I will try to share any issues I have had with that gear, or say why I would or should have approached something differently - but for that I need some of Fenrir's 'experience'. There is always a balance between the two - I remember a sergeant in the Army Air Corps telling me he gave a dressing down to a young mechanic fresh out of Middle Wallop for wirelocking a tail rotor gearbox on a Lynx incorrectly. It turned out that the routing had been changed for that particular item as the routing was causing premature failure in some boxes, and the mechanic was entirely correct.

For example I am looking more along the lines of a 'wet' tumbling system (probably ultrasonic) than the dry system based on what people have posted on this thread, so in spite of the willy-waving from certain quarters it has been of positive help for both myself and others who might have read through it.

[JB101]

Anyway back to the thread
I would suggest you get a copy of glen zeideckers hand loading for competition as it will answer most of the questions you've asked and some that you have not
Generally single stage presses are used for rifle rounds & progressives/ semi progressives for pistol calibre rounds.
I tumble clean with the primers in and then resize afterwards (neck sizing only) and clean out the pockets with a wire brush (rcbs/lyman) in a cordless drill.
I am considering stainless pin/ wet media tumbling but not ultrasonic as I've tried it and not been to happy with the results .
You can get really good results with lee dies , but I prefer redding dies for rifle loads and lee/rcbs for pistol calibres.
I dint use the powder in case indicator you mention but have a clip on led light so I can see the powder in the case,with most rifle loads if you double charge it will overflow,pistol calibers however can be double charged hence I look to see if ok.
There is a learning curve in reloading and it is all to easy to spend twice, so doing your research as you are doing is a good way to get info and feedback .
Powder measures can vary in consistency depending upon what type of powder is used through them,flake ,ball or grain.i would recommend the lee perfect powder measure as an excellent staring point as it handles all types well.
I use one ,as well as an rcbs charge master which I got for speed of dispensing/ weighing.
Hope the above helps
ATB
JAMES

[GaleForceEight]

Thank you James, that does help, in a number of areas!

It's sometimes difficult if you are new to something because you don't know which questions you haven't asked that you should have!

[Fenrir.2]

You may have no experience whatsoever of reloading, but you are a world class arrogant arsehole.

[DaveK]

You may have no experience whatsoever of reloading, but you are a world class arrogant arsehole.

Your opinion? Opinions are like arseholes everyone has got one.

Do you know the guy? If you don't how can you say that HE's anything? maybe his behaviour implies it but attack the beghaviour not the man, they may be two entirely different things. Remember that all you have to judge anyone by on here is what they post. You can't see their body language or hear the tone of their voice.

He probably didn't realise that forums are full of divas and primadonnas. I read the OP as "this is what I've read. Is it right, is it the best recognised way or are there other better ways of going about it."?

Best of luck with reloading GF8, we all had to start somewhere and we all learn in different ways. You learn the way that's best for you and DEFINITELY learn from what happens when someone wants to wave their knob at you.

[Blackbaronfish]

Most posts can be taken two ways.If you think he has offended you, then he must have been meaning the other

BBF

[grim_reaper]

And back to the op:

When I went through the same thing some time ago I decided to go the RCBS route, simply because the kit seemed to offer the most useful selection of gear form a quality manufacturer as well as the biggest saving compared to buying everything separately. However, that was then and this is now so you will have to your own homework in the present and see what gives you the best selection of gear for your money. I discounted Lee at that time due to advice given to me by reloaders who reload for accuracy. One guy said: look in the Sinclair catalog, if it's in there it's pretty good. I see Lee now feature on their website so that might tell you (and me for that matter) something.

All my dies are Forster or Redding. I like bullet seating dies with a spring loaded cartridge holder as offered by Forster and Redding. The one exception to this is my Lee universal decapping die, which is used to remove the primer so you can clean the brass before you size. You can decap as you size but I prefer to clean my brass before I put it through my dies.

I ultrasonic clean my brass. It simply does a much better job inside the case and in the primer pockets than vibratory tumbling does, but doesn't leave the brass all shiny. You don't need a shooting specific US cleaner, there are loads on Evil bay and Amazon. There also hundreds of brews you can use to do the cleaning using things like White vinegar, and Citric acid to get good results. Google is your friend but here's a start: http://www.accurateshooter.com/techn...case-cleaning/ Stainless media tumbling is the future:http://www.stainlesstumblingmedia.com/ It's quite expensive to get started so will have to wait until my US cleaner breaks or I run out of other things shooting related to spend on. If you go the STM route 1967Spud is the UK importer.

As for other stuff I would recommend an OAL gauge http://www.opticswarehouse.co.uk/pro..._GAUGE&cat=354

And modified case http://www.opticswarehouse.co.uk/pro..._CASES&cat=354 If there isn't one for your cal don't fret, an old cartridge can be modified easily with a lathe and the appropriate tap.

These will allow you to measure your chamber and set the bullet jump to the lands when used in conjunction with a vernier caliper.

This is also a good idea:http://www.opticswarehouse.co.uk/pro...RT_SET&cat=354 To allow you make the measurements to the bullet ogive instead of the meplat.

You will also need a case trimmer of some kind if it doesn't come with the kit, as it didn't when I bought my setup. If your military brass has crimped primers you will need a primer pocket crimp remover.

There will be a ton of odds and ends you "need" but will become apparent as you go. Whatever kit you get should come with a reloading manual, all I have seen have a step by step guide for reloading so that manual will become your best buddy your first few times behind the reloading bench, and an information resource for the rest of your reloading career.

Well that's a boring long post! I hope it's of some help.

ATB

Glenn

***EDIT***
I forgot to mention the easiest/cheapest way of getting an accurate charge of powder is to set up your powder thrower to throw a slightly light charge in to the pan of your scales, then use a powder trickler to top up the charge until your scales measure spot on.

Thanks for the reminder James!

[GaleForceEight]

Thank you Dave. Tac has already wished me a bad day and promised to stay away, though if Fenrir would be so kind as to PM me as to why he feels I am an 'arrogant arsehole' where he has firstly made counterproductive posts and then resorted to name-calling, perhaps we could put that one to bed.

Grim, thank you for the links; I will check them out. I was reading the destructions on the Hornady website for their OAL gauges and Headspace/Comparators earlier today and they looked really useful. I had been looking at tapping a fireformed case and bullet and constructing a 'dummy' round with a variable OAL that I could use to calculate the required OAL, but the proper kit would certainly do the job in a less 'Heath Robinson' fashion.
The Sinclair site is tied into Brownells and between them they have a lot of useful videos which although geared towards product sales as opposed to tutelage they can still be very informative.
Perhaps Lee have improved - Simon recommended the Lee Turret Press earlier, and other people seem to be using Lee dies to good effect, so it may be worth taking a second look at some of the Lee gear.
The tip about the trickler may be a huge time-saver in the long term!

I've checked the links and the ones you gave seem to be the cheapest for those products that I have seen thus far - I now know where to go for them
So thank you once again.

[Liam]

Hi GF8 may I ask where you bought the press etc from. I'm just back from Florida and basspro didn't have the dies etc I was looking for and I didn't buy a press as I was worried about the weight of my luggage. I have a few dollars on a prepaid MasterCard so I would rather spend these than buy from Europe or uk. Cabelas seem to be charging 25% shipping and basspro 45%! Midway don't ship internationally from the USA site as they would rather you pay more from the uk site. Thanks in advance, if you've went to the trouble of researching where is best to buy gear at a reasonable price then I'll gladly take your advice.