Funilly enough a lot of reloading errors are spotted by feel which is much easier with a single stage hand operated press. I did 100 5.56x45 last night which with each charge weighed, primers, seating, crimping and colour coding the anulus (I use a slightly better bullet past 300) took 1.5Hrs.
"Bimey that bullet/primer seated easilly" etc etc. Wrong bullet, split neck, primer pocket shagged, primer in back to front. Oh look, there's a funny bright ring near the case head....might be time to check your die headspace/bump settings
The real buggers are only have one powder out at a time so you cant balls that up (We had a lad blow an F class rifle up a while back, the liklihood was that chap who reloaded used to do it on the counter in a shop with all sorts and as likley used pistol powder by mistake, typically for the NRA old boys net it got brushed under a carpet and the bloke had minor burns, a few splinters and soiled armour). I only use N140/RS52 so if I substituted either the load would not be massively different.
Always check your primers are the right way round (I have seen this done and yes it still fired, but destroyed the firing pin and bolt face needing a new bolt, in a Barnard).
Always (always) check the case is filled BEFORE you seat a bullet in it. If in doubt, weigh a known loaded round as a reference. One big cause of blown up rifles is a squib round shoving a bullet into the leades and the next round chambering and firing. I had this done to me as a safety supervisor on a recent ADVANCED
CSR skills course. Thankfully the shooter could not chamber another round or I would have copped the lot.
Oh yea, another good trick is to keep good records and stick some old carpet under the bench. It is hard to set a round off by dropping it, but it is less so to set a primer off by crunching it on a concrete floow and easier to find on a dark soft surface...we all know how far he little bastards bounce dont we kids?
Most of all enjoy it, the results can be both fascinating and rewarding...or frustrating.
Originally Posted by Parabuteo
Funilly enough a lot of reloading errors are spotted by feel which is much easier with a single stage hand operated press. I did 100 5.56x45 last night which with each charge weighed, primers, seating, crimping and colour coding the anulus (I use a slightly better bullet past 300) took 1.5Hrs.
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