Loving reloadin

clarkbe9980 · Jul 23, 2011

I have been reloading for about 6 monthes and I love it. Anyone have some words of wisdom from lessons learned the hard way?

natgas · Jul 23, 2011

Pay special attention to powder drops; I've had a few squibs the past few months--not sure why since I have a light over the case and watch it closely---but it happened---3 times; fortunately, I could tell from the sound that something was not right.

Otherwise, enjoy

dennishoddy · Jul 23, 2011

Do you have a progressive?

jtischauser · Jul 23, 2011

Squibs in a rifle can sound like a light strike especially if you are double plugged. If it's not life or death stop and because that barrel is not obstructed.

steak · Jul 23, 2011

keep any "dummy" loads off of your reloading bench. I have twice now accidently placed some loads that were worked up to check OAL into my box of GTG rounds. Still don't know why I primed them but either way pay attention.

OUshooter · Jul 23, 2011

Make sure to keep everything in a journal.

Make sure to label every batch you load.

Don't expect to remember which batches you did what too. Document document document. I go so far as to record what my die setup was for a batch.

Biggsly · Jul 23, 2011

Jesse Tischauser said:
Squibs in a rifle can sound like a light strike especially if you are double plugged. If it's not life or death stop and because that barrel is not obstructed.

Damn, that looks scary.

dennishoddy · Jul 23, 2011

If you load your rounds into boxes like I do, make sure and look at both ends of the round. Make sure there IS a primer in the pocket, and look for lead shaving off the lead rounds forming itself outside the case in the die.
Use a witness rod in the primer loader to tell when your getting close to running out of primers. reference back to the first sentence.

Scott Hearn · Jul 23, 2011

dennishoddy said:
If you load your rounds into boxes like I do, make sure and look at both ends of the round. Make sure there IS a primer in the pocket, and look for lead shaving off the lead rounds forming itself outside the case in the die.
Use a witness rod in the primer loader to tell when your getting close to running out of primers. reference back to the first sentence.

I load and store them in boxes, but I load them into Dillon cartridge boxes prior to every match. I started doing this solely because I found one without a primer in my gun during practice once. I also run a finger tip over them feeling for high primers and this makes it quicker.

dennishoddy · Jul 23, 2011

Scott Hearn said:
I load and store them in boxes, but I load them into Dillon cartridge boxes prior to every match. I started doing this solely because I found one without a primer in my gun during practice once. I also run a finger tip over them feeling for high primers and this makes it quicker.

I screwed up a stage because there was not a primer in the round. Dumb mistake on my part. The only thing I needed to do was turn the opaque case over and look. Simple thing that screwed my time.

steak · Jul 23, 2011

Scott Hearn said:
I load and store them in boxes, but I load them into Dillon cartridge boxes prior to every match. I started doing this solely because I found one without a primer in my gun during practice once. I also run a finger tip over them feeling for high primers and this makes it quicker.

great tip with the running you fingers over the primers! I could have used that when I started reloading.