Westcliffe01
07-03-2011, 09:04 PM
So this weekend I finally got my reloading bench complete and the press set up.
I got into a bind with Brownells since I ordered 1lb of smokeless powder together with the press "kit" and all the dies. That 1lb of powder held my entire order up for a week because of a BS hazmat issue that prevents Brownells from shipping more than 99lb of powder per day. So remember, if someone in front of you orders a bunch of powder - it could be weeks before you see yours... It was pretty frustrating and the sales staff refused to cancel the order for the powder and didn't offer to ship the other items either. I finally said I was going to call my credit card company to reverse the charges and that that point they started listening....
Anyway, I'm new to reloading so the learning curve has been steep. Lots of checking and rechecking to be sure I am safe... Thank god I went with the Hornady Lock n Load system. It took a while to get each of the dies dialed in, but now I am all set. Twist the die about 30 degrees to get it to release from the press (breech locking system, like an AR bolt). It comes out and your "zero" is preserved for the next time. I can see how one would have to set up a conventional threaded press every time you change a die. I got the following dies: 8x57 full length size and deprime, 8x57 neck resize and 8x57 bullet seater / crimp. In addition, I got the exact same set of 3 dies in 7.62x39, as well as a collet style bullet puller with an 8mm collet.
If you were counting that was 7 different tools. The press comes with 3 "lock n load" bushings and I bought 6 more, leaving 2 spare for the moment.
Anyone who had followed my previous thread on 1950's yugoslavian 8mm mauser ammo would have noted that this surplus stuff is very cheap (less than $200 for 900 rounds delivered) and it has brass casings and a "proper" lead core copper jacketed bullet (200gr FMJBT). My experience with shooting it has shown that accuracy is not very good (4-6moa out of a brand new Remington 700 "classic").
So the first objective with the reloading equipment is to see what is up with the Yugo ammo and whether the powder is metered accurately, bullet weight consistent etc. I thus set aside 50 rounds (matching the cartridge tray provided with the press) and extracted the bullets. Here I made my first mistake: Research on the web indicated that some sort of sealant was used between bullet and case on military ammo and conventional wisdom was to first seat the bullet deeper by 0.016-0.020, then extract it. Seating it deeper would "break the lock" of the sealant. Well, I did that for the first 15 bullets and the first thing I noticed is that the cartridge neck is slightly deformed by the force exerted since the bullet has a cannelure into which the neck is crimped. After the first 15, I tried extracting the remainder without reseating the bullet and it was no more difficult and caused no deformation to the cartridge neck.
My work flow was as follows (after a little initial trial and error):
Load the collet die
Insert a bullet in the press shell holder and raise it up until the neck touches the collet.
Tighten the collet on the bullet, then raise the press lever to pull the case off the bulllet. Set the bullet in the tray.
Release the colllet. This does not yet release the bullet. I place a bolt on top of the shell holder on the ram of the press and raise the ram so that the bolt pushes on the underside of the bullet. The upward movement releases the grip of the collet and this frees the bullet.
Lower the ram and catch the bullet before it falls on the ground. I placed the bullet point first into the cartridge from which it was removed.
Process the entire batch this way.
Then, I dumped the powder from each cartridge on the electronic scale to weight it. Then dumped it onto a small bucket. Then weighed the bullet. The goal was to determine how accurate the original powder was metered and how much variation there was in bullet weight. I would say that the powder charge variation was around +- 1.5gr. The bullets had a max deviation of +-2gr (for a 200 gr bullet). The powder itself was in flake form (neither spherical nor cylindrical). I have not been able to make a determination analytically whether those 2 variations would be responsible for the 4-6moa performance I had achieved with the test rifle. The same unit was down to 1moa using Privy Partisan modern ammo with a similar 196gr FMJBT bullet.
I then did a neck resize on the whole batch of primed shells, to prepare for a new powder charge. I damaged the first shell by leaving out the neck expander, but got it right thereafter. So I had to pull another bullet to get back up to 50. Then did the fiddly job of setting up the powder measure. This is one of those operations which would be a lot easier if one had a video to watch. By process of elimination, I figured it out. Raise the handle, lower the handle, get reliable metered charge... Lower the handle, raise the handle, not so good... And it doesn't like to stay up either (the handle that is). Loaded a charge in each of the cases.
Bullet seating and crimp was pretty easy. I'm shooting a bolt rifle, so I didn't try to put a heavy crimp on the bullet. OAL and straightness were fine.
So, I have to see if the range will be open tomorrow to go and try out the new powder. BTW, I settled on 41.5gr of Hodgsons H4895 for the 200gr bullet. That is about in the middle of the max and low charge levels indicated in the Hodgson datasheet. I don't know whether berdan primers behave like regular or magnum primers, so I certainly didn't want to be near max loads and the charge weight was also very close to the weight of the original powder from 1950.
Wish me luck at the range... Pictures to follow.
I got into a bind with Brownells since I ordered 1lb of smokeless powder together with the press "kit" and all the dies. That 1lb of powder held my entire order up for a week because of a BS hazmat issue that prevents Brownells from shipping more than 99lb of powder per day. So remember, if someone in front of you orders a bunch of powder - it could be weeks before you see yours... It was pretty frustrating and the sales staff refused to cancel the order for the powder and didn't offer to ship the other items either. I finally said I was going to call my credit card company to reverse the charges and that that point they started listening....
Anyway, I'm new to reloading so the learning curve has been steep. Lots of checking and rechecking to be sure I am safe... Thank god I went with the Hornady Lock n Load system. It took a while to get each of the dies dialed in, but now I am all set. Twist the die about 30 degrees to get it to release from the press (breech locking system, like an AR bolt). It comes out and your "zero" is preserved for the next time. I can see how one would have to set up a conventional threaded press every time you change a die. I got the following dies: 8x57 full length size and deprime, 8x57 neck resize and 8x57 bullet seater / crimp. In addition, I got the exact same set of 3 dies in 7.62x39, as well as a collet style bullet puller with an 8mm collet.
If you were counting that was 7 different tools. The press comes with 3 "lock n load" bushings and I bought 6 more, leaving 2 spare for the moment.
Anyone who had followed my previous thread on 1950's yugoslavian 8mm mauser ammo would have noted that this surplus stuff is very cheap (less than $200 for 900 rounds delivered) and it has brass casings and a "proper" lead core copper jacketed bullet (200gr FMJBT). My experience with shooting it has shown that accuracy is not very good (4-6moa out of a brand new Remington 700 "classic").
So the first objective with the reloading equipment is to see what is up with the Yugo ammo and whether the powder is metered accurately, bullet weight consistent etc. I thus set aside 50 rounds (matching the cartridge tray provided with the press) and extracted the bullets. Here I made my first mistake: Research on the web indicated that some sort of sealant was used between bullet and case on military ammo and conventional wisdom was to first seat the bullet deeper by 0.016-0.020, then extract it. Seating it deeper would "break the lock" of the sealant. Well, I did that for the first 15 bullets and the first thing I noticed is that the cartridge neck is slightly deformed by the force exerted since the bullet has a cannelure into which the neck is crimped. After the first 15, I tried extracting the remainder without reseating the bullet and it was no more difficult and caused no deformation to the cartridge neck.
My work flow was as follows (after a little initial trial and error):
Load the collet die
Insert a bullet in the press shell holder and raise it up until the neck touches the collet.
Tighten the collet on the bullet, then raise the press lever to pull the case off the bulllet. Set the bullet in the tray.
Release the colllet. This does not yet release the bullet. I place a bolt on top of the shell holder on the ram of the press and raise the ram so that the bolt pushes on the underside of the bullet. The upward movement releases the grip of the collet and this frees the bullet.
Lower the ram and catch the bullet before it falls on the ground. I placed the bullet point first into the cartridge from which it was removed.
Process the entire batch this way.
Then, I dumped the powder from each cartridge on the electronic scale to weight it. Then dumped it onto a small bucket. Then weighed the bullet. The goal was to determine how accurate the original powder was metered and how much variation there was in bullet weight. I would say that the powder charge variation was around +- 1.5gr. The bullets had a max deviation of +-2gr (for a 200 gr bullet). The powder itself was in flake form (neither spherical nor cylindrical). I have not been able to make a determination analytically whether those 2 variations would be responsible for the 4-6moa performance I had achieved with the test rifle. The same unit was down to 1moa using Privy Partisan modern ammo with a similar 196gr FMJBT bullet.
I then did a neck resize on the whole batch of primed shells, to prepare for a new powder charge. I damaged the first shell by leaving out the neck expander, but got it right thereafter. So I had to pull another bullet to get back up to 50. Then did the fiddly job of setting up the powder measure. This is one of those operations which would be a lot easier if one had a video to watch. By process of elimination, I figured it out. Raise the handle, lower the handle, get reliable metered charge... Lower the handle, raise the handle, not so good... And it doesn't like to stay up either (the handle that is). Loaded a charge in each of the cases.
Bullet seating and crimp was pretty easy. I'm shooting a bolt rifle, so I didn't try to put a heavy crimp on the bullet. OAL and straightness were fine.
So, I have to see if the range will be open tomorrow to go and try out the new powder. BTW, I settled on 41.5gr of Hodgsons H4895 for the 200gr bullet. That is about in the middle of the max and low charge levels indicated in the Hodgson datasheet. I don't know whether berdan primers behave like regular or magnum primers, so I certainly didn't want to be near max loads and the charge weight was also very close to the weight of the original powder from 1950.
Wish me luck at the range... Pictures to follow.