Maybe I should just shut up
I had the same thought (the “maybe I should just shut up” part), and I did. I decided I was not going down that road online. Too much typing.
My reaction to Steve’s puzzlement was the same as yours. Then I thought “How did I learn to reload?” Answer: I had friends let me operate their presses, and then walk me through mine - once. Then they handed me my own Hornady manual - which came with the progressive press - and said, “Read this. All of it.” I did.
Once you’ve set up for a caliber once or twice its a no-brainer for any of ‘em. And, like you said, once its set up, you don’t need to tweak anything again (unless you change bullet type or powder loads).
Steve goes kinda intellectually postal sometimes. He over-thinks things a bit occasionally.
My “How To” experience came from a little Lee Loader hand kit. You know, the one where you put ammo together using a hammer. It taught me the basics, and it showed me how slow the process is doing one round at a time. But I bought a loading manual at the same time and read it. I may have reloaded 5 boxes of ammo before I put it down and went looking for a better way. So my next step was to go to a semi-automatic press, my Dillon RL550B.
I over think things too. It’s the engineering gene at work, we can’t help it.
I have a basic reloading set up boxed up in the basement. Did it years ago, yes
it’s “do-able” but it’s gawd awful boring, and at least for me, when I’m bored I get distracted. You do NOT want to be distracted when you are handling gunpowder
.
You do not want to unintentionally “proof test” that spanky, expensive rifle unknowingly,
shrapnel is a bad thing.I learned, self taught, pre Internet, with a Lee Loader, a Hornady loading manual and a Nosler loading manual. Everything is there, step by step. Now the information is even easier to find.
Anyone who can’t figure it out has serious issues with rational thought and common sense.Posted by single stack
04/26/2008 at 10:31 PM
Self taught as well. My friend bought the RCBS package which came with an instructional video. It sat in his garage for three years. He was too scared to get started. Given the price of ammunition over here .223” Winchester ballistic silvertip cost around $40 for 20. At those prices I can’t afford not to reload! The bonus is my ammunition is as good as or better than factory. By the way my friend is now reloading after I showed him how relatively easy it is.
My first reloading set up was a hammer powered Lee Loader, as well. I still recommend them for “new guy, one caliber” loaders. They’re simple and they teach all the process in a way no manual can.
I now have a Dillon XL650 and I load from .32 ACP to .35 Whelan on it.
Reloading ammunition is about as complicated as driving in rush hour traffic. One must pay attention and one must be careful. But it is certainly not brain surgery or even scrimshaw.
I’m in the Long Beach, PDSR California area. Drop me an email or PM on this site and I’ll be happy to talk with you or even show you the set up.
Question: for the lubricating grease, would pig fat work? I can foresee a whole bunch of forehead thumpers having cows if they decided to go “jihadi” and met up with “haram” bullets. There would go their chances of heaven, 72 virgins, and the 18 young boys.
Valgerd-
Nice idea, but kinda hard to put in place.
The lubricant is used on the outside of the case, not on the bullets. The tools used in the reloading process are called “dies”, and what they are, are solid steel cylinders that are precisely hollowed out on the inside so that they fit the proper shape of the cartridge. The cartridges are made from brass, which is slightly springy. When you fire the gun, the brass case expands to fill the area in the gun that holds it, called the chamber. What the reloading dies do is squeeze the case back down to the right size - just a tiny tiny bit smaller than the chamber - so that it goes in and out easily. So there is a huge amount of friction going on during the reload process when you force the brass case up inside the steel die. That’s why it needs a bit of lubrication. When the bullet is pushed into the case it squeezes the mouth of the case wider. You don’t want lubrication there for several reasons -corrosion, corruption of the gunpowder - but the main reason is that you want the bullet held strongly in place, so that when the gunpowder is ignited, it has to get burning good and strong to build up enough pressure to push the bullet out (we’re talking about 1/100 of 1/1000 of a second time period). If you could fire off a cartridge without a barrel, the bullet would only fly a few feet.
And once the reloading process is complete, all the remaining lubricant is removed. You do not want oily rounds going into your gun because guns are designed to use clean and dry ammunition.
On the third hand, to make my gunnies here happy, there is a kind of bullet that does carry lubricant on it. This is the very old style cast lead bullet which has been around for several hundred years. The lubricant is there to keep soft the burnt gunpowder crud that builds up inside the barrel. And lard, bacon fat, beeswax, etc have all been used in this capacity with varying degrees of success. However, the Rules of War now implicitly prohibit using plain lead bullets because lead is soft. That’s why we have Full Metal Jacket ammunition. The bullets are harder, so they don’t expand when they hit something soft, like a soldier. That makes them a lot less effective than regular hunting bullets, which are designed to expand! FMJ bullets are illegal to use for hunting in many states for exactly this reason. Also, military ammo shoots a lot faster than it did 140 years ago, and lead bullets can’t be fired that fast without tearing up somewhat and leaving a mess in the barrel. That mess gets in the way of the next bullet fired, and hinders accuracy. Not something you want when you have to shoot a lot really fast.
Not differing with Drew here, but many handguns like lead bullets. They are not illegal for self defense apart from being issued by ‘armed forces’ who are signatory to the various conventions and accords on killing one another in formal combat.
In other words, I can use lead bullets for my own defense all I want. In terms of handguns, lead bullets are cheaper, just as or even more accurate than jacketed and simpler to load than jacketed bullets. And they do require lubrication.
There are several mixtures of lubricant for lead bullets. I don’t see why pig fat could not be a component. Various animal fats have been used in the past.
04/27/2008 at 02:00 AM
