awp_101's Reloading Journal

So after a decade plus of "You know, I really should be reloading the calibers I shoot most" I've gotten most of what I need set up over the past week. I've been collecting brass for years, picked up primers and powder here and there and finally bought bullets last week. The press was installed on the stand late last year and tonight I set up the dies and built my first .38 Special dummy round:

Attachment 116751

I plan on hand priming and at the moment I have a Lee Auto Drum set up on the expander die but I'm still not sure if I'm going to charge the cases on or off the press.

Well, looks like it's game on now!

Attachment 117297

.38 Special, 3.1gr W231, CCI 500 SPP, 158gr MBC coated LRN, COL 1.47"

But to get there has been a slightly frustrating experience...

I set up the APP to process the brass. As noted in the linked post, the first session of .38 prepping went pretty good. The subsequent sessions haven't been as trouble free. The short version is, the auto feed hangs up just short of seating the brass into the shellholder so I have to manually nudge it into position. I accidentally ordered a second auto feed when I ordered the press originally so I've swapped the springs and the shuttles around with no luck. I can't feel any obstruction on the plastic track it rides on and I've tried removing the spring from under the shellholder. For now I've accepted that's just the way it is and maybe things will wear together.

I didn't realize just how much .38 brass I have. So far I'm north of 500 pieces decapped and resized but I don't know how far north and there's still a lot more to be cleaned. The collator on the APP has already paid for itself IMO.

Attachment 117300

For size reference
Attachment 117301

Put together the RCBS hand priming tool this morning and got busy.
Attachment 117302

This afternoon I swapped the Classic Turret Press onto the stand and set up the powder dispenser. The turret kit came with the Lee beam scale. One go around with that has me already looking at digital scales. I also have an RCBS powder dispenser and I'm going to see if I can replace the Lee on the expander die with the RCBS. I'll have to manually trip it but I'm already having to manually reset the Lee dispenser anyway so it's not like I'm adding a major step to the process.

How many of the troubles are due to Lee and how many are due to me? I really don't know but 60/40 either way would probably be fair. I'm not a high volume shooter so for now I'm going to stick with and continue learning on what I've already got but at least upgrading to another turret press from someone else is now higher on my list than it was before this weekend.

Over the past week I put aside my irritation from the last post and started digging into the issues I was running in to with the turret press and APP. I found there's a procedure to adjust the indexing of the turret press so I believe I've got that particular irritant solved. At the same time I solved the Auto Drum issues by replacing it with the RCBS Uniflow powder measure I picked up several years ago. I also picked up a Lyman Pocket Touch 1500 Scale Kit to replace the Lee beam scale.

Attachment 117490

Finally, this afternoon I messed with the APP some more. This is the most common problem I run in to:

Attachment 117491

The case tilts just a bit either during movement to the shell holder or it's catching the edge of the shell holder and tilting. I gave the plastic track, shuttle and shell holder a light wipe down with some silicone spray. I can't say it helped but at least it didn't hurt. I processed another 450-500 .38 Special cases while fiddling with it this afternoon. Even bumping the shuttle into place at the end of the stroke doesn't seem to be slowing things down any significant amount so it's a minor aggravation I'm willing to deal with given the speed I can decap and resize 100 cases compared to the single stage press I tried 8-10 years ago.

I've got 50 rounds of .38 loaded up and I'm hoping to hit the range tomorrow. If things go well, I'll be happy. It's a starting load (3.5gr 231, coated 158 LRN) but I'll probably run them through my GP100 just in case...:eek: ;)

Keep at it, you'll get it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NETim

Keep at it, you'll get it.

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Thanks! I know I will, I just have to remember it's a process instead of a turn-key event.

Last week I loaded up 50 .38 Specials with 158gr Berrys flat points and 3.7gr W231. Today I ran them through the 3" 686, 3" and 4" Kimber K6s and one of the Rossi RP63s. The load feels very close to Fed GMM across those revolvers so that will probably become my go-to load with plated or coated cast. Next I'll start working up wadcutter loads.