nitesite
03-08-2009, 09:14 PM
Back when I first started reloading, all I had was my new equipment and a reloading manual. Sure wish I had a friend/mentor to help me get started more on the right track. If my friends at GLOCKPOST had been around back then I might have avoided making some of the dumb decisions I made.
Here are some mistakes I made, in no particular order.
(1) Wrong Primers. I recently got out some .223 Remington ammo that I made during my first months of reloading in 2002. I had bought Remington 6-1/2 small rifle primers because they were the only SR available locally at the time. I didn't know that they were for .22 Hornet only. I couldn't find 7-1/2s but since they were for "Small Rifle" I thought they would be OK with H335 and a 55-gr FMJ. WRONG! I had pierced primers about 10% of the time. Couldn't figure what was wrong because the powder charge was far from MAX. So I just put those loaded rounds away. I just spent part of this weekend pulling the bullets and depriming some 300 faulty rounds. Thank God for the Hornady collet puller I bought and to this point had barely used. It is a tool worth having.
Do I get CRB points for reclaiming the powder and dedicating the primers for plinking .38-Special loads?
(1a) Not trimming once-fired rifle brass. This weekend, after pulling those bullets and decapping the live primers I measured the cases. Back when I loaded them I chose not to trim them because they were all my own once-fired brass and I wrongly thought that they couldn't possibly have stretched enough to already need trimming. I didn't know that the act of full-length sizing them would stretch many of them beyond 1.760". They are now again resized, tumbled and trimmed to 1.750" as I should have done if I had been a better student.
(2) Just because the manual mentions a powder it doesn't mean it's good. I first started loading 10mm Auto with 180-gr TCFP jacketed bullets, and used Titegroup (of all things) because I had it on hand for my .38-Special loads. I figured that if TG was listed in the load chart for that bullet in a 10mm it would be fine. I never loaded to the MAX charge and never had any problems from my G29. Now I know that TG is WAY too fast for a heavy 10mm bullet unless I'm willing to keep velocities down to around a neutered .40S&W. I'm lucky I didn't blow my gun up with that one. Heck, I have several manuals now and some of them list Bullseye for .357 Magnum.
(3) Powder Frenzy. When I first set up in the beginning, I bought a different powder every other week or so. Before I knew it I owned Accurate #2, Accurate #5, Accurate #7, AA 2230, Titegroup, Unique, Clays, Red Dot, Green Dot, Bullseye, Unique, H335, H322, Varget, H4350, BL-(C)2 and probably some others I can't think of at the moment. That wasn't smart, but back then I was just so excited to try everything. That was a mistake.
(4) Lee Factory Crimp Dies are not for soft lead bullets. Some of the early .38 reloads I made were with swaged soft LSWCs, and I used the LFCD to make some really nice looking cartridges. But their accuracy was only mediocre. It wasn't until later that I learned to use the LFCD only for jacketed bullets. Things improved after that.
(5) Don't make loads that only please your chronograph. Unless you are trying to make power factor with only a bit to spare, those AVERAGE and ES/SD numbers are not as important as accuracy-accuracy-accuracy. If accuracy is great and the ES/SD numbers seem a bit wide... learn to live with it.
(5b) Don't be shocked when your chrono shows you ammo is slower than the manual. If you read closely, you'll see some incredibly long barrels being used when powder and bullet companies worked up their data. When my early .357 magnum loads "clocked slow" using Hodgdon data, I didn't first notice that they used a 10.7" test barrel. Ooops!
(6) I'm not Mike McNett and I don't want to make my own version of his ammo. Nuff said. Overdriving bullets constructed and designed to perform within an optimum velocity envelope is counterproductive. I have 3-4 largely unused boxes of DT that I will pull the bullets from and re-use the components for more sensible overall performance. Besides, my pistols don't carry an insurance policy that covers damage.
(7) Don't try to get one more reload out of a case with a split case mouth. I once seated bullets in split brass meant for semi-autos and figured I'd shoot them and leave the brass. When I was checking neck tension, though, I found I could push the bullet into the case until it bottomoed against the powder charge. Would have been catastrophic.
(8) If you decide to start loading for shotgun, don't do it in a carpeted room and make sure you have a really good broom and dustpan. Some of you will know what I'm talking about. ;)
I'm nitesite, and I approved this message.
Here are some mistakes I made, in no particular order.
(1) Wrong Primers. I recently got out some .223 Remington ammo that I made during my first months of reloading in 2002. I had bought Remington 6-1/2 small rifle primers because they were the only SR available locally at the time. I didn't know that they were for .22 Hornet only. I couldn't find 7-1/2s but since they were for "Small Rifle" I thought they would be OK with H335 and a 55-gr FMJ. WRONG! I had pierced primers about 10% of the time. Couldn't figure what was wrong because the powder charge was far from MAX. So I just put those loaded rounds away. I just spent part of this weekend pulling the bullets and depriming some 300 faulty rounds. Thank God for the Hornady collet puller I bought and to this point had barely used. It is a tool worth having.
Do I get CRB points for reclaiming the powder and dedicating the primers for plinking .38-Special loads?
(1a) Not trimming once-fired rifle brass. This weekend, after pulling those bullets and decapping the live primers I measured the cases. Back when I loaded them I chose not to trim them because they were all my own once-fired brass and I wrongly thought that they couldn't possibly have stretched enough to already need trimming. I didn't know that the act of full-length sizing them would stretch many of them beyond 1.760". They are now again resized, tumbled and trimmed to 1.750" as I should have done if I had been a better student.
(2) Just because the manual mentions a powder it doesn't mean it's good. I first started loading 10mm Auto with 180-gr TCFP jacketed bullets, and used Titegroup (of all things) because I had it on hand for my .38-Special loads. I figured that if TG was listed in the load chart for that bullet in a 10mm it would be fine. I never loaded to the MAX charge and never had any problems from my G29. Now I know that TG is WAY too fast for a heavy 10mm bullet unless I'm willing to keep velocities down to around a neutered .40S&W. I'm lucky I didn't blow my gun up with that one. Heck, I have several manuals now and some of them list Bullseye for .357 Magnum.
(3) Powder Frenzy. When I first set up in the beginning, I bought a different powder every other week or so. Before I knew it I owned Accurate #2, Accurate #5, Accurate #7, AA 2230, Titegroup, Unique, Clays, Red Dot, Green Dot, Bullseye, Unique, H335, H322, Varget, H4350, BL-(C)2 and probably some others I can't think of at the moment. That wasn't smart, but back then I was just so excited to try everything. That was a mistake.
(4) Lee Factory Crimp Dies are not for soft lead bullets. Some of the early .38 reloads I made were with swaged soft LSWCs, and I used the LFCD to make some really nice looking cartridges. But their accuracy was only mediocre. It wasn't until later that I learned to use the LFCD only for jacketed bullets. Things improved after that.
(5) Don't make loads that only please your chronograph. Unless you are trying to make power factor with only a bit to spare, those AVERAGE and ES/SD numbers are not as important as accuracy-accuracy-accuracy. If accuracy is great and the ES/SD numbers seem a bit wide... learn to live with it.
(5b) Don't be shocked when your chrono shows you ammo is slower than the manual. If you read closely, you'll see some incredibly long barrels being used when powder and bullet companies worked up their data. When my early .357 magnum loads "clocked slow" using Hodgdon data, I didn't first notice that they used a 10.7" test barrel. Ooops!
(6) I'm not Mike McNett and I don't want to make my own version of his ammo. Nuff said. Overdriving bullets constructed and designed to perform within an optimum velocity envelope is counterproductive. I have 3-4 largely unused boxes of DT that I will pull the bullets from and re-use the components for more sensible overall performance. Besides, my pistols don't carry an insurance policy that covers damage.
(7) Don't try to get one more reload out of a case with a split case mouth. I once seated bullets in split brass meant for semi-autos and figured I'd shoot them and leave the brass. When I was checking neck tension, though, I found I could push the bullet into the case until it bottomoed against the powder charge. Would have been catastrophic.
(8) If you decide to start loading for shotgun, don't do it in a carpeted room and make sure you have a really good broom and dustpan. Some of you will know what I'm talking about. ;)
I'm nitesite, and I approved this message.