Reloading: What are the safe variations from load data

[ham385]

Originally Posted by max384

If you were closer, I'd offer to give you a hand... but Pittsburgh's a hike! Didn't you used to have Lewisburg listed as your home here? Or was I thinking of someone else?

Nope, not me. Born and raised in da burg.

Originally Posted by WhiteWolf

I'm in Pittsburgh and have been reloading for a few years now. There are several of us from Cranberry to Monroeville.

Send a message if you ever need help or want someone to look over your loads.

As long as you keep the powder charge at 10% below max you should be able to load by volume all day long. For most a perfectly consistent charge under a perfectly seated and crimped bullet with a match grade primer wouldn't make much difference unless you are competing and looking for that perfect shot. If that’s the case, spend 300 on one of the digital auto charge throwing machines.

Oh, and for the record, I still do my reloading with a $20 lee hand press. More expensive is not always better, sometimes it's just more expensive.

Thanks!

On another note, I shot my first reload on Wednesday. It was a miserable failure. I shot a squib that lodged in the barrel!

I knew immediately, from looking at the brass, it was black on the outside, that the round had no powder. I was thinking to myself WTF? When I set it up, I kept throwing powder (lee powder thru sizing die with auto-disk powder measure) weighing it, and dumping the powder back in.

Well, I came back home, pulled out some primed cases, and ran them thru the charging die. No powder, WTF? After some close inspection, I found that I am a complete idiot.

The Lee Auto-disk is spring operated, and the spring is under a LOT of tension. I didn't feel comfortable with it being as tight as it was, since there really isn't an adjustment to expand the case less, so I fabricated a little hook to shorten the span the spring needed to cover. By doing so, I reduced the spring tension, and it no longer had enough tension to pull the disk back under the hopper far enough to fill the hole in the disk with powder. It worked, but if I brought the handle up too slow, the disk stuck.
I was amazed by this because it really is under quite a bit of tension.

Once I made this discovery, I pulled all the rounds I made the other night, 1/3 of them didn't have powder because my self created issue. I took my fancy little hook and chucked it in the garbage, reconnected the spring, charged about 50 cases in a row and weighed every one. Everything was looking good, so I seated 8 bullets and called it a day.

Unbelievable, when I loaded those first cases, I kept stopping to weigh, but dumped it back in the hopper after weighing, so I never confirmed the ones that got a bullet seated. I just advanced it to the next turret hole and seated the bullet. Just dumb luck that I didn't get an empty one.

I learned several lessons from the experience though, and came out with even more respect for the potential to screw things up in the process. I also found out a couple taps on a wooden dowel will pop a lodged bullet right out.

[WhiteWolf]

In this world there are few things I trust; my God, my wife and the Bible cover 90% of it.

I have always charged cases by working out the load I want with powder dippers and then measuring every fifth charge to be sure. If you are going to charge by volume (and I think everyone does most of the time) you need to verify the charge on each container of powder when you get it. The weight per cc can vary a little from batch to batch.

[ham385]

Attempt #2 went better than #1.

I was worried about going too low, so I went with the next size up on the autodisk, .37 with Winchester Super Field. That got me right about 4.10-4.15 gr. I loaded up 5 rounds, a little shorter than max C.O.L, at around 1.160 inch.

I went to the range yesterday, and at least I got bangs instead of pops, but they were under powered, only 1 ejected properly. The others stovepiped.

Today, I loaded up 2 more batches of 5 (I don't want to keep going to the range to shoot 5 rounds) I plan on firing the lower powered ones first, and if sufficient, i'll just take the higher power ones back home and pull them.

The first batch, I used the next size up on the autodisk, the .40. That got me about 4.20-4.25 gr. I lengthened the C.O.L to 1.169 since I didn't have any problems with the shorter ones, and because I'd rather stay closer to the stated recipe. I pulled my barrel, and fitted a dummy, no problems. I checked the mag, no problems there, and I chambered the dummy from the mag, still no problems.

The second batch, I went to the next size on the autodisk, .43. This one made a pretty big jump, all the way up to the 4.60-4.75 gr range, which is making me nervous. 4.70gr is the stated max. I weighed each charge, and if it was over 4.6, I threw it back in the hopper until I got a consistent 4.60gr for all 5 rounds loaded. I don't think i'll want to load with this setting on the autodisk because of the variation and how close it is to the max. I also made sure the C.O.L was exactly what was stated (1.169) in the recipe.

I'm really not liking the variances in the powder that is being thrown. One thing I noticed is if I screw around with the turret press and keep working the handle without charging a round (I was messing with the seater/crimper) the powder seems to settle, and I get a much heavier charge, which does not make me feel safe.

Originally Posted by Flash

Establish a sequence, a procedure, get a rhythm - - CONSISTENCY is the goal of all of this.

Point taken

But even when i'm consistent, there is (what seems to me) a big variance. If it throws 4.60 gr one time and 4.70 gr the next, to me that seems huge.

With all these variances, and what happened on my first attempt, I've decided to weigh every charge, and measure C.O.L for every round. It's a pain, but at least for the time being, it'll give me some piece of mind.

It's not a race, I'm enjoying myself, so I might as well take it slow, get to know the process, the capabilities of my equipment, and build some confidence.

Still, I'd like to know. Am I being overly cautious? Why did it jump from 4.2 to 4.7 with one size larger for the disk? .34 to .37 only added .10 gr. .37 to .40 only added about .15 gr. but the .40 to .43 holes added .40 gr. Is it operator error? Or did I make a poor choice for powder to be thrown from the autodisk? (winchester super field, which is a flake) Should I trash the autodisk and go with some other option?

[Yoder]

I wouldn't sweat .1gr of powder, I think mine is usually +- 1.5 using the same setup. Instead of adding more powder you can always shorten your OAL and create more pressure in the cartridge which should translate into higher velocity. Also if you don't like being limited to the auto disk buy one of these:

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct...tNumber=150005

It's only $9.99 and it has a micrometer and you can set the exact charge you want. I bought one and it works great. You can dial in the charge exactly.

[max384]

I wouldn't worry about +/- .1 gr of powder either... but I would try to stay a little further from the max. If you can't find a good load with the powder you're using, try switching powders. I have found that there are some powders that I just do not like with a certain type/weight bullet. For example, I had started out using 800x with 9mm 115 gr JHP bullets because I was also using 800x with my 40 S&W loads. I just couldn't find a good load with 800x for 9mm, but it works great for my 40 S&W. I currently use bullseye when loading 9mm with 115 gr FMJ bullets.