just finished my 3rd box of handgun ammo. Some observations from a newbie

[Trucker76]

I started with some .38 special loads. I just got home from 2 weeks on the road and as I'm only home every other weekend I wanted to get reloading soon so I had to buy my components local. I finally wound up with a couple boxes of .357 158gr jhp, a pound of true blue powder, and some winchester small pistol primers. I also got some large pistol primers and a bag of .45 230gr tmj bullets (more on that later).

So I set up and get started, and got a primer sideways in a primer pocket. I was using the rcbs hand priming tool and learned the primers do have enough to turn on you when you aren't looking. I started working up my loads from minimum loading 10 rounds at a time then bumping it up .1gr then do another 10 until I had 50 done (finished .1gr below max load). I also wound up crushing a case fairly impressively by trying to seat the bullet and crimp it at the same time. I now do my seating and crimping separately. Other than those 2 snafu's everything else went smoothly. The true blue is a ball type powder and the powder measure held it setting perfectly through every load change.

Next up I tried some .45 auto loads. I get 50 large pistol primers in the priming tool, insert a brass, and something is wrong. This .45 brass is too small for large pistol primers. I recheck speer and lyman and they both call for the large primers. I switch to small primers and they seat perfectly. I was told the loads should work just fine with the small primers. So I get all the cased charged and start seating bullets. My first few go fine then I get resistance on the handle and when I bring it down I see one of the brass scraped the copper jacket bunching it up near the case and ruining the load. So I take all the cases and run them through the expanding die again flaring the necks further. I run a few more bullets and yet another scraped jacket and ruined round. I figure the round was crooked or something. Then it happens a third time and I get suspicious. I start seating the bullets very carefully and when I feel resistance I stop and sure enough the jacket is scraping. I take that bullet out and use another one and it seats fine. So I start examining the bullets and here a bunch of them have dents and bulges on the sides. Cheap bagged bullets.

That was 2 weeks ago. My latest batch I just finished today I used some 158gr .357 swc hp with cci small pistol primers and bullseye powder. The bullseye powder is a flake powder and I found it is much harder to get consistent out of the powder measure as it tends to jam it. But the lead bullets seated and crimped nicely and I'm anxious to see how they work since $50 for a 500 round box is much nicer than $28 each for the 100 round boxes of jacketed hollow points I got 2 weeks ago.

[frankski]

It sounds like you're getting familiar with the process.

Have you shot any of the reloads yet?

[Gunsnwater]

Take nothing for granted (like primer size) use powders that meter well and don't buy bullets in baggies like dope. hand prime tools with primer flip tray is a nice inexpensive tool. Only crimp when bullet has crimp grove. Seating and crimping shouldn't crush a case. Get a few reloading manuals, it's not all in one book . Think about casting your own one day. Reloading is the best investment into the shooting hobbie you could make. Always pay attention and you will be fine. Everyone learns the same way.

[Remington788]

There are a couple manufacturers that use small primers in their .45 ACP.
Blazer is one, one variety of Federal that is sold through Walmart, I'm sure there are others.

I look at every case. I just got into the habit of glancing at the bottom of each. Even then, sometimes they still get through. Hopefully you can feel it through the handle and back off. So far I've never set one off.

[Trucker76]

I did shoot off a box of reloads I made. They were target loads for the .38 using 158gr swc. I had 5 different loads of powder 10 rounds each. I fired from 15 yards offhand as all the rests were buried on the ground in snow. My best group was about 3" and they were all in a vertical line which makes me think the group could have been tighter had I been using a sand bag rest. Also interesting the best grouping came from the lightest load, 3.1gr of bullseye.

I have 3 manuals, speer, lyman, and hornady and have read them all as well as a few books (2 weeks on the road vs 1 weekend at home means I do a lot of virtual reloading). One thing they all suggested keeping the crimp and seating separate. I'm sure I didn't have the die set up just right but for now I'm fine with doing them separate. All my .38s get crimped since it is recommended for revolvers and the bullets do have a cannelure. I taper crimp my .45's just to make sure the bullets don't move being slammed around in the magazine from recoil. And I will not be buying bullets in bags anymore. A friend I met here that has a shop gave me some barrys bullets for the .45 to try and they worked well, way better quality than the crap I had.

I do indeed want to get into casting. Have read and watched a lot of youtube on the subject.

The small primer brass was indeed blazer brass. The winchester brass I have uses the large primers. Mystery solved.