Here I Go! First Time Reloading!

[XDJYo]

Well, I've got the whole day off tomorrow. Going to hole up in the garage and load up a handful of rounds of 45 ACP on my Dillon 650. Hopefully, if all goes well, I'm off to the range in the afternoon to shoot them and see how they run.

Not sure exactly how many rounds, maybe 30-50 of my starting load? Then, go from there. 50 may be a bit wasteful if it doesn't turn out right.

I've already adjusted all of my dies for resizing/bell, seating and finally the crimp. Only thing I have left to do in the a.m. is to adjust the powder measure. I'm shooting for 4.2 grains of Bullseye with a 230 grain FMJ. Not going for major accuracy or anything like that just yet. Just want to get my feet wet and get some reloading under my belt. Want to make sure it will cycle in my 1911's and my Springfield XD-m.

Thanks to everyone on this forum who have contributed knowledge and encouragement!

Happy shooting and be safe!

[MrElectric03]

I usually do 20 round batch for a new load. Take your time and triple check your work.

When I first started I didn't listen to everyone and just wanted to pull that handle. I ended up pulling over 100 rounds apart with my bullet puller after I figured out that I had my manual scale zeroed incorrectly. Luckily the rounds were undercharged causing cycle issues rather than over charged causing bad things.

[bruce381]

in your loading career eventually you will need a puller so buy it now and have it.

[Red9]

To double check your scale settings, you could always weigh a boolit, and check to make sure the scale is on grain setting. Just a simple tip. Dont ask how i figured this out.
Small things you learn over time.
Good luck and of course...

[XDJYo]

I knew I would be doing some 'experimenting', so a bullet puller was a given and a cheap item that I bought fairly early on. I've been piecing all of the equipment together over the last 1 1/2 years or so, acquiring stuff slowly as money and incentive would push me.

I will probably quadruple-check everything before I hit the range.

dkonrai-good idea about weighing finished bullets vs my reloads!

And here's the pic!



Thanks again all!

Happy shooting and be safe!

[anyracoon]

Buy your self a case gauge, or at least use your pistol barrel, cheap insurance to make sure your loaded ammo will chamber.

[XDJYo]

Buy your self a case gauge, or at least use your pistol barrel, cheap insurance to make sure your loaded ammo will chamber.

You can't see the case gauge in the picture? LOL! J/K. I've got one of those too and will be put to good use! Maybe I'll have to enlist my wife to do the honors once I get things running smoothly.

Happy shooting and be safe!

[liber]

I'm shooting for 4.2 grains of Bullseye with a 230 grain FMJ.

That's a pretty light load for 230 gr. bullet, even Hornady has 4.4 gr listed as the minimum at 750 FPS.

Looking on the Alliant site, they list from between 4.4 gr - 5.7 gr. for Bullseye.

I loaded up a bunch of similar rounds recently and put 5.0 gr. in them, using Berry's 230 gr. FMJ RN bullets.

[Win231]

Pretty nice "starter" press.

[XDJYo]

That's a pretty light load for 230 gr. bullet, even Hornady has 4.4 gr listed as the minimum at 750 FPS.

Looking on the Alliant site, they list from between 4.4 gr - 5.7 gr. for Bullseye.

I loaded up a bunch of similar rounds recently and put 5.0 gr. in them, using Berry's 230 gr. FMJ RN bullets.

You're right. I saw that the Alliant book shows a load of 5.7 grains too. (I didn't see a starting load though). My Lyman book shows 3.8 - 5.3 grains for 230 grain FMJ. I notice a lot of people in the mid to high 4's. I've seen a few in the 5's. My thought was 4.2 would be a safe low-end round to start off with.

Will be shooting this round in my two 5" 1911's with stock recoil springs etc.

Hmmm...What to do.

And yeah, I kinda bit the bullet on the press. I could have started off real simple, but the Dillon had a lot of safety features that I liked and the ability to pick up the pace as needed.

[jericho89]

What you do is load 4 rounds at the low and work up 0.1 gr per 4 rounds. I write on the brass the load and you can get an idea what powder level with function your gun. Since you were dealing with 2 guns then you may want to do 8 at each weight. Once you find what functions then you know never load under that level. There is no need to go to max so you can shoot through them all. The ones that do not cycle you can either break apart or just hand cycle and shoot .

Tip just put the 4 rounds in the mag and that way you can see if the last round will lock the slide open.

[Eljay]

What I generally recommend is to load maybe one magazine worth at some plausible load closer to the minimum to the maximum. Then go shoot them. It's very reassuring when everything works out and if it doesn't, not too much harm done.

Then the next batch would be to do some kind of ladder between minimum and something below maximum (no need to get real close to it - basically just skip the last couple of steps on the ladder). For pistol I personally feel like loading some every .2 grains is fine. As jericho says you can learn what's too underpowered to function and start getting some sense of what the recoil feels like, etc. Once you have some idea of what load works in all of your guns you can decide if you would rather try to optimize accuracy or just pick something that's ok or whatever.

Then you go into production mode. I'd make a batch of 100, shoot it, make a batch of 200, etc. until you're making however many you want to do in one sitting with your 650.

Once you're feeling confident you can add another caliber, or you can try some different powders or bullets and go back to step 1 and see how they compare.

[XDJYo]

Thank you all! About to hit the garage in a few. If I never post back, you'll know what happened! LOL!

I'll be sure to post back here with results and updates of loading and the time at the range.

Happy shooting and be safe!

[MarkG35]

Thank you all! About to hit the garage in a few. If I never post back, you'll know what happened! LOL!

I'll be sure to post back here with results and updates of loading and the time at the range.

Happy shooting and be safe!

Good luck! You will be fine.

Or........

You can learn to type with your toes.

[Divehobo]

Slow and steady with double checks on primer seating and powder drop. Slower is better while you and machine breaking in and getting used too each other. I can remember being frustrated with my 650 for weeks while trying to get it to run smooth. Lots of double back to vhs tape and then back to try it out again.

When running home brew, watch for consistently between each round and if discharge seem different than the last or what your used too, stop shooting prior to pulling trigger and figure out why. Squib loads are real.

Welcome to reloading. You will find enjoyment and relaxation in running your press. Hopefully learning curve quick and painless, enjoy.