Help/Show a Pistol Newbie in Long Beach

[jdmacl]

I've bought all my equipment and even tumbled, sized and primed nearly 1,000 .40 S&W cases, but I'd now like to look over someones shoulder before I attempt the rest of the reloading process.

Is there anybody in the Southern LA county or Northern OC area that would mind letting me sit-in on their next reloading session? Specifically I would be interested in somebody loading pistol, since it's most relevant to me, .40 all the better. I'm happy to bring along/share .40 brass or .38 if that's any incentive.

Thanks!

[Sheldon]

What type press you have? Really nothing more than belling the case, dropping some powder, seating the bullet, and taper crimping the case, left to do. What part is worrying you?

[jdmacl]

I have a Lee single stage press, which so far has worked fine.

Not really worried, I guess it's just the typical first time jitters. It just seems to be that there is a lot of subjectivity to the process; how far to bell the case before doing it, "too much", what recipe is best and why, how much to crimp, etc. Would like to see the process done by someone in the know before I try it myself.

[Sheldon]

Belling is not that big a deal....too much and you lose a little case life and not enough, the bullet won't stand up straight in the case before seating. Powder charge selection for me has always been more to a desired recoil. You will probably load a few different charges before you find what you want. With the automatic caliber you just crimp enough to remove the belling. You should be able to run your fingers up the case and not feel any belling left on the mouth of the case and still see edge of the case. If you see the mouth of the case start to crimp into the bullet you are going too far. As long as you stay within listed powder charges for the given weight bullet and seat to listed spec for that style bullet, you should be fine. If I were closer I'de help you out, but I'm in the San Gabrile Valley. I could help you out Saturday morning, but it would have to be on my way home from work....about 6:00am!!! I'm willing if you can meet that early.

You can always just play around with unprimed cases without powder to get familiar with the seating and belling. Just use a bullet puller to take them apart when you get it down. Trust me it ain't that big a deal.

[g17owner]

.40 is a little tricky when it comes to powder selection as you want to keep it with listed powders as mentioned above. I like power pistol for .40 a lot. I get consistent velocities and good accuracy. I think the biggest thing is selecting the correct powder charge. Get a good scale and powder dispenser. I'd let you check out my .40 set up but i'm all the way out in san bernardino now. Believe me it is easy.

[jdmacl]

Sheldon, thanks for the good input. I'll pass on the early morning help, and actually have not made my powder and bullet choice/purchase yet. Would still like to find somebody close by that is reloading and wouldn't mind someone watching.

Also, my bench is still a work-in-progress!

[jdmacl]

g17 - thanks for the advise.

This is where some of my nervousness comes in though; I've seen/read a lot of good things on Power Pistol, but the recipes for .40 seem very limited. On Alliant's site they only show three recipes, and a lot of books don't even list much for PP either. Also, books and Alliant's site for example, tend to list limited bullets (and always the, "expensive" ones - why do people tend to reload HP for shooting targets?!).

I like and am looking to load 165 gr. CMJ - very limited data for that it seems.