Noob reloader questions

[Buddhabelly]

I've just finished doing my very first reloading. Dillon 550 loading .45 ACP

W231 powder at 4.5 Gr with CCI 300 primers and Hornady 185 Gr. SWC jacketed bullets. At 1.135" O.L.

I'd spilled some powder at clean up, and on the press. How do I clean up spilled powder?

What's an OK tolerance for the overall length? Is .005" OK?
How about .010"? Either over or under.

I checked loading, chambering, ejecting my new cartridges in my 1911 and they were fine.

[Bill Steele]

4.5 grains of W231 for a 185gr bullet seems kind of light, might not cycle a semi.

I use a small vacuum (mighty mite) to pick up any loose powder and change the bag often. Many people say to never use an electric vacuum but so far I have never had any ill effects. The bags are essentially empty each time I change them, just some flakes of powder in the bottom.

.005" tolerance on OAL is fine.

[Buddhabelly]

4.5 grains of W231 for a 185gr bullet seems kind of light, might not cycle a semi.

I use a small vacuum (mighty mite) to pick up any loose powder and change the bag often. Many people say to never use an electric vacuum but so far I have never had any ill effects. The bags are essentially empty each time I change them, just some flakes of powder in the bottom.

.005" tolerance on OAL is fine.

Thanks Bill, Lyman's reloading book says 4.1, Wichester site says 5.0 starting load. I picked the middle. I hope it'll cycle, otherwise I'll have 100 rounds of useless ammo and no bullet puller.

[Whiterabbit]

I did just what you did. First time out with the reloader, crank out a bunch of rounds. Same exact thing, I wanted a light load and just cranked a bunch of light rounds out without seeing what worked well in the firearm. learned alot. They all fired like crap, ran 8" groups at 50 yards, and were tough to chamber.

Then I started doing things one round at a time, developing loads small group by small group. No waste, no time with the bullet puller, and I have recipes now that I know are tack drivers that I can crank out large volumes on.

For the next cartridge? All over again. Onsey-twoseys till I have a load I like, then it's the hundreds at a time. But not high volume first.

I've never worried about spilled powder. Pile some up somewhere safe and light it on fire if you want. kid friendly. Amazing how benign powder is when it is not in a pressure-vessel. Or, amazing how dangerous it is when sealed up in a pressure vessel.

My spilled powder gets blown to the floor to mix with the sawdust and later swept.

[Whiterabbit]

IMO, even if they cycle, if they aren't as accurate as factory loads at least, I'd pull them and start over. 400 grains of powder lost is nothing. The brass will be ready to go for new powder and the same bullet.

I think that's a way better use of time (pulling ~90 rounds) compared to re-cleaning 100 brass.

[Bill Steele]

Thanks Bill, Lyman's reloading book says 4.1, Wichester site says 5.0 starting load. I picked the middle. I hope it'll cycle, otherwise I'll have 100 rounds of useless ammo and no bullet puller.

The good news is you are on the light side. Nothing more nerve racking as getting it a little wrong on the other side. You did the right thing starting conservatively. The powder sites are a great place to get load data.

If it doesn't cycle reliably, just practice your failure drills, not all bad.

Another book that is good for lots of different loads is the Lee 2nd Edition. Just ignore when you are reading some of the how to stuff and you get some advice on a method that can only be accomplished with a Lee product. All in all though, worth the money in my opinion.

PS - Not sure where in the Bay Area you are, I am in SF, if you are close enough, after testing some, you can come over and we can pull the ones that are left really quickly, just bring the powder bottle, we can reclaim everything.

[Buddhabelly]

I was really nervous about having 100 primers in my feed tube. So I figured I gotta do all hundred. Next time I'll load only 10 primers in the feed tube at a time.

I did just what you did. First time out with the reloader, crank out a bunch of rounds. Same exact thing, I wanted a light load and just cranked a bunch of light rounds out without seeing what worked well in the firearm. learned alot. They all fired like crap, ran 8" groups at 50 yards, and were tough to chamber.

Then I started doing things one round at a time, developing loads small group by small group. No waste, no time with the bullet puller, and I have recipes now that I know are tack drivers that I can crank out large volumes on.

For the next cartridge? All over again. Onsey-twoseys till I have a load I like, then it's the hundreds at a time. But not high volume first.

I've never worried about spilled powder. Pile some up somewhere safe and light it on fire if you want. kid friendly. Amazing how benign powder is when it is not in a pressure-vessel. Or, amazing how dangerous it is when sealed up in a pressure vessel.

My spilled powder gets blown to the floor to mix with the sawdust and later swept.

[Whiterabbit]

next time, do all 100, that's what I do. I keep boxes of clean, primed, ready-to-go brass. I don't keep raw primers around, there's always brass to put it in!

For new bullet time, take the powder drop and press to the range, pre-set to the 10% down drop and with the bullet seater pre-set. (actually, I wouldn't do this for 45acp, but for powders over 20 grains or so per cartridge, I'd go for it.) Load a round, fire it, inspect the cartridge, inspect the target, wash rinse repeat.

then go home and load up the rest of the bullets with the winners. Multiples if your barrel has multiple harmonics it likes (this is just copy and paste from the internet, I'm not this far in my reloading yet).

For 45acp, if the bullets are cheap enough, I'd just be loading 5 or 10 of each load and try them all. That will tell you when the groups tighten up, when the load is too hot, and if multiple loads group tightly. My barnes ttsx cost alot and I'm only paying for a hunting round, so I just needed to verify tight groups with max load and I was good to go. For you, if you are looking for a plinker round (or round that only goes through so many layers of drywall? I don't know??), you cloud shoot your 10 at the bottom and work you way up and record the lowest powder charge that groups well. even in the hot loads group equally as well, you'd have your low powder consumption people-killer cartridge...

Anyways, long winded post just to say "I load all my primers too, then keep the brass in boxes at the ready for powder and bullet as needed."

[zfields]

4.6 is very light. If you were shooting BE, that would be a good start load : )

I was shooting with a guy a week or two ago, His 1911 was cycling fine, but the steel was goin down pretty slow.

[bumpo628]

IMO, even if they cycle, if they aren't as accurate as factory loads at least, I'd pull them and start over. 400 grains of powder lost is nothing. The brass will be ready to go for new powder and the same bullet.

I think that's a way better use of time (pulling ~90 rounds) compared to re-cleaning 100 brass.

Since they're light loads, the best way to empty them would be to shoot them - practice your 25 ft. targets.

If you pulled them, why would the powder be 'lost'? I would just reuse it, personally.

[SnWnMe]

Do you have a 625? Revolvers don't care how light the load is.

[Buddhabelly]

Do you have a 625? Revolvers don't care how light the load is.

Great idea. Unfortunately I do not have a .45 ACP revolver.