Loaded my first 50 rounds!!!

[SARC_Mike]

Ok, so I know to most of you this is not impressive stuff. I dont care. I am quite proud of myself here. I got a Lee pro 1000 in .40 last week. Knowing who I am and the impatience I have I bought the press, had it overnighted, then bought the brass and bullets (didnt have any brass on hand) then bought the powder and primers. Doing this let me fiddle with the press, then set my dies and do a few "dry runs" then once the powder and primers came in I was ready to roll. I am pretty happy with the results so far. Had one primer not seat completely out of 50. I cut my losses and tossed it in the trash. I know I could have probably saved it, but I'd prefer safe over sorry. The sad thing is my .40 caliber gun is still in jail so I dont get to test out my new rounds. I made a nice label with all the loading stats and totally QC'd every 3 to 5 just to make sure it was all going well. Weight, depth all that good stuff was right on every time. Thanks to jonneely for the write up on the pro1k, I followed his set up/pre-clean to a T and I think I got me a good thing going on now. I was quite intimidated by the whole process leading up to actually doing it. Now, sorry vet reloaders, I'm not impressed. Obviously any dummy (me) can figure it out. I kid of course. I know I still have A LOT to learn. Thanks to those on this forum who helped me out, either directly or indirectly by posting your wisdom and allowing me to troll it!

[david619]

Nice, I'm looking into doing my own reloads as well. Enjoy.

[ahren111]

Congrats! I'm going to be loading my first rounds this weekend, I'm excited too!! The process is pretty simple there's just soooo much info, it seems overwhelming at first.

[Turo]

Sounds good! I recently started reloading as well (and on the .40S&W too).
I have a couple questions:
Which powder are your using in your 40? Bullet weight? Do you have any specific goals as to what you want your rounds to do? Do you have a chronograph?

I use Longshot under 180gr bullets and my pet load hits 1000fps out of my Glock 27. It's a sweet shooter.

[SARC_Mike]

Sounds good! I recently started reloading as well (and on the .40S&W too).
I have a couple questions:
Which powder are your using in your 40? Bullet weight? Do you have any specific goals as to what you want your rounds to do? Do you have a chronograph?

I use Longshot under 180gr bullets and my pet load hits 1000fps out of my Glock 27. It's a sweet shooter.

Using power pistol but will be experimenting more than is probably healthy
I am using a 180gr JHP
Once I really get this crap figured out my goal is to have a round that will let me compete in USPSA limited division with major scoring (and if I really figure out this reloading thing to have a round I dont have to even aim...HA!!!)
No Chrono...but am looking to purchase one...that time will come eventually

The two loads I am going to try are from a friend that has the same gun (glock 35) and barrel (KKM Match) that I will be using so they are good starting points. From there its all about tweak and peak. One is a pretty mild load 6.4 PP, 180jhp at 1.130 and the other is supposed to be a bit hotter 6.9pp 180jhp at 1.125.

[five.five-six]

don't blow yourself up













J/K you will be fine... question is will you hit the bullseye with your first few home rolled shots.... or will you flinch from fear of blowing your hands off

[SARC_Mike]

don't blow yourself up













J/K you will be fine... question is will you hit the bullseye with your first few home rolled shots.... or will you flinch from fear of blowing your hands off

There is no doubt that my first few rounds will be fired eyes closed with a huge fear of explosion...but hey I lived a good life so it's all good. I may fire left handed just in case...my right hand is WAY too important!

[bruce381]

good job now get an eraser or bullet puller the hammer kind you will need it and it save throwing away any bad or off spec ammo.

[G38xOC]

congrats !

if u decide to get a 10mm down the road . i think u can use ur .40cal dies to load 10mm .

[drifter2be]

Good stuff. I have been loading for just a short while myself. I've loaded about 300 rounds of 9mm. Watch out when using "used" cases. I had an issue with a few bulged cases my first time and had a pretty bad jam when it got stuck in the chamber of my Beretta. Other than that, yeah it does seem pretty idiotically simple...my 45acp die set should be here wednesday so I can start working up some loads for my new 1911.

[Sac-AR15]

Congrats! I'm still waiting for my dies to arrive on monday. I went with the Hornady LnL AP. My first time reloading. Already read the Lyman's manual. Interested to hear back from you after your trip to the range.

[SARC_Mike]

Congrats! I'm still waiting for my dies to arrive on monday. I went with the Hornady LnL AP. My first time reloading. Already read the Lyman's manual. Interested to hear back from you after your trip to the range.

Me too!!! Sadly that won't be for 10 days. I DROS'd my g35 ONE DAY EARLY so I got rejected...and of course they didn't tell me til yesterday....when I should be picking up this morning...meh.

[Turo]

Using power pistol but will be experimenting more than is probably healthy
I am using a 180gr JHP
Once I really get this crap figured out my goal is to have a round that will let me compete in USPSA limited division with major scoring (and if I really figure out this reloading thing to have a round I dont have to even aim...HA!!!)
No Chrono...but am looking to purchase one...that time will come eventually

The two loads I am going to try are from a friend that has the same gun (glock 35) and barrel (KKM Match) that I will be using so they are good starting points. From there its all about tweak and peak. One is a pretty mild load 6.4 PP, 180jhp at 1.130 and the other is supposed to be a bit hotter 6.9pp 180jhp at 1.125.

Since it looks like 7.2gr is the max for PP, I would make sure to build up to that 6.9gr .1 or .2 grains at a time just in case.

Good luck!

[gemoose23]

Good stuff. I have been loading for just a short while myself. I've loaded about 300 rounds of 9mm. Watch out when using "used" cases. I had an issue with a few bulged cases my first time and had a pretty bad jam when it got stuck in the chamber of my Beretta. Other than that, yeah it does seem pretty idiotically simple...my 45acp die set should be here wednesday so I can start working up some loads for my new 1911.

I use a chamber checker as one of my QC steps, it will save you some frustrations on range days.

http://www.egwguns.com/chamber-checkers/4-caliber-ammo-chamber-checker/

When I found out early in my reloading career about this tool, I was amazed and it helps me produce more reliable ammo.

[ducati07]

That's awesome! I just ordered some books and brass...can't wait to start!