Via referral from foo.c, I purchased about 600 used .38 Special cases off a guy. They arrived today. Threw half in the tumbler and by the time I was done with dinner so too was the brass clean enough.

I spot-checked my Lock-n-Load. Looks like it started throwing 3.7 grains of Titegroup instead of 3.5. That might explain why the last batch felt a bit snappier. I readjusted back to 3.5 grains and it seemed to hold steady there. I’ll try this load out vs. the previous load next time I’m at the range and see what differences I can perceive.

Oldest helped me out. Something about the factory-nature of it all appeals to him. It’s cool. Got to spend time together. Let him run the press for a bit. He’s coming to understand “the feel” of it all.

As mentioned previously, there’s one slot in the shell plate that refuses to come in line at the priming station. Actually that’s not the correct way to describe it, but it’s the way I’m able to keep track of it. The guy at Hornady told me to adjust the right pawl. So I adjusted it… I kept adjusting it…. good grief how much to adjust it before I’ll see a difference? And then I saw a difference. Every time the ram went up, things would jam. You see, the right pawl affects the advancing of the shell plate at the top of the ram (bottom of the stroke). It’s the left pawl that advances the plate when the ram comes down (the handle comes up). So…. I put the right pawl back where I started and started to adjust the left pawl.

Lo and behold, things seem to be working.

Unfortunately I didn’t have enough primers left (only brought so many into the garage) so I didn’t get to go through a lot of cycles. But I do think things are better now. Or at least, now I know the correct one. I’ll chalk it up to the Hornady guy not fully understanding what I was saying or that I didn’t explain it to him well enough (i.e. gonna blame myself before I blame him). Oh well. Learned from it. 🙂

Got about 165 more .38 Special rounds loaded. Hopefully that will be enough for the Claude Werner class next month.