Now that I’m done (for now) loading 9mm, I’m switching to reload .38 Special.

The caliber conversion on the Lock N Load press went pretty smoothly, thanx to the bushing system. I had loaded .38 previously on the press, so all of the dies were already sized and set in their bushings, so just remove the 9 dies, insert the .38 dies. Done!

Well, not quite.

That did take care of the resize/decapping die, bullet seater, and then crimping die. The powder cop die? I don’t have a second one so I had to readjust that, but that’s trivial to do once you have your powder set up. And that’s where things took a bit of work. While resetting the powder drop itself wasn’t too hard, it’s just all the tedium of getting it to drop just the right amount (3.5 grains of Titegroup). And it’s not even the adjusting of the drop, it’s using the beam scale.

Yes, for Christmas I’d like a digital scale, please. One that plugs into the wall, no batteries.

Apart from that, the caliber conversion went smoothly, and I started loading .38. Gosh, it feels so different under my fingers. Going from those short stubby 9mm cases to long .38 cases. From the small 115 grain bullets to larger 158 grain bullets (and these Berry’s 158 grain DS RN are seating and working just fine). The feel is so different, the rhythm is different. Even the sound the rounds make when dumping out of the press into the bucket is different.

But it also feels neat to be done with 9 and onto something else. 🙂

I’ll keep loading .38 until the Titegroup is gone. Then, rifle. I’m really looking forward to that endeavor.