Reloading

My First Reloads

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

I finally reloaded (on my own) my first ammo!

I say on my own because truly the first reloads I did were when Karl was teaching me. But today I reloaded my first rounds on my own equipment. Insert a little James Brown “I Feel Good” right here. 🙂

Until now all I’ve been doing on my reloading equipment is resizing and decapping 9mm brass. I figure since all I have is a single-stage press I might as well do some things in bulk, so I’ve been going through all my 9mm brass. I haven’t finished because I’ve got a lot of brass, but the kids seem to enjoy helping with that effort so it’s all good. But I was getting tired of just resizing and decapping, I wanted to produce something. So a goal for this weekend was to produce something and shoot it.

Powder Throw

First I needed some way to mount the powder throw. I don’t know how exodus set up the throw for himself, but I didn’t want to mount the throw on the bench as I wasn’t sure how my workflow would go. Plus I know I’m going to buy a progressive press and that must be mounted to the bench so I wanted to avoid bench-mounted clutter. I had some plywood lying around the garage and opted to fashion a small base onto which I could mount the throw. That way I could have a stable mount and I could relocate the powder throw anywhere I needed to.

It’s nothing sexy, but it works. I did that last night, so I could do the actual reloading today.

The Reloading

I decided to only reload 20 rounds of 9mm Luger. Twenty rounds would give me something substantial to work with, but not too many in case of a problem that I couldn’t undo things. Plus I don’t see any reason to reload en masse until the recipe is known good. I used the RCBS’s press to bell and prime (instead of the hand-priming tool). Learning the feel for the priming wasn’t bad… just use firm but gentle pressure and listen to the tactile feedback you get. I do think I belled the cases a little too much, but no big deal… I’ll fine tune that next time.

I looked up the recipe in my reloading manual, weighed the powder and really took my time to weigh, re-weigh, and triple-check that everything was coming out right. Then I seated the bullet and gave it a taper crimp. Lots of using the calipers to ensure dimensions were where they should be. Eventually I had 20 rounds of 9mm Luger.

Here’s my recipe:

Bullet: 115 grain Berry’s TMJ RN

Powder: 6.3 grains Alliant Power Pistol

Primer: Winchester WSP standard small pistol

Cases: used Speer brass

C.O.L.: 1.135″

This was based upon what was listed in my Speer reloading manual.

Trying It Out

I figured if there was any gun I wouldn’t cry that much over if it went kaboom, it’d be my Springfield XD-9 subcompact (3″ barrel). Note that my goal is not to have some awesome load, it’s merely to have a load that functions in the gun, goes bang, no malfunctions. Just work.

Went over to the local indoor range, and as expected since it’s a Saturday, lots of people were on the range that I had no desire to be around. So my goal was to get in, shoot, leave. Sure I paid for an hour of range time and only used 10 minutes, but I’m OK with that.

I started by shooting some of the reloads I did at Karl’s. Worked fine in the gun. Then I loaded up one of my reloads. Worked fine. WHOO-HOO!! Eventually I shot through all 19 of my rounds. Yes, only 19. Before I left the house I ran all 20 rounds through the XD-9 SC just to see how they would feed. After I ran the rounds I remeasured the C.O.L. and one round had significant setback. I don’t know why, but I opted to pull that bullet and reuse that case at another time.

While shooting, I noticed significant muzzle flash; I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much muzzle flash in my life. I don’t know if that’s due to the powder or due to the 3″ barrel or due to something else or some combination of things. Something for me to jot in my notebook. But again, today was not to find some awesome load, just to load.

After shooting my reloads I shot another 10 of the ones I did at Karl’s, then packed up and left.

Success!

I’m pleased with how things went. Nothing blew up, everything functioned. Since the main pistol powder I have is the Power Pistol, I am going to play around with it some more. For instance, reload the same recipe then try it out of my XD-9 Tactical with the 5″ barrel and see how muzzle flash is. Then just continue to tinker with the load from there. (6.7 grains is the max, according to the book). I also have some TiteGroup, which according to this chart burn faster than the Power Pistol. I may play with that too to see how it compares in the 3″ barrel. Hrm. Maybe my next effort will be to load 20 rounds with the Power Pistol, 20 rounds with the TiteGroup, then take all 40 rounds with both my 3″ and 5″ XD and see how things compare.

It’s also sorely evident that if I really want to reload, I must get a progressive press. Certainly I’ll keep the single stage press for things I want the utmost precision on, like making hunting loads. But for bulk practice handgun ammo, a progressive press will be my friend. I am pretty much settled on the Hornady Lock-N-Load AP. Somehow I doubt Santa will bring me one, but I can dream. 😉  Getting a chronograph is probably also a good thing, eventually.

Goal accomplished. Good day.

Much ado about reloading

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

I blame foo.c for starting the ball rolling. 😉

He kept prodding me to start reloading. I saw the sense in learning to reload my own ammunition, but it wasn’t something I wanted to start right now as I’ve got enough irons in the fire. Then exodus (docbot) had to sell stuff, and I got the deal of the year on his entire reloading setup. I picked all the stuff up, shoved it in the garage, and left it sit until I had time to deal with it. A few weeks ago I got productive and rearranged the garage, including making nice with the reloading setup. Now I was ready to go, just needed the knowledge. I read through the Speer Reloading Manual #14 and got the basic idea, but there’s no substitute for someone teaching you.

Enter Karl Rehn of KR Training.

Yesterday some emails were going around regarding ammo. In the end Karl asked me what I was doing Sunday (today) and said to come out to the range and he’ll teach me. So that’s what I did. This was not the way I planned to spend my Sunday, but I had an opportunity to learn how to reload, and to learn from Karl. I couldn’t pass up such an opportunity!

I hopped on my motorcycle (bonus! got a bike ride) and rode out. After doing a few chores we got down to business and Karl showed me how to get things going. We used a Dillon Precision 650. Karl explained the process and how things go. I had lots of questions and as always Karl answered every one and explained to my satisfaction. He would then demonstrate, then let me try, then correct, and so on. I had brought some of my own bullets and cases, so using his powder and primers I was able to crank out about 200 rounds or so of my own.

I also got to see how things can go wrong. For instance, there were some squibs, so I got to hear what they sounded like. The first loads of my stuff weren’t strong enough and so every round caused a stovepipe. We increased the powder charge and things worked great. I got to see how various issues in the reloading process can happen and how to resolve them. So it was very informative to not just learn how to do things but to see things go wrong and learn how to correct them.

As I neared completion of my rounds I noticed that I had started to get a good feel. I could feel if something was wrong and was able to correct it before it got to be a (bigger) problem. I had a good groove on how much pressure to use, how to work the down stroke and the up stroke. Seating the primers gave me the most trouble because sometimes I might not have completed the upstroke all the way, but eventually I got it. I probably could have reloaded a few hundred more and been just happy to do so.

So what wasn’t great about the day? Seeing how great a set up Karl has. 🙂  From a well-stocked reloading room, to the ability to just walk outside and test things, then walk back in and tune up, to a nice progressive press. Gosh, how nice! I only have a single-stage press and will have to drive quite a ways to test out my loads. I guess this puts me in the market for not just a progressive press, but also some land out in the country. 🙂

I also took my factory Springfield XD-9 Tactical to try the loads out. I figured if something went wrong, let the factory gun blow up instead of my Springer Precision customized model. Going back to that factory trigger and those big fat factory sights makes you appreciate the custom work. I expect the Tactical model will become customized, probably turn into a competition gun.

Now all I need to do is try the reloading out myself using my own gear. I still need foo.c to come down to the house and help me get set up all the way. But for now, I feel I have some basic idea of how to get around and do things, so I’ll probably go play in the garage and see what I can do. The basics here are pretty easy, a lot easier than I thought it would be. I can also see how this can be a very interesting hobby, almost an art and a craft to come up with that ideal load.

Karl, thank you for taking the time and trouble to show me. I appreciate it!