I didn’t start out wanting to load this much. In fact, I can’t remember exactly how it started. But the basic idea was that buying components in bulk, if you can afford the high up-front cost, is worth it in the long run because of increased cost savings. Precision Delta gives discounts for bulk purchases so hey… why not order 10,000 bullets? I’ll get the discount and I’ll eventually go through all the bullets. They don’t have an expiration date, they won’t go bad, so what’s the harm in ordering a lot?

Back when I started I knew I had to load at least 5000. Why? In October, Tom Givens is coming back to the area and that class will need maybe 2000 rounds. As well, I was going to attend the Rogers Shooting School, but due to various factors I had to back out. 😦  Originally I thought we’d drive thus I could bring my own ammo, so why not load up 2500 rounds for that? But then decision was made to fly, then I had to back out. Nevertheless, the (back then) thought of needing about 5000 rounds just for training pushed me to start a dedicated daily reloading regimen. But of course, if I reload 5000 then use 5000, that doesn’t leave me with anything for my own practice! So I really needed to load more than 5000. So I figured, I have 10,000 bullets, might as well load them all.

And so, I have. Finally, I have finished. 🙂

Another motivator is wanting to have enough on hand so I don’t have to deal with the press. Sure, the Hornady Lock-n-Load press’ bushing system is geared towards quick caliber changes. But then, you need to buy parts for every caliber, like a new powder drop for each caliber. I’m trying to realize cost-savings, so spending more money doesn’t meet that end. I figure as long as the press is set up for caliber X, might as well load caliber X until I can load no more. That way when I wish to work on caliber Y, I’ll still have enough rounds of X to get me through. At this point, I reckon I’ve got enough 9 on hand to see me through.

Going through that many components I learned a few things:

• I do like my Hornady Lock-n-Load Auto Progressive (AP) press.
  • I changed my mind: I do not want a case feeder. The ability to inspect each piece of brass is vital. Kept me from loading .380 Auto or other non-9mm Luger cases. Sometimes the case was clogged with debris (it’s used brass and might have been clogged with dirt, grass, small rocks, etc.). Damaged cases or case in an otherwise questionable condition. Inspection is good to do.
    • Note: I’ve used some commercial reloaded ammo in my XD. I’ve had a few rounds be .380 Auto cases and let’s just say it gives you an opportunity to work on your reload and malfunction drills. Not a bad thing, but in general I’d rather ensure everything’s proper.
  • I would like a bullet feeder. It’d just help things go a bit smoother. One less thing for my left hand to do, which instead could keep my hand and eyes focused on case inspection.
  • I’m thinking about readjusting the height at which my press is mounted at. The bench is a tall bench, one I can work at while standing up. But when I work the press, the bottom of the pull forces me to bend a few inches to my right. I’ve coped with it over thousands of pulls, but having it be “just the right height” could be nice. Thing is, if I make the press higher, then it’s a different viewing angle of the top of the press to see things like the powder cop and other such things. Plus the taller the press is, the harder it will be for shorter people (e.g. my kids) to use the press. So, it’s all a trade-off and I’ll just have to play around.
  • One thing that does bug me about the press is things coming loose.
    • The pull lever? It comes loose, but you can manage it fine.
    • Sometimes the bushing that held the powder drop would loosen up. Not a huge problem, but it’s curious that it does (no other bushings ever loosened up).
    • The one that bugs me the most? The bolt that holds down the shell plate comes loose all the time. I follow instructions to tighten it, but eventually things wiggle loose. I have thought about getting a lock washer to put in there (bolt head, lock washer, flat washer, shell plate) and barely tighten it, just enough to keep the bolt from coming loose. I just keep forgetting to get one every time I go to the hardware store. However, there are times when it’s necessary to loosen the shell plate to get something out and it’s nice to be able to just do it with a twist of the fingers and not have to haul out tools. We’ll see.
• Brass observations, since I’m loading uses cases of mixed headstamps.
  • Sellier & Bellot brass is some of the hardest to deal with. Either hard to decap the brass or hard to seat primers. I had more primer-related problems with this brass than any other.
  • It’s interesting to see how some manufacturers change their headstamps (e.g. S&B), but some never change (e.g. Winchester, Federal).
  • Winchester, Federal, and Remington are certainly the most popular, with Winchester #1. But I had all sorts of cases, from Speer, CCI, PMC, NNY and PPU, PMC, Blazer, CMC, S&B, Starline, a fair number of NATO headstamps, and then a mix of other stuff… even a few .335 Super
  • In the thousands of cases I went through, I only had 2 Cor-Bon’s.
  • I had a lot of other smiliarly sized brass, like 9×17, 9×18, .380 Auto, a few .32 Auto’s. The most interesting one? had one 7.62×25.
• Titegroup powder flows and meters nice and uniform in the LnL’s powder drop. Never had to adjust the meter once I got it set, and I did spot check the drop from time to time.
• Keeping a clean and tidy bench and keeping your equipment in running order is a good thing.
• A can of compressed air is useful for cleaning stuff out of tight places (Karl gave me that tip).
• Primers
  • On the whole, Federal’s small pistol primers seat very nicely. Went through 5000 of them and never had a hiccup. Good “feel” when you’re seating them.
  • The Remington small pistol primers seat pretty well. Went through 5000 of them (tho not all on this batch of 9). Not as smooth as Federal when it comes to seating, but no real problems.
  • Wolf’s (non-corrosive) small pistol primers are a little harder to seat, but once I got used to their feel it went alright. Went through a couple thousand of them. The Wolf and S&B brass many times didn’t agree.
  • I used a few Winchester primers and they seat very nicely.
  • Note that statistically I didn’t see a whole lot of difference between these three primers.
    • If I’m given a choice (and these days we don’t always have that luxury), in the future I may use Federal because they seat so well. I’m not seeing much difference in performance, so might as well choose based upon other criteria. I must admit that the more and more I use Federal products, the more pleased I am with them above all others.
• Bullets
  • Having loaded 10,000 Precision Delta bullets, I can say I’m pretty happy with them. Out of 10,000 I only noted 2 bullets I had problems with (something didn’t come together in the manufacturing process). Not a bad ratio. And they shoot fine and do the job so…. hey, consistent across a fair-sized batch, and about the least expensive price I can find for bullets. What’s not to like? I’ll probably stick with Precision Delta bullets in the future.
  • Since the lot of 10,000 wasn’t precisely 10K (had about 80 more), I loaded up the remainder. Since I had a few primers left in the tube and I have some stray Berry’s bullets, I used up the last 20 or so primers with Berry’s bullets. No issues of note in loading them.
• Once I get into a groove, I want to just keep going. 100 a day wasn’t good, so I moved to 200. Many times as I’d near completing the 200 I’d feel I wanted to keep going. The only reason I stopped? I had to get to the day job. Some days I couldn’t load so I’d try to make up for it by doing 400 the next day. But, never load more than you can handle. You must be focused on the task. It’s a lot of lever pulling and you can get into a “mindless groove”, so you have to be aware of that fact and stop yourself if you’re losing focus. You don’t need anything to go wrong. It could mean your gun blowing up, it could mean your life.
• An electronic scale would be nice. I’ve got a beam scale and that’s OK, but having an electronic scale is faster. Plus having a large flat surface for the scale you can weigh more things than the little beam “bucket” lets you weigh.
• One reason people reload is for cost savings. I haven’t run the hard numbers on it all, but I feel pretty safe in saying that I’m now “in the black” in terms of recouping my investment on all the equipment. I figure any reloading from here on out is money savings.

So, I’ve got enough 9 now to last me a while. I can set the press up for something else now.

So what next?

I’m almost out of Titegroup powder and really don’t want to buy more pistol powder only to have it sit around in storage… I’ve got enough 9 ammo to go through before I’ll have to reload that caliber again. 😉  While I still have some 9 components (bullets and brass) I’m going to shift gears and use the rest of the Titegroup to stock up on some .38 Special (since that recipe also uses Titegroup).

Once I’m done with .38 Special… on to rifle!