A Reloading "Oops" Moment

Could have caused a rude surprise.

Have you ever been doing something automatically and then had something niggle at you that said you had done something off?  I was going merrily along, cranking out 9 mm, when I realized that the funny feeling I had was because at one point my right hand had reached to the wrong spot to pick up a case to seat a bullet in.  I had taken out of the bin of primed shells rather than the rack of shells that I had put powder in.  A few movements back.  And now somewhere in the jar was a cartridge with bullet and primer but no powder.

Oh, great.  I put a note to myself in the jar and set it aside.

Finally got around to thinking about it yesterday.  I really didn't want to just pull bullets until I found the bad load.  Got the scales out and started weighing and looking for patterns of weight within the different brass manufacturers.   Weighed every one. The bad one was the second one I pulled. The first one was a 9 mm Makarov that got by me when I was setting primers and shouldn't have been in there anyway.

I'd have been really annoyed if I'd had to knock every one of those apart.  And now I'll remember to do what I usually do but neglected to do that day - only keep one stage of loading components on the bench at a time.

Bangety

I've had the necessities for a while now.  First I set up in the laundry room.  That would be the room with no windows and the cat pans.  Not an appealing place to spend time. 

So I finally moved it a few months ago.  Into the library downstairs.

Much better ambiance.   Very cold during the Winter - I don't spend much time downstairs because it's not pleasant - but a space heater can deal with that well enough.  But I had so much going on that I really didn't get going until the last couple weeks.

So now I've been testing. 

Three failures to load, two different magazines.  But if I simply throw them in again they fire fine.  I think it's the magazines. 

Now I need to make the shooter better.  I'm pulling left.   Can't feel it or see it except the end results on the target.  Sometimes over-compensate to the right.  Can't feel that or see that except for the end results on the target, either.  Kinda funny.   But getting better.

Discovered today that clearing a jam while shooting on a +90 degree day can be a bit of a challenge.  After standing in the full sun to shoot for a half hour I was sweating so much I couldn't get a solid grip on the slide.  Thought I was going to have to go into the office and have Jerry do it.  Or sit in the AC and pet Lucy until my palms were dry enough.

Getting Loaded

No, not this kind of loaded:

This kind:

I have some suggestions for Lee, the primary one being to give more detail in the setup instructions.  Not all parts are visible in the little photos and as a consequence it's not always clear what to do with them until after stumbling about for a bit.  Also, it would be nice if these were mentioned/shown somewhere:

They came in the little baggie.  I have no idea what to do with them...

Entertainment value:  Well, the press has a nice little catch basin and tube for the primers as they are knocked out.  The problem is that there is a much bigger groove on the opposite side that encourages the primers to pop out on that side instead.  I think 5 out of 100 actually went where they were supposed to.

Annoyance value:  The nice wood knob handle for the end of the press lever lasted about 5 cartridges.  After that it got tossed onto the table because I was tired of it coming off in my hand.

I've got 50 .30 carbine and 50 9mm cartridges de-primed and ready for the next step.  I went through and measured each one quickly and found that while the 9 mm shells are within the tolerances given in the Lyman book, the .30 carbine shells are too long:

And what they've given me to deal with it seems to be this:

Which they show being used by hand to grind down the casings to tolerance.  Um, maybe someone with much stronger hands than me.  I just managed to ding it a little.    I may be ordering .30 carbine until ML gets a little free time and can come over and demonstrate for me.

Next adventure this weekend is the rest of the steps with the 9 mm, since they are sized correctly.  There's the whole figuring out and measuring gunpowder thing yet to come. 

For want of a shoe...

Old NFO, Murphy's Law, and Broken Andy have done a great job of describing Gun Show Sunday.  All those tables of shooty goodness, but I really needed to not buy another gun right now.  So I looked and drooled, but held myself to reloading stuff, as well as oddbits like a rifle case and a better range bag.

I was home by 3ish, and it was hotter'n hades, so I thought it would be a good afternoon to put the pieces of the reloading kit together and get to work on some of the brass I've dragged home.  The basic kit comes with all sorts of pieces, some of which don't seem to appear in the not-very-detailed instructions.

But what the kit doesn't come with with would be the three bolts needed to fasten it to the bench. And in all the screws and bolts I've accumulated in the garage, not a single one was of the needed size.  Well, fudge.  It's Sunday.  It's hot.  I don't feel like running to the Home Depot.  Book, deck, and beer appeals much more.

Today was range day.  I am not allowed to carry credit hours at work beyond a pay period but I can pick up enough to give me time for a good range session followed by lunch each week.  Murphy's Law insisted on driving for some reason, and we got there by 10ish.  Of course I forgot my camera - I would have liked a pic of the Enfield in action.  It's a handsome rifle with lovely dark wood.  All else was good - I seemed to have the pistols nailed today, have finally started to get the hang of the speed loaders, and shooting steel is definitely more fun than shooting paper.  Confirmed that the M-1 is shooting high and I need to aim slightly below the target - since aiming at the lower edge of the target means I can actually SEE the target I'm OK with that.

Burgers and beer at the Tap House afterwards.  Then back to work - the only down side to the day.

Oh, and I ran out this evening and got the bolts.  Hopefully I'll get everything set up tomorrow.