# Ready to reload - Where's the primers?



## SaltyDog (Jan 1, 2009)

Well earlier I posted for suggestions on reloading and received a great amount of advice.

This fall I built my workbench and got the necessary equipment and components to start reloading 40 S&W for now. Now I'm waiting for some small pistol primers to become available. Man when will the manufacturers catch up with the market?

Since I'm waiting I decided to Work on getting parts for the 6.8mm. I have the dies and the powder and primer are on the way.

Here's my setup










More questions though. I have decided to use CCI #41 primers to reload my 6.8mm for the black gun. Reading from the CCI website they state this is a magnum primer? Also they state "Use the same data as CCI Magnum primers". Are they referring to the primer performance or do I need to modify my recipe using this primer?

Why am I using this primer? It is a replica milspec primer and my LWRC has a Spec II chamber 1x10 twist 6 groove barrel so it can handle a combat load. Also I worry about slam firing.

I can hardly wait to get started.:mrgreen:


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## 9mmFan (Jan 11, 2007)

Nice setup you have. I wish mine would stay that neat and tidy looking.


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## SaltyDog (Jan 1, 2009)

I'm sure once I get started mine will be messy too!:smt082


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## SaltyDog (Jan 1, 2009)

I finally received my CCI 500 primers and loaded my first batch of 50 rounds.

40 S&W 165gr Montana Gold FMJ 
Nickle plated casings
5.8gr of Accurate #2 (6.2gr is max - 5.6 beginning load from Accurate Powder recipe)


















Sorry about the poor quality pictures but it's the best I can do from what I have for a camera.

Everything went pretty smooth but there were issues that concerned me.

1. The Lee powder measure says to use the .49 disk with Accurate #2 to obtain a 5.8gr load - it measures only 4.7 - 4.9 gr. I changed it to the next size up .53 and got close 5.5 - 5.7gr. That has me worried Am I measuring correctly? Is it possible to not obtain the correct grains of powder using the powder measure list or do I get it close and measure it everytime?

2. Powder spilling all over the place. Not too bad but any spillage is bad to me. I'll have to research that.

3. I used the auto bullet fingers for bullet placement and delivery to the casing. It works okay if I only drop one bullet at a time in the tube otherwise I have bullets flowing out of the mechanism all over the floor. Also the fingers drop a bullet on occasion unless I operate the press very slow. Have to research that also.

So any suggestions? I'm taking them to the range tomorrow.


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## gmaske (Jan 7, 2008)

The Lee powder measure needs to be de-staticed. Wash the hopper in dish soap and don't rinse it off with clear water. Just let it dry. That may be what is causing your weight swings. Also you should have the hopper filled at least half way. It shouldn't spill powder so something is wrong. You can easily install the hopper backwards so check that. I have found that the load data for the disks runs light so you are ok there. Just keep uping the size until you find one that throws what you need.
The Lee Disk powder measure or any other brand will drop diffrent weights if it is tapped or bumped one time in the cycle and not the next so make sure it gets the same type of bumps and shakes while your progressive press is cycling. In other words don't bump it one time with your hand or something else and not the next time. Mine will stay with in a tenth of a grain plus or minus. The first few powder drops are almost always a little wacky until it settles down.

The bullet loader can be a bit tricky. Make sure you are using the correct fingers. Check to see if the points of the bullets you are using are not hitting the top of the feeding tube as they are pulled out of the stack. If they are, a little grinding with a Drimmel tool is in order. If you stack to many bullets in the tube the fingers can't pull the bullets out so you'll have to figure out how many is to many. When I had a Pro 1000 I had to do a bit of tuning to get the bullet feeder to work but once I found the sweet spot it did work well.

When I was using the Pro 1000 I'd weigh the first five to ten powder drops to make sure it was dropping correctly. I'd then check every tenth drop. That way if I had a problem I'd only have to knock apart a maximum of ten cartridges with a bullet puller if there was a problem.


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## SaltyDog (Jan 1, 2009)

Thanks for the hints there Gmaske.

I'll try the soap wash with the powder hopper. This time of year with the furnace running it does get dry in the house. I did fill the hopper. Now that you mention the drop size info I'll experiment with that. Also noted in the Lee manual a 15% difference in charge may result. That's alot. I'll try measurements and changing the disk size to get my satisfied weight.

And yes one time I did put the hopper on backwards. Damn it! Just a little messy not too bad.

Also I tried another thing with the fingers - lubing the slide rail that the fingers ride on. That has reduced the number of dropped bullets. Still not sure why I can't stack them though. I noticed that the bullets are concave at the base - Maybe that is causing it? Bottom bullet pulling the next bullet out of the feeder base?
I'm going to the Lee website to see if I can resolve that issue.

Went to the range today and the loads fired just fine. I reloaded and fired 50 and mixed in another 50 of factory rounds. There is a distinct difference between the recoil of the reloaded to the factory. The reloaded being much less recoil presumably due to the light powder load. I do not have a chrono to give stats but I'm satisfied.


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## TOF (Sep 7, 2006)

The Lee chart is not correct with current production Accurate Powders. The chart is pretty old and I expect was correct at one time but as gmaske says seek out the one that works and use Accurate's load chart by weight. I rub graphite on the powder disks to cut down on static cling. Graphite helps breakin the seal also.
The bullet loader never worked for me it resides in a drawer with other useless items


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## gmaske (Jan 7, 2008)

The only bullets I ran threw the bullet loader were my own cast 230 grain RN's and some Rainier 230 grain copper clads before I sold the press. Both had pretty flat bases. I seem to remember reading that concave bullet bases would cause trouble.....if you think about it, they are bound to as the nose will hang up on the base of the next bullet in line.


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## SaltyDog (Jan 1, 2009)

Thanks for the info TOF - I'll have to get me some graphite powder. I know I can use it on other parts of the reloader also.

Yea but when those bullet fingers are working they sure make the reloading a lot easier. Even if I have to feed them one at a time.

Thanks for the confidence builder. It's nice to have experienced folks to help a rookie along.:smt023


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