# And I did not shoot my eye out!



## prof_fate (Jan 2, 2012)

I can't tell you how many times I've see "A Christmas Story" and heard, growing up, pretty much the same thing Ralphy did "You'll shoot your eye out kid!".

Well, I didn't!

I shot my first ever reloads today and have survived to tell the story.

I got an XD9m 5.25 a few weeks ago with the goal of getting back into competitive shooting - last time I did anything of this nature was smallbore back in the 80s. Man have things changed, including the looks of the man in the mirror every morning.

I figured to afford to shoot enough to get any good at this I'd need to reload. I know I'm not one to do repetitive tasks gladly so I opted for a Lee Loadmaster progressive press. I've had some very lively debates online over that choice - some say a progressive is too complicated to start on and others say lee is about as reliable as a 1970s jaguar. I often tilt at windmills and usually start in the deep end so none of that discouraged me.

So the press arrvived about 2 weeks ago and while I ordered a 9mm it came with 38spcl dies in it. OK, week delay to get that squared away. Advice said to get a universal decapping die and do the sizing/priming together, and many rec a factory crimp die as well - depends on the caliber but 9mm seems to benefit from it most.

OK, I have no supplies...takes about 10 days to accumulate some brass, bullets, primers (the hard part) and powder (almost as hard to find what I wanted). But the time it took to locate everything have me the opportunity to set up each die and check everything except the powder throw and primer feed.

Primers came in yesterday so today I got to try the whole process from start to finish. I only did 10 rounds as I wanted to test them in the gun and make sure they worked. The press worked flawlessly - every primer fed perfectly, powder dropped as it should (did about 20 of these as I stopped and weighed them, adjusted the micrometer throw, do some more, etc)

Well, they do work! Lead RN in 124gr with 4.2gr W231, and they shoot about as low as the WWB 115s and Federal 115s (so far just putting a few into the out back of the house) Now to make up a few variations and make a trip to the range -then I'll set the sights to match the bullets!

Once I get into production I'll report back on how the Loadmaster is working, including the bullet feeder. But so far all the naysayers out there must be smokin the wrong stuff.


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## matt_the_millerman (Dec 6, 2011)

Slowly realizing i will be in your shoes before i know it, glad to hear its not too crazy. Probably have a year to research and learn until I get into my own house with a garage or basement (man cave!) Love the thought of being able to reload my own ammo. Was just reading up on the different presses a few days ago, was already thinking i would be going with a progresive.


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## prof_fate (Jan 2, 2012)

It's one thing to read about it, dream about it, do all the figuring and set up the press, discussing pressure and powders, learning what to watch out for, etc. All a great load of fun!

Then you have to actually shoot that bullet you made...the self doubt and paranoia set in just a bit.

I figure I won't double charge a case with a progressive, but I want a way to be sure I got a full charge - the fear of a low charge leaving a bullet in the bore to be followed by a round that blows up the gun has me freaked a bit at the moment. For target/ plinking I'll notice a bad round..during IDPA or Steel Challenge I'm not so sure.


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## prof_fate (Jan 2, 2012)

OK...just spent 2 hours at the press...

Went over every die again, added the bullet feeder, did some OAL tests and a ton of powder throws and measured the results.

I guess I'll start at the beginning - I planned to load 10 rounds so I loaded 10 cases and 10 bullets and began working oh so slowly.
First - while the primer and powder won't feed without a case the bullets will...I chased a few and then did my best to catch them. When the arm returns to the rest/refill the next bullet in line has dropped so it will knock off the returning/unset bulitt.
Also learned to watch the first bullet as if fed - 50% of the time if was sideways. Reason was you feed the tube from above and the first bullet lands on the feed fingers and can fall over. The rest can't as they're in the tube. Only an issue on the first bullet of course.

Ok - had one case (the last one in the tube) fall over upon feeding. First time this has happened.

No primer feed issues at all -when I was starting out and working very slowly I tapped at the primer tray a few times to break up 'the bridge' across the exit of the tray.

Powder...had a few no-throws and I"m not sure why. Using the micro measure and I'd adjust and throw 4 and measure the last two. Never had a problem. Start to load and of the first 5 the second and third had no powder. I tweaked the chain adustment and had no more issues.

Bullet feeder - Besides the two issues above it worked perfectly. It holds about 3 bullets below what you can see in the tube so it's hard to know when it's empty...so you can end up with bullets on the floor if you lose count (as I did when I stopped to change powder throws).

Lots of things to watch at once - supply of cases/bullets/primers/powder and how it all feeds (cases and powder and bullets). I should be watching the primer tray (so I read) to see the primers drop one to know one fed properly. Like any new task it takes a while to get used to it - I'm not there but will be after a while I"m sure. I won't be setting any speed records for awhile that's for sure!

It takes the most force to insert a primer, second most to resize the case - all the other actions are practically effortless.

It's messier than I would think..I have powder dust all over the place. Can't vac it up of course. not sure where it all came from as i didn't spill any and there's no breeze/furnace air to blow it around.

Issues to work on:
Powder Measure/Throw...I read it works best if it's static free...and one can do that by rubbing graphite on it. It's on the to-do list. Same for the primer feed I read so while I'm at it I'll do both. I'm paranoid about low throws and figure I can't do doubles easily and they'll just about overflow the case if i do so it will be obvious. While the measured throws come out the same the micrometer throw isn't consistent - set it at .45 and I get 4.3 grains. Move it to .41 and get 4.05. Then I want to get 4.2gr so that's at 41.5...to get 4.0 grains after that I have to go to .38...but as I said it seems consistent once it's adjusted and checked, just returning to the same CC reading isn't throwing the same grains. Odd.

The one thing that bothers me is not getting consistent COL.

I now want a digital scale.

That's it for now - have to get to the range and evaluate what I've done so far and it's snowing (3 to 5" today) and the temp keeps dropping - was 18F last I checked about 3 hours ago.


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