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Old October 17, 2012, 06:25 PM   #1
p loader
Senior Member
 
Join Date: October 1, 2012
Posts: 148
Just created my first live 223 rounds (Lee Classic Turret Press)

If you want to know my long and confusing journey to this magnificent event, please read the thread I started here.

I want to thank everyone on this forum who provided invaluable information to get me to this point, via responding on the other thread or helping me out via PM. Thank you so much.

So here is what I have managed to achieve after working so hard to tweak my Turret Press (or rather me figuring out how the thing actually worked).

I have loaded 10 rounds:

-55 grain FMJ

-Once fired brass

-CCI 450 Magnum Primers (the regular were out of stock and after researching online I found plenty of people that used these without problems)

-OAL of 2.25. What I found is that although the books I referenced stated OAL should be 2.260 I measured a Federal Round and PPU round and they came in at 2.24 and 2.25 respectively. I made a phone call to inquire and figured staying in and around 2.24 to 2.26 should be ok, hence my choice of 2.25.

-Powder: Accurate 2230 with 22.0 grains. The Lee manual states 21.6 and Lymans says 22.4 so I started at 22.0. I figure it shouldn't be that big of a deal as I am nowhere near the max load.

My next step is to create 10 more with a load of 22.4, and then a batch of 22.8 which will give me 30 rounds to shoot. I'll be able to record the results to see how they performed.

A few things I encountered while making the live rounds today:

-For some reason the powder dump always loads heavy on the first pull (if I wait a couple minutes). If I want 22.0 it will dump around 22.4 on the first load and then the next 3 or 4 consistently dump 22.0. Weird.

-I had issues with the primers seating correctly, I realized besides using the chamfer tool to remove the crimp I also needed to clean the pocket as well (with another tool). This resolved the problem. I still have one bullet with an ever so slight off level primer, barely imperceptible.... Should I not fire it?

-Checking, double and triple checking can be exhausting. I hope over time I learn to get faster. Right now I am so paranoid just creating a few rounds took forever. Measure and measure again. Pull the shell out from each station to examine it. Dump powder 3 or 4 times and measure each time before actually dumping and then seating bullet.

Needless to say I feel great and thanks everyone for the help.
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