The pleasure of learning something new.

[The Terminator]

I tried a couple of new things today, and yesterday. First, I used the Lee press prime on my Classic Cast turret press. If you like to seat your primers on a press, and don't use an auto prime of some type, then this is an easy and good method. You have a priming ram that goes in the shell holder, you have a die that goes in the top, that accepts a shell holder on top. Set the brass on top, and put a primer in the ram on bottom. The neat thing is that you can prime on the downstroke of the press, and have a good feel of the primer as it seats. I really liked this.

Next, I tried my RCBS Uniflow powder measure, that I didn't think I'd ever care to use. I put it in one of the turret holes, and it worked great. It was very consistant. Now, silly me, I measured each charge into a pan, and weighed it on the scales, then I got to thinking, wouldn't a brass case go snugly up into that thar hole at the bottom? D'oh! I figured it out. I only had about 12 bullets left to finish so, I charged, rotated to the seating die, and seated the bullet. Can you say wham bam, thank you ma'am? It worked like a charm. I wonder what I'll learn tomorrow?

[amamnn]

I used to think I was some kind of ham hand since I had trouble "feeling" the primer seating. A lot of people were ballyhooing hand seaters saying that was the only way to "feel" the proper seating. after a couple shoulder surgeries, I was having some problems seating on my presses, so I got a Lee hand seater. I didn't "feel" the seating any better with my thumb than I did with my whole arm. A friend, who is a handloading legend in his own mind, decided he was going to teach me how to "feel" the primers seat properly in my PPC cases and brought over his "better" RCBS hand seater and seated a dozen primers for me. I seated a dozen. I "felt" nothing. He "felt" it perfectly. I checked the seating depth with the back end of my calipers. His were sloppier than mine. his excuse was that the primer cups varied too much. I retorted that they were Federal match primers and did not vary. He seated another dozen that were measured before he "felt" them. They were just as varied in depth as before. He's never come back and I don't miss him.

Some time later I read some comments from top BR shooters in Precision Shooting ( a must have magazine for serious match shooters and anyone who wants to shoot and load well) a few claimed to be great "feelers" some more said the "feelers" were full of fava beans.

I bought this seater: http://www.precisionreloading.com/KMProducts.htm

Now I KNOW exactly where my primers are seated.