The Firing Line Forums

Go Back   The Firing Line Forums > The Skunkworks > Handloading, Reloading, and Bullet Casting

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old April 12, 2000, 04:41 PM   #1
The specialist
Senior Member
 
Join Date: January 10, 2000
Location: boston,MA,USA
Posts: 237
Ok on Saturday night I made up 20 rounds of .40 s&w. My recipe was 5.1 grns of bullseye , 180grn jtc and Winchester primers. These were my first reloads, a couple of guys at the club who reload had trouble telling the difference between the reload and the factory ammo I was using. Accuracy was just as good as the speer lawman I was using, and perceived recoil was the same. All in all it went very well, until I got home. Iwas all set to reload some more rounds. I started fillinf my primer pickup tube and went to empty it into the magazine. When a stupid primer got stuck. I spent so much in one shot to buy everything that I did'nt buy extra pick up tubes. So anyway I doused the tube with wd40 like it says in the manual and tossed it. I called Dillon first thing monday and they sent me another, I also ordered 4 spares. I have'nt received them yet and am anxious to get going. A guy at a local store that reloads also uses 2 RL550B presses, he says that whena primer gets stuck he gets all the other primers out of the tube. Then he uses the plastic plunger from the primer early warning setup as a ram to push it out. He says the plastic is not hard enough to set the primer off. Just use slow steady pressure. Any opinions?
The specialist is offline  
Old April 12, 2000, 06:30 PM   #2
Hutch
Senior Member
 
Join Date: February 12, 2000
Location: Birmingham, AL
Posts: 1,124
Your friend with the 550B's is correct.
Hutch is offline  
Old April 12, 2000, 07:32 PM   #3
Svt
Junior member
 
Join Date: January 23, 2000
Posts: 467
Yup, that's what I do too. Thousands upon thousands of rounds later, no "boom". Just apply slow steady pressure like he stated.

------------------
Svt
1911 Addiction
1911 Forums
"Rangers Lead the Way!"
Svt is offline  
Old April 12, 2000, 08:24 PM   #4
Mike / Tx
Senior Member
 
Join Date: April 8, 2000
Posts: 2,101
Glad to hear that you had a good time at the range enjoying the fruits of your labor.

Don't that primer getting stuck bother you too much. Things like that happen to all of us all the time. If you do enough of it you will find sillier things happening to you that sometimes make you just think DUH.

I was loading up some cast bullets once and had some BBWC's and some SWC's. I started with the wadcutters and loaded up a box of them. Then reset the die and started on the SWC's, damned if the first four loads didn't come out with the bullet in upside down. Silly me. Good thing about progressives is their fast, bad thing sometimes too fast.

Good luck on your future loads and enjoy yourself. Its really satisfying to create something from components and it do just what you wanted it to do.

Mike / Tx
Mike / Tx is offline  
Old April 12, 2000, 09:03 PM   #5
HankL
Senior Member
 
Join Date: March 11, 1999
Location: The Sunny South
Posts: 2,174
Mike, Those weren't hollow base wadcutters you loaded backwards were they ?
HankL is offline  
Old April 12, 2000, 10:14 PM   #6
alan
Senior Member
 
Join Date: June 7, 1999
Posts: 3,847
Can't quite see how you managed to stick a primer in the pick-up tube, though anything is possible, and things happen.

Should it ever happen again, try the following. Straighten out a wire coat hanger. Having done that, you should have a long enough piece of wire. Using the former coat hander, VERY GENTLY, you should be able to push the primer out of the pick-up tube.
alan is offline  
Old April 13, 2000, 12:32 AM   #7
plinkr
Member
 
Join Date: February 26, 2000
Posts: 17
I think the wire coat hanger trick sounds very Dangerous.!! metal on metal around explosives is an accident about to happen.
you already have the plastic rod,and I too have used it too clear a tube. Not a totally safe practice,but at least it's not metal to metal. push the rod against the bench,not with your hand.and PLEASE put the safety glasses back on before proceeding.
Happy reloading. Plinkr
plinkr is offline  
Old April 13, 2000, 12:24 PM   #8
Mike / Tx
Senior Member
 
Join Date: April 8, 2000
Posts: 2,101
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by HankL:
Mike, Those weren't hollow base wadcutters you loaded backwards were they ? [/quote]

Nope just typical BBWC. The both ends of the one looked the same and the botomlooked the same.

Mike / Tx
Mike / Tx is offline  
Old April 15, 2000, 07:44 PM   #9
rinoray
Member
 
Join Date: March 11, 2000
Posts: 71
FYI,
At a local gun show one of the guys selling presses indicated that primer tubes need to have a Qtip or some form of clean non-abrasive material pushed through the tube to keeb it debri free. (After having the stuck primer scenerio, while loading some 45 acp) It works well.
Also, Dillon had my new large primer tube to me in three days. Great company & service.
rinoray is offline  
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:28 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
This site and contents, including all posts, Copyright © 1998-2021 S.W.A.T. Magazine
Copyright Complaints: Please direct DMCA Takedown Notices to the registered agent: thefiringline.com
Page generated in 0.07768 seconds with 10 queries