Just wanted to start a discussion about how everyone's sequence of reloading operations works! I'm currently only reloading for 9mm and .380, but I'll expand to .45 once I scavenge enough mixed range brass. So, my process is to collect all the brass from stuff I shoot, and pick up shinies at the range when I'm not in anyone's way. I deprime the brass first with a Harvey hand decapper whilst watching the tube, then wet pin tumble for ~ 1 hour, with a capful of turbosonic, somewhere around 750-1000 pieces in a load. After rinsing it thoroughly, and separating out the media as best I can, I'll tumble it with water and fridge magnets for 15 minutes, which does a great job collecting stray pins. Then dump the water, spread the shiny brass out on a towel on the kitchen table, work it over with another towel to get most of the wet off, and dry it in a 170 degree oven, which I turn off when I put the brass in. ( I've got a dehydrator style brass dryer ordered, so the oven thing will be changing. ) I'll often just leave the brass in there overnight, and collect it in the morning.
I set up my LnL progressive with dies to full length resize, prime, and flare the cases first, and run them in lots, and put them in baggies with what primer I used written on the bag. This frees up a lot of stations for my loading process, and lets me make sure everything got a primer, and that the primers are seated well. There's some inspection as I bag it up, too, that lets me catch issues that I haven't caught already.
For loading, I've got the Hornady case activated powder measure in the first station, a lockout die to prevent squibs and doubles in the second, MrBulletfeeder ( mini) in the third, then the seating die, and lastly the Lee factory crimp die. I am really liking the Lee deluxe 4 die sets, they are producing rounds that case gauge every time, and consistent OALS.
By splitting up loading and case prep, I find that the relatively harsh movements of sizing and priming are kept separate from when there is powder in the cases to be bounced out. It also frees up stations so I can separate some of the operations; the powder thru expander setup seemed pretty sticky to me, and was a frequent source of having to stop and mess with things not lining up. It's all a work in progress, and will surely change over time, but this is working well to produce good amounts of ammo for competition practice.
So, what's your method?
I set up my LnL progressive with dies to full length resize, prime, and flare the cases first, and run them in lots, and put them in baggies with what primer I used written on the bag. This frees up a lot of stations for my loading process, and lets me make sure everything got a primer, and that the primers are seated well. There's some inspection as I bag it up, too, that lets me catch issues that I haven't caught already.
For loading, I've got the Hornady case activated powder measure in the first station, a lockout die to prevent squibs and doubles in the second, MrBulletfeeder ( mini) in the third, then the seating die, and lastly the Lee factory crimp die. I am really liking the Lee deluxe 4 die sets, they are producing rounds that case gauge every time, and consistent OALS.
By splitting up loading and case prep, I find that the relatively harsh movements of sizing and priming are kept separate from when there is powder in the cases to be bounced out. It also frees up stations so I can separate some of the operations; the powder thru expander setup seemed pretty sticky to me, and was a frequent source of having to stop and mess with things not lining up. It's all a work in progress, and will surely change over time, but this is working well to produce good amounts of ammo for competition practice.
So, what's your method?
What a maroon. (Me). I'd still be happy to get you some? I was just looking at the MG web site yesterday thinking of doing a case buy and splitting them up, for my cost, on the board. I'm thinking there are going to be another rush of folks getting into rolling their own coming along.
