jlh820

Today's progress.

Cleared off workbench area


Tumbled my first load of brass


Separated the media


Shiny, pretty brass!


Before and after


I threw another load in and that's probably all I'll do tonight.

jlh820

Thanks! BTW - Welcome to the forum!

James6591

Yep, pretty much.

What do you mean they come in blue.....
Mines green, same as the tumbler (RCBS).....
Brass came up nice.....

jlh820

Thanks. I just used corn cob media with some of Dillon's 290 solution.

dickttx

That is a nice scale. I have had one for a couple of years, as well as three others, and that is the one I use. With the progressive press you are only going to use the scale to verify your powder measure, so set your target weight and your powder drop is either on or not. You would not want to use an electronic scale/powder measure with your progressive.

jlh820

That's basically what the sales lady at Dillon told me. Though I only met her one time, I feel like she gave me a very knowledgeable nudge in the right direction for picking out my equipment. All her other scales were more expensive. I got the feeling she really knew her stuff when it came to reloading.

Dawgface

I agree 100% about using the beam scale and the SDB press. I started reloading the first of the year and checked the powder amount every ten cases and have never found it had changed.
I use Hodgdon Titegroup powder as it was recommended by a LGS that sells reloading supplies, measures well, shoots clean and works in all my and a friends calibers, 9mm, 38/.357 and 45ACP.
We get our powder recipes right from the Hodgdon website:
Cartridge Loads - Hodgdon Reloading Data Center - data.hodgdon.com
*EDIT* Most important is making a full pull down/Push up to set the primer.

Good luck, take your time and have fun!
Lou,
A fellow AZer

jlh820

Good to know and thanks for the tip about the primers!

EDIT: I'm using Hodgdon Tite Group powder and Berry's 230 round nosed FMJ bullets. I just checked their site and according to it I should use about 4.0 to 4.4g of powder. I'll probably go as has been suggested elsewhere and make up about 10 each at 4.0, 4.2 and 4.4. 4.4 has a 15,000 CUP and I think that's about the top end of where I want to go. Colt's max pressure is stated at 14,000. I have a Colt, an SR1911, an Ed Brown and one I built myself from Wilson Combat parts.

I think a chronograph is soon to be on my shopping list. Otherwise, it seems I'll just be going by the seat of my pants (hands?).

jlh820

Finished polishing the rest of my .45 brass today. I lost my strong mount during one of my moves. But I think I'm going to mount it directly to my workbench. I held the press up there today and it's a nice height. So if all goes well, I'll be cranking out some .45 rounds tomorrow. If not then, definitely over the weekend. I'm going to try and do a few sets tomorrow at 4.0, 4.2 & 4.4g loads, take them to the range and see which ones I like best. I'll be taking some Federal and CCI Blazer rounds to compare.

Wish me luck!

James6591

Sounds like it's all coming together, that's great.
Shame you lost the strong mount, I like it on mine.

jlh820

I've got one more place to look though it's not at my house. I'm going to look there and if I still can't find it, I may drive over to Dillon and pick one up. I don't need the extra height but I know it would be a much sturdier installation and put less stress on the workbench.

jlh820

I gave up looking and bought another one at Dillons today. I have a love/hate relationship with that store. As long as I was there I picked up the SDB toolkit and mount, some 9mm bullets and small pistol primers. It's like going to the grocery store to buy eggs and coming out with a basket full of groceries!

So the press is mounted now. I stopped at the point where I need to make adjustments. That can wait till tomorrow. But I'm getting there. Hopefully I'll shoot some of my reloads this weekend. I like to analyze every part until I'm confident I know how it works. So, it's going a little slower than anticipated.

dickttx

I know what you mean about losing things during moves. So far I can think of a Remington Nylon 66, a 20ga. pump, an Ohaus 10-10 scale, and an Ohaus ingot mold that have disappeared in several moves over the past 30 years. Why those and not other things that should have been packed with them?

jlh820

LOL! I know! All the junk follows you wherever you go. It's the important things that seem to disappear!

jlh820

Press is assembled and dies are ½ way set up. It was only 102° today so I got a little work in on it. Setting up the dies takes a bit of time but once it's done per caliber it should be set.