RCBS Reloading 101

if you want an enjoyable reloading experience there are some rules you need to follow so much like gun handling where you treat every firearm if it's loaded you keep your finger off the trigger until the sights are on the target you don't point at anything you're not willing to kill or destroy and you'd be sure of your backstop and what's beyond well reloading we have some simple rules as well don't use components of unknown origin if someone gives you powder or you buy it at a garage sale you may not know if that's actually the powder that's inside don't use it don't shoot somebody else's reloads you never know what your buddy was doing or whoever made those reloads we're doing don't reload if you can't give it your full attention the reason for that you may miss read the scale or miss read the data in the book and you may make an unsafe charge and don't smoke when you're reloading smoking and smokeless powder not two things that go well together so when I teach a reloading class I like to ask people in the audience if you reload now and usually there's a few people that are and I'll say two people has anybody in here blown up a firearm is anybody in here blown up more than one firearm I'm your instructor and I've raised two hands I've damaged two firearms hand loading and that's because I violated those rules rule number or the first rule that I violated was don't shoot somebody else's reloads a buddy of mine and me some reload said to try them out I did I ended up blowing up a pistol the next one was I reloaded when I couldn't give it a full attention I was a little tired rushed loading a lot of rounds on a progressive press happened to run out of powder I caught it and I was doing the old hearing test of listening for powder in the cartridge and it didn't dawn on me I might have won with a little bit of powder not all the powder and as I was shooting that round I had a light recoiling round I stopped removed the magazine cycled the bolt a loaded round came out showing that the weapon it cycled blew some blue into the chamber and or I saw smoke come out the end of the barrel meaning the barrel was clear put the magazine back in let the bolt fly fired that round lot of noise looked at the weapon to see what happened and the bullet previous bullet did not leave the barrel it was about an inch from the end and when the next round came through it blew the end of the barrel so pay attention to the rules you won't have problems violate the rules you could have problems I'm fortunate I had no bodily damage but I did have damage to two firearms so pay attention to the rules and have a good reloading experience people reload for a various number of reasons first and foremost is usually a cost savings if you're shooting premium hunting rounds like this Federal Premium here there is a significant cost savings for example this box was purchased locally and it was 56 dollars for a box of 20 that same premium bullet that is in this loaded cartridge you could buy that bullet this is a box of 50 and it's $30 so breaking the cost out the loaded ammunition roughly where two dollars and 80 cents around if we take the bullet primer powder charge we're gonna be able to load this for about 80 cents around so in this case we'd save $2 a cartridge so there's a significant savings however if you're a 3-gun shooter or just want to plink and you're shooting ball ammunition whether it's 55 grain 5 5 6 or 9 1 15 ball it's difficult to handle owed or reload and match that price of factory ammunition we're not looking for big performance there we're looking to have a good time so you know inexpensive factory ammunition is fine but we could still typically load a cast bullet or a copper wash bullet and get close to that cost of a promotional load but if you're using a pistol for handgun hunting we could definitely save money on that as well so cost standpoint that's where a lot of people go I hand load because I enjoy it as a hobby I find great satisfaction in winning a match with a round that I've hand loaded or harvesting an animal with a preemie hunting around and for the most part I do a lot of varmint shooting engaging those little critters at long range and watching them do their acrobatics I just love seeing that happen I take great enjoyment out of that especially with rounds that I've hand loaded myself another reason could be performance whether that is bullet performance or accuracy there's only so much accuracy you're gonna get out of a factory round on the hand loading side that we can tune the cartridge with powder charges powder type overall cartridge length to try and improve accuracy so that improvement of accuracy should give you greater distance that you're going to engage your targets with or harvest that animal with so the performance side is is another aspect not just the cost side of hand loading ammunition we often get questions as to how many different types of cartridges can be reloaded well it's hundreds if not thousands they're basically two types of cartridges bottleneck cartridges and bottlenecks could be pistol like 357 sig thirty mousers as well as 308 Winchester and things like that or straight wall pistol forty caliber but sure a wall could be rifle as well for 44 Marlin forty five seventy government so there are hundreds if not thousands of different cartridges that can be reloaded all you need are the proper dies and a shell holder and you'd be able to do that some of these cartridges though that were invented fifty years ago plus are probably better off left hanging on the wall so admire grandpas rifle leave it on the wall don't try and shoot it because it's probably not in a good condition anyway another question that we receive at our CVS is how much equipment does it take to start the hand loading process we offer several kits some are based on the rock sucker supreme some are based on the partner press the reloader special press so there's a number of different presses we also have progressive presses but basic equipment you need a press you need a shell holder a set of dies and a scale and you could start loading you're not going to be real happy if that's all you have that's why it's best to buy a kit because it has most everything you need add your consumables and your specific die set and shell holder and you're ready to go so whether it's a few hundred dollars or upwards of a thousand dollars depends on what your pocketbook can afford buy as much as you can afford usually it's the cost of your next firearm and you'll have a much more enjoyable reloading experience yes and I want to introduce you to the rock cutter supreme master reloading kit this is our most popular single stage press the contents of this kit are basically everything you need with the exception of dies a shell holder and your consumables of bullet primer and powder what we start out with is the rock checker supreme press with ambidextrous handle you have a universal caseload block with three fits on each side we have a set of case neck brushes a case loop pad case Lube hand priming tool with small and large primer plugs a hex wrench set a deburring tool you have your uniform measure a funnel and the new items for the kit are the Nosler number 8 manual and the m500 mechanical scale with a tenth of a grain accuracy the rock chapter supreme master reloading kit we're going to be introducing a series of videos to take you step-by-step through the reloading process step one is to clean and inspect your cases so what you want to do is look at your case see if there are any signs of pressure problems on the primer pocket corrosion flatten case mouth dents in the body things like that which would cause you to discard the case if they're good you're simply going to clean them in your vibratory your ultrasonic or your rotary case cleaner so the next step is to lubricate your cases we're going to use a case loop pad in case Lube you're going to open up the lube apply some Lube onto the case lube pad work it in with your fingers and then you're going to take some cases lay them down on the pad roll them to put Lube onto the body of the case we don't need any on the neck or shoulder then take your case neck brush get a little bit of Lube on there and apply some Lube to the inside of the case we're putting lubrication on to the cases because to resize this brass and your sizing diets under tremendous force and the lubrication allows the cases to release out of the body applying Lube onto the neck allows it to come off a lot easier from the expander ball during the resizing process the next step is to install the shell holder the shell holder does exactly what it sounds like is it holds the shell you simply take the shell holder raise the RAM slightly snap it in there to get the proper shell holder your die set will tell you what shell holder number to use the next step is to install the sizer die for bottleneck cases it's a to die set the sizer die is a die that has the decapping pin sticking out of it you're going to take and raise the ram take the sizing die and screw it down into the press until it comes to a stop you're then going to lower the ram away and give the sizing die another quarter turn and you would then lock down the lock ring and that is the proper way to install and adjust your sizing night so that after you have sized your cases the next step is to measure them to see if you need to trim them what we're looking for is a consistent length now this happens to be 308 Winchester and the book tells me the maximum length is two point zero one five this case happens to be two point zero one three two point zero one three two point zero one four two point zero one one two point zero one six so there's some variation in the length of these cases we want to trim these to make it a consistent length so that should we have to crimp we would get consistent crimp on all of these cases so trimming would be the next operation so the next step is trimming your cases what you're going to want to do this is the trim Pro two trimmer kit it comes with nine pilots and a universal shell holder you're going to take your appropriate pilot in this case 30 caliber gonna install it into the cutter head and secure the set screw then take one of your cases to your calipers and measure that case in this case is two point zero one six again the book told me that my case length is two point zero one five is maximum and we want to trim that ten thousands back so I'm gonna take the case install it into the universal shell holder slide the cutter and pile it up to it slide my adjustment up to the shaft lock it down now this is set for this long two point zero one six case move the cutter away and looking at the markings on the cutter guide one two three four five six seven eight nine ten that's ten thousandths I should have a thousand left over lock that down trim my case when the cuttings fall off I've trimmed it measure the length of the case two point zero zero five now you have sharp edges from the cutting and that's where your deburring tool comes into play where you would Jam fur and the burr all your cases after you've trimmed it and set it back in your tray that is the trimming operation after you've trimmed your cases now it's time to pay attention to the primer pocket side you could take your primer pocket brush and clean the cases to remove any residue in the primer pocket if these happen to be military cases that had a staked primer on them you need to remove that primer staking prior to putting a new primer in there you can change out the head and put on the military crimp remover which will cut away that military staking and after you do that if you choose to you can use a primer pocket uniform err to make the primer pockets a consistent depth this is tedious by hand and all these tools can be placed on to a powered case prep center another option to on press priming is using a hand priming tool you're simply going to take some primers dump them into the tray you're going to just go in a circular motion and the primers will eventually all orientate themselves handle side up sometimes there's one or two that just don't want to go flip them over place the lid of the tray on install the tray into your hand priming tool I've already installed the proper shell holder and size of primer plugs we get a primer started move the tray away and we squeeze rotate slightly and run our finger across it again to ensure that the primer is seated flush and you would do this for all the rest of your problem cases a lot of people wonder why our CBS has different colored dye boxes different colors denote different types of dyes in this case we're looking at bottleneck dye boxes we have a full-length die set we have a necktie set we have a gold box and it's a gold metal bushing die set we have a black box which is our AR series and it features a small base sizer and a tapered crimp seeder so different dies for different applications your full length die set or full length sizer it will accomplish the sizing tasks for about 90 percent of the firearms in this case 308 chambered for 308 most of your bolt guns will be handled by this if you properly sized your case with a full length sizing die and you try to chamber that cartridge case in or the empty brass and it doesn't chamber you may need to use a small based die you could go to the AR series set or you could purchase a small base die individually and what the small base die does is it pushes the shoulder and squeezes the body a little bit more to allow the chambering of the cartridge usually on a bolt action we only find the need for that on a custom built rifle most your factory rifles don't need it but your semi-autos the proliferation of MSRs typically require a small base sizer so that's why we have the black box AR series so just go to that first if that's what you're loading for neck sizing dies neck sizing dies our only man for bolt-action firearms where the brass was fired out of that bolt-action firearm and is going back into that exact same bolt-action firearm there is the mindset that neck sizing is provides me greater accuracy with my hand load not necessarily true what neck sizing does is because we're not working the body in the shoulder of the brass case it extends the life of the brass and that's really all that neck sizing is going to give you is it is extending the life of your brass case maybe you only got seven reloads out of it you might get eight or nine out of it now so that's what neck sizing is for gold metal bushing sizes this is really for your accuracy minded shooter it requires that you turn the necks of your brass or buy premium brass that has a very consistent neck you utilize bushings that are sold separately to size the neck and provide the proper amount of tension and you're going to vary the tension to see if it improves your accuracy on bullet release from the case so this is a premium type of die set designed for your F class PRS Ventura shooters that's what it's designed for you could use it for hunting applications however there is no provision for crimping in the gold metal die set and then again the last one the black box is the AR series really built for semi-automatic firearms and designed to be used on progressive presses the small base sizer again for those semi-autos where it'll shrink the case down a little bit more and the tapered crimped cedar is a little more forgiving on variations in case lengths that you can't trim the brass when you start the progressive loading process the case is moving through the operation the taper crimp is more forgiving than a roll crimp so those are the different types of sizing dies and die sets that we have available here at our CVS that can choose the one that fits your needs best thank you the next step is to put the primer into the case based on the bullet and the powder that we're choosing will determine whether we use a standard or a Magnum primer in this case it's a standard primer so we're going to take our federal large primers we're going to place them into the tray we're then going to take a primer set it on to the primer plug and I have the large plug installed we're going to take our case set it on there push forward to prime run our finger across if we can't tell if the primer is flush or not simply put it on a flat surface if it wobbles like that you want to put it back into the press and reprime that case now life is good and that's how you prime them the next step is to set your powder measure you're going to take your powder we're using reloader 15 the books telling me a middle of the ground charge is 42 grains we're going to take the powder pour it into the hopper take your scale I make sure that it's zeroed I'm going to then set this to 42 grains I take my pan dispense a charge weigh it in this case we have too much powder so I'm going to adjust the metering screw in or the powder back into the hopper dispense another charge this is a trial and error process until we get to what we're looking for I took too much off of it so I opened it up a little bit pretty close we want to add just a little bit more there we go 42 grains exactly what we're looking for once we have our powder measure set we've verified our charge we can take the powder using the funnel pour it directly into the case we could then take our next case and actually go right up to the powder measure and dispense the powder directly into the case if you follow this operation you want to check about every fifth or tenth round or powder charge to ensure that the powder measure has not changed so we'll just go ahead and check this one so what we're looking for the next step would be placing a bullet onto the case the next step is to set up our seating and crimping dye that's the second die in the two die set it's the one without the pin sticking out of it you want to thread the die in a few turns take your size trimmed reprime powder charge case place it into the shell holder and bring the handle down you're gonna then continue to screw the die body down of the Cedar die until it comes to a stop what that is is the crimped shoulder in the die body is contacting the case mouth of the case initially we don't want any crimp so we're going to temporarily back the die up one full turn so that our crimp shoulder will not contact the case mouth we're then going to lower the case we're gonna take our projectile or bullet set it on top of the case mouth run it up and we're going to adjust our seat plug down until it contacts the bullet and gets it started into the case so our bullet is just engaged in in the case we need to set it to a depth in this case the book is telling me that my overall length should be two point eight inches I'm going to take my calipers measure and I'm at three point zero one five so I need to seat the bullet in deeper so I'm going to adjust the seat plug down run the cartridge back up to seat the bullet in deeper measure I'm at two point nine eight zero this is a trial and error basis of seating that bullet into the case two point nine three zero you want to take small steps because we could always make this shorter but we can't make it longer a little bit more to go the closer you get the smaller adjustments you want to make 2.8 inches we've hit the length we're looking for once we've done that you want to take pair of pliers and lock down the nut place your next sized primed powder charge case set the bullet on top run the handle down and we are seated the bullet to 2.18 inches and you would continue to do that for the rest of the cartridge cases that you have I will now describe the crimp operation so when we've seated our bullets this cartridge case is ready to go crimp is applied to the case mouth to keep the bullet from moving under recoil inside the Firearms magazine if we're not making a heavy recoiling load we don't need to crimp but if it is a heavy load we do need to apply crimps so you're gonna take your cartridge case set it back into your shell holder you're now going to adjust your seat plug up and out of the way because we do not want to change the length of the cartridge we simply want to apply crimp now we're going to also loosen our lock ring we're gonna bring the cartridge up and thread the die body down further into the press and we go about a turn which was the same turn we backed off before when we contacted and set it up we're now bringing it down so the sizing die crimp shoulder is now in contact with the case mouth of the cartridge we're going to lower the cartridge away give the die body about an eighth of a turn and I'm gonna feel some slight resistance on the press handle and what we're doing is the die body is crimping that case mouth into the bullet we don't want to crimp too much just a little bit and that eighth of a turn is all it takes once that's adjusted properly and you can look at it and you could typically see that slight crimp if you could see a lot of crimp you typically crimp too much so if that's what we're looking for run it back up in there screw the seat plug back down now so we're just bringing it back to where the bullet was so if you want it to seat and crimp in the same operation you would take your next case set it on there take your bullet and you would be seating and crimping in the same operation one of our number-one comments or complaints is particularly on a bottle neck die set is there's something wrong with my sizing die because my loaded ammunition does not chamber so the the the tie in is a sizing die is not right that's why loaded ammunition usually that's not the case it's usually that the case was not sized properly at the very first step so we'll ask the consumer how did you set up your sizing die and they all say I take my sizing die I thread it down into my press until it hits the show holder and I back it up a turn and lock it in there that's not the proper way to do it the manual tells you or the instructions tell you screw the die down until it hits the shell holder lower the shell holder away and turn the die further down a quarter of a turn to ensure full length sizing so the easiest thing to check is after you sized your case if you take that size case and it goes into the chamber of your weapon sizing is not the problem because if it went into your chamber then and then you got to this point of loaded ammunition and it doesn't go in it can't be a sizing problem more than likely it is a crimp problem and that's where you apply too much crimp because either you have not trimmed your cases or you just set your seeding die improperly that's our biggest comment or complaint that we receive on a daily basis so if we've followed all the instructions that I've given you we have successfully sized D primed trimmed re primed put a new powder charge seeded a bullet crimped necessary we have our loaded cartridge we won't know if we did a good job until we get to the range and safely test out our ammunition but this hand loading process is very simple if you follow the rules you follow the direction we will get a good end result of a hand loaded cartridge that you should be able to harvest an animal or win a match with so that's the ABCs of reloading I hope you enjoyed it

Channel: rcbsreloading

Views: 455,216

Rating: 4.886425 out of 5

Keywords: rcbs, reloading, reload, ammo, reloading press, handload

Id: PmeiRMDiuBs

Length: 27min 57sec (1677 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 04 2018