Back to First Principles

[watkibe]

I have been a reloader and boolit caster since sometime in the early 80's, except for a break due to a health problem for about 7 of the last 11 years. I felt like I knew what I was doing, I had standardized all my loading and casting practices, and it was pretty much "written in stone" (kinda sounds like at work, eh ?)So, I am finally getting up to speed again, not just making ammo, but shooting it too.
I have been running into a bunch of small, dumb, or weird problems, and have to figure each one out as it comes up. I realized that I, like Col Kurtz (in Apocalypse Now), "have spent too much time away from the command structure, and have developed unsound doctrines and practices.

So, it's back to what one of my mentors called "First Principles". I dug out the LBT book "Jacketed Performance with Cast Bullets"(so old it has the Arizona address), Dick Lee's 2nd ed. of Modern Reloading, and Dean Grennel's ABCs of Reloading and started reading.

I'm shocked at how much I had forgotten, or worse, remembered wrong !

The time and gas money issues associated with scrounging for cheap or free casting alloy are beyond my means anymore, and so I finally gave in and actually bought some good RotoMetals Hardball alloy. I bought some new LLA. I'm loading tumble lube boolits unsized, because Lee says they usually work best that way, instead of always sizing them anyway like I used to, "because I know best". I'm measuring everything more often and more carefully. I'm looking at everything a little more closely and carefully. Most importantly, I'm following directions for the first time in a long while. I haven't fired any of this new batch of boolits yet, but I'm excited and looking forward to it.
Even my shooting of other ammo has improved lately, go figure, lol !

[geargnasher]

My nature and education combine to give me a tendency to want to dissect and explore every detail of shooting cast boolits so I can discover "laws" other generalities that can then be "written in stone", as you mentioned.

To the extent that I've succeded in doing this, I've also succeeded in painting myself into a corner that often has no way out. Keep an open mind, problems as they arise are easier to solve when you don't rule out options.

While there are many certain truths to the hobby, I don't find very many true rules anymore aside from the rules of safety.

Gear

[noylj]

One should always go back to first principles every so often. Even the best athletes need to go back to basics.
The other thing to remember is that often that which makes rational sense is NOT borne out on the target.
I remember the first time is loaded a bunch of as-cast bullets by pan lubing and "Kookie-Kutter"ing them out and found that my group size and barrel leading were both better.
I found that as long as I was using alloy of about 1% tin, I got good castings and I didn't need a hard alloy any more. Even my 7mm TCU cast bullets didn't need to be as hard.
I find that the best thing any reloader can do is to measure their case after each reloading step and learn the importance of proper case expansion and taper crimping.
Except for revolver loads, I have found that not resizing my brass (in .38 Special for my S&W M52) or sizing with the Lee FCD really makes a difference--except with certain very thin-walled cases that require a standard resizing die or bullet grip is insufficient (these case go in the recycling brass bucket). Also, in loading .38 wadcutters for my S&W M52, the use of thin-walled R.P. cases really reduces or eliminates the swaging down of the Remington HBWCs that I have found work the very best (and they are the cheapest--it is ALMOST like they were made for each other).
Finally, one very important step is to load several inert dummy rounds and then pull the bullets and make after loading measurements of the cases and bullets to be sure that the final rounds are proper.

[303Guy]

watkibe (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/member.php?u=7045)

You don't say what calibers you are loading for. It might be fun for you to try paper patching if you happen to be rifle shooting.

[watkibe]

to 303Guy: thanks but no thanks, that's all I need, another variable, lol.
to Gear: yep, safety, be observant, attention to detail, and common sense stay pretty true.
to noylj: Thanks for the reply, odd you should choose that example. I have been loading nearly 500 357 mag rounds with Berry's 125gr JHP (don't tell anybody !) in Midway brass, on my turret press, with nary a problem. I was out of clean Midway brass, so when I ran across a bag of R-P brass I decided to load them, also on the same turret press set-up, no changes. Right away, seating the bullet caused a crease or wrinkle in the brass at the bottom of the bullet, always on the same side. I have the Lee carbide factory crimp die, which has a carbide ring that post-sizes the case. Fortunately, that die ironed out the wrinkle enough that the first 5 rounds chambered, fired, and extracted. I wondered why it was happening. I thought if the bullet wasn't being seated perfectly concentricly, the Midway brass might be heavier enough to "center" the bullet, while the thinner R-P brass was weaker and the bullet just forced to brass out of the way. Weighing the two brands of cases confirmed my hypothesis.
I don't know if I'm going to use the rest of the R-P brass with these bullets. I never had this problem with cast boolits in those cases.

[RobS]

I don't know if I'm going to use the rest of the R-P brass with these bullets. I never had this problem with cast boolits in those cases.

The cast boolits probably swaged down in the case when you seated them.