Some confidence in handloading is mandatory, if you have any mechanical aptitude you will soon be looking forward to the practice of from components making ammunition for your guns. Attention to detail to the 99th level is not going to get you anywhere but frustrated, this is real life and you must accept boo-boo's and losing a few components, but enough attention must be paid so you do not lose apendages. A primer seated wrong will be crushed,,a case will be lost now and then and you WILL spill some powder guaranteed. Accept these losses and move on. You are not doing rocket science in handloading, these are all mechanical steps handled deftly by machines daily producing literally billions of cartridges around the world.
Easy to comprehend steps will be inderstoof when you realize that when you fire a round you are consuming 3 of the 4 components of a loaded cartridge, the bullet which goes downrange, the powder which is ignited by the primer leaving you the fired cartridge case which must expand when the gases produced burn. If the cases did not expand in the chamber it would be a bomb, a bad thing, there must be room for the case to expand in order to release the bullet down the barrel.
All of the above means you are left with a fired, slightly swollen case with a expended primer.
Step one in reloading "sizes" the fired case back to the pre-fired specification.
Step one usually also "de-caps" the fired primer, leaving the primer pocket open to accept a replacement.
Step two, replaces the fired primer, in the case of a revolver (straight wall) case step two also puts a slight bell in the case mouth, not so in bottleneck cases for the beginner.
Step three charges the case with a specified charge of powder.
Step four seats a new bullet and for the revolver, straightens the case and puts the crimp in the case mouth to securely hold that bullet to resist movement. Very important when you fire the first round that the rest do not move forward and bind up the gun, its also important it does not get moved further into the case spiking the pressure beyond the desired range.
All simple, mechanical steps that most people enjoy beyond the basics, shooting ammo you created with your own skill set is very satisfying.
I have been reloading since the mid 80's and consider myself barely beyond beginner status because I know there are people that have been at it longer than I have been alive. I do understand it , enjoy it and am quite capable of producing accurate ammo for my guns.
Step one for anyone considering it should be the purchase of at least 2 reloading manuals weeks if not months in advance of actually starting unless you have a mentor on hand to show you the ropes and keep you thinking "why" instead of "git-r-dun".
There are many people to help ,,,,,this is just another nickles worth of bandwidth.
I would appreciate any feedback and tips for the beginner here.
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