njl

Another issue with aluminum is aluminum oxide is a serious abrasive. I wouldn't want to put aluminum cases (which might have an oxide coating) through my resizing die.

So, without disturbing the 550 strong mount, can the RL550B be unbolted and an SDB with adapter plate be installed...or would the 550's loaded cartridge chute get in the way, and the brass & loaded cartridge bins be improperly positioned? I should probably just stick to the one press

All the Blazer aluminum I've seen is berdan primed, so I don't know how you'd reload it if you wanted to.

I was looking at the catalog and SDB instructions...and I'm wondering, is the SDB strong mount just the RL550b strong mount plus an adapter plate? I'm wondering, because I have an RL550b on a strong mount, and I wonder, if I were to pick up an SDB, how difficult it'd be to swap out the press (rather than have them both mounted). If it's a bigger deal to swap presses than primer systems, I should probably just stick to just the RL550B.

Why would mixed brass have any bearing on COAL? If the adjustment of the seating die relative to the shell plate / ram doesn't change, and bullet profile is constant, I'd expect COAL to remain as constant as play in the tool head allows. The bullets would appear to be seated deeper in some (because the case is longer)...but COAL would be the same. I've never used an SDB, so I don't know if it has the same issues with tool head play, but in a 550, if you load some with a full shell plate and some with a less than full shell plate, you'll maximize your variance in COAL. The other obvious thing to check is that the seating die is not loose.

Most of the low end car waxes are a combination of wax and a mild abrasive...so it's kind of like adding pure wax and a bit of flitz to the media. 9mm done with turtle wax resizes easier than 9mm done without...but get a little lanolin on the brass before resizing, and they resize like they're not there.

I've noticed the same thing with all my MG bullets. Not dripping, but if you run your hands through the box, they pick up a bit of some kind of lubricant. I assume something that helps with the jacketing process. Additionally, they appear to tumble the bullets in corn cob...because there's some of that in the boxes as well. Neither seems to have been enough to be a problem. At least I haven't run into any split jackets yet...and they seem to always have product in stock...or tell you via the web site if they don't.

I still wouldn't use that stuff. Have a look at http://kensbrass.com/damagedbrass.html I don't know if citric acid will leach out the zinc, but I'd also be worried about the peroxide attacking the copper. If you want to wash the brass, I'd stick to mild detergent and hot water. Your experiment reminds me of when we were kids collecting old US coins. One day we decided to start trying various things to see if we could make old dull pennies shiny again. We tried just about every household cleanser we could get our hands on. Some of them seemed to work (I don't remember which), but days later, the cleaned up pennies looked like crap. At one point we even mixed cleaners containing ammonia and bleach (we were young and didn't know better) and made "toxic smoke". Without a background in chemistry, the odds of you stumbling on a new method to chemically clean brass safely and effectively are slim. The odds of you discovering ways to damage brass using compounds not intended for brass cleaning are much better.

Crushed walnut works well (much faster / more effective at cleaning dirty brass than corn cob...at least the big crap from Wal-Mart...I haven't tried the finer stuff from Grainger yet) and I don't have to worry about what's in it and whether it'll attack the brass. My tumbler handles about 1000 9mm at a time...and I do other things while it's running.

How many minutes did that take? But seriously, if you loaded a split case, maybe you're going a little too fast?

i was resting the gun on a table and being pretty slow and deliberate with the trigger pulling. oh yeah i forgot to mention you dont see it with these targets but at that match i had at least 5 bullets with some really bad key-hole action going on, i wasnt sure what the deal was with that. If they're keyholing you obviously have something bad going on and accuracy is going to suffer. It could be your barrel doesn't like these plated bullets. It could be you're damaging the plating during loading (not enough flare, too much crimp). Have you disassembled any of your reloads to check the bullets for plating damage? I've never understood why anyone bothers with plated bullets when for about the same $ you can get FMJ (or even JHP) if you shop hard enough...especially with 9mm.

Shortening COAL will increase pressure...but that's why you start at the start charge and work your way up using a chronograph (was one of those on your list?). Part of the problem with worrying about COAL is unless you have exactly the same bullets (and brass) used for the load data, your case volumes at equal COAL's will be different anyway. The shape of the bullet can influence pressure as well.

When I load pistol ammo, I put a little bit of lanolin on my right thumb and index finger and roll the brass between them on the way into station one. This causes the brass to resize as if it wasn't there...so I'm not surprised I couldn't tell the difference between resizing a 9 and a .380. Fortunately, the case head dimensions must be a fraction smaller on the .380.

I finally had a .380 sneak through while loading 9mm. I "found" it after sizing when it and the primer popped out of the shell plate while trying to prime it. Just for the heck of it, I tried to see what would happen if I seated a 9mm bullet in it and was surprised to see the bullet would slide right in and down as far as I wanted. 9mm and .380 are both .355...did the 9mm die not resize the .380 brass as much as a .380 die would?

Not sure why they'd do that. I wouldn't aim to load longer than about 1.150. If you setup for that COAL, you'll probably find they all end up within about 0.005 of that.

1.169 is the max COAL for 9mm. You may want to load a little shorter because not all your rounds are going to come out the same OAL...some will be a little longer, some a little shorter. If your target is max, some will be longer. At these lengths, you may find they either don't fit your mags or chambers.

There doesn't seem to be any easy to find published data for it in 9mm, but it seems like WST may be the perfect powder for 9mm/.45acp mild to at least mid level loads.

Glock stands behind ALL their pistols, no matter who bought them, or how old. I know...but technically, I think Glocks have a limited warranty (1 year, 5 years?) and they list the lifetime thing as a benefit of GSSF membership. Really, the main reason to join GSSF is you want to shoot the matches.

You definitely need calipers. The only question is digital, dial, or both? I started with digital, and one night I went to use them and found that the battery was bad (the readout goes kind of nuts when the voltage gets too low) and my spare was dead too...so no working calipers. I bought a dial caliper after that.

You want to clean the brass (either tumbler or in liquid) before reloading it for the sake of your dies.

How'd we miss those? Brass polish I'll veto...you don't absolutely need it. I've got the RCBS rotary media separator and love it. I put brass through it before tumbling to remove dirt, .22lr brass, and any other small debris, dump out the crud, then use it again after tumbling to get the crushed walnut out of the brass. Case gage was already on his list.

oh yeah...definitely an impact puller. You will at some point need to disassemble some rounds or at least lengthen one that you made too short. As for powders, density was one of the reasons I chose to start with Universal. In 9mm, you can't double charge it without spilling powder all over the shell plate. On a similar note, here's a tip to save you a few minutes of clean-up. My 550's powder system came with the small bar installed but set to drop a whole lot of powder. Before you start loading crank the adjustment screw down (to reduce powder charge) a bunch. My first powder throw filled a 9mm case and dumped a bunch more on the shell plate when I lowered the ram. My concern with Solo 1000 is that I've read it can vary quite a bit from lot to lot and it seems like it's only good for relatively weak loads. With Universal and 124gr 9mm, you can do about 1050fps at the start charge, and take it up to over 1100fps if you want.

Lots of shotgun powders are also fine pistol powders. i.e. Solo 1000, Universal Clays, Clays, WST, etc. I don't know if Solo 1000 is the best powder for a first time reloader. Universal Clays is what I started with and still use for 9mm. For your stuff list, what about: primer flip tray Dillon bench wrench You don't really need the extra primer pickup tubes...but it doesn't hurt to have extras. I started out with a digital caliper and bought a dial after I went to reload one night and both the battery in my digital and the spare were dead...so I had no caliper.

Depends on the gun and the OAL. You may need more than Speer says is safe. If you need to make major with 230gr, you may be better off with another powder. WST at the low end is similar to Clays in performance, but has a higher high end and easily makes major without going beyond max load.

Low and left is common for people new to Glocks. Was that someone else someone who frequently shoots Glocks [well] or just another shooter who shoots some other brand? Of course, I own a number of Glocks, and they all have the rear sight shifted varying amounts to the right. I have picked up Glocks that shot dead on with the rear sight centered, but in my experience, they're the exception.