YAY I CAN START RELOADING!

[norbyam22]

Well, The press came, the bench was put in and reinforced and cleaned along with the gun cleaning bench (form an L shape in the corner with a gun safe) the day before. The press mounted easily, I was planning on hex head bolts, had some laying around, but they were too short, So I used Lag screws. The press is not moving.

I picked up some 115 grain berrys plated Round nose, and also some Alliant bullseye (reloading 9mm)

I grabbed CCI small pistol primers, (although, when I got home, I read magnum on them.. took them back and got Remington small pistol primers 1 1/2)

Put on my safety glasses, dumped a bit of powder in the reservoir, loaded up one hundred primers, and went to town.

I first started with a charge of 3.5, my load data suggests a max of 4.8.

I also loaded some 3.8 and some 4.0 (25 rounds of each) and went to the range. 3.5 looked good, felt good right away, but later on that and the 3.8 grans would not cycle, might have to get a lighter recoil spring if I want to shoot that, so went to the 4.0 grains pushing 115 grain berrys round nose plated with rem primers and FC headstamps, OAL was 1.11.

They shoot great, lighter muzzle flip than factory, pushing about 1050fps with a SD of 4.

Will load a good number of those I am sure along with some 4.3 that seemed to operate just as well.

All rounds tested through SA XDM9 4.5

Now, I will probably sit in the basement and crank out a couple thousand rounds.

Thanks Dillon for making great stuff, thanks B.ENOS for making the transaction smooth and for replying quick about mounting hardware, (IF you read this, it might be nice to put dimensions on the website somewhere of the press. (Probably are, I didn't search extensively) and the mounting base.

P.S. I love that Dillon

[Youngeyes]

Great experience. Thanks for sharing it. Welcome to the addiction.

[Hi-Power Jack]

Alex, I wouldn't "load up a couple thousand" just yet.

I'd load 100 - 200 and test them further - make sure

they're accurate and feed well.

you might decide to change the recipe a bit after you

fire a few hundred of them - so, I'd

wait before I loaded 2,000 of them.

[FLSlim]

Congrats. It is a thrill to crank out your first rounds and then fire them successfully! 4.3 about a 10% reduction so, should be good. But I do agree with Hi-Power, keep your batches relatively small until you get just the load you want.

[norbyam22]

Ha, well, I suppose I didn't quite mean that as literally as I had made that sound. I loaded some more in batches of 25 for 4.2 grains and 4.5 grains.

3.5 grains with an OAL of 1.11 gave me an AVG VEL of 983 with a Standard Deviation of 7.

3.8 grains with an OAL of 1.11 gave me an AVG VEL of 1011 with a Standard Deviation of 9

4.0 grains with an OAL of 1.11 gave me an AVG VEL of 1047 with a Standard Deviation of 4

Won't be adjusting my gun to shoot that 3.5 by getting the lighter spring until I find something that XDM chews up first.

Anybody else have powder preferences? Buddy of mine likes the results he gets from Power Pistol

[Sarge]

Great news that everything is coming together.

I second the motion to load smaller batches until you have tried a few more powders/ bullets, etc.

Also, what do you plan to use the for? I only ask because you are only making 120 PF. Actually, you need some 124 grain bullets to go about 1070 for a PF of 132. They will feel much softer than the 115's. Of course if you are just shooting old dryers or refrigerators out on the farm then by all means, go with what you got.

[norbyam22]

Whoops, wasn't supposed to put load data up, I'll grab some 124 grain bullets and try them. For now, punching paper and bowling pin shoots.

[norbyam22]

I was planning on getting lead cast bullets, SWC or something, but don't have as much load data on them as I do the fmj and plated rn.

Also, I was told (for matters of the law) NOT to reload my own Self-defense loads, because there have been cases where people have used them, the criminal survived, and said the shooter worked their loads to just cause a lot of hurt. I am sure I will still load some HP rounds, but for now, just trying to find the good paper punching load.

[Hi-Power Jack]

For now, punching paper and bowling pin shoots.

Any old load is good for "paper punching" (if it's accurate),

but bowling pins require a pretty hot load - usually HP's,

and I think most people prefer heavy bullets loaded hot.

[norbyam22]

The 115 factory do fine for the bowling pins as well as the steel, Probably going to be trying out some lead SWC for the paper punching, but will stick with jacketed or plated for the steel.