Reloading: Bad Habits

Murphy’s Law is alive and well. Days after completing my last article in which I praised the best ball powder factory in Europe – PB Clermont Belgium, they closed their doors for good. The site was devastated by an explosion in March 2014 but it was widely believed that production would ultimately resume. Not so.

OK; on with the show. This month we remind ourselves of those little things that need to be considered when reloading.As with many endeavours, over time we fall into bad habits. In no particular order, I’ve covered ten of the most common.

Killing Powder – and the Measure

Leaving propellant in the hopper of the powder measure is something that most of us have done at some time or another. And yes, I have. Not a good idea for a couple of reasons. Sunlight (well, heat and the ultraviolet component) are really bad news for them. The organic compounds in powders begin to degrade as soon as they are exposed. Those types with heavy deterrent coatings will react more slowly but all will suffer. Less obvious is the fact that chemicals in the propellants will begin to attack the polythene or polyurethane hopper of your powder measure. The ‘flexible’ types of material are the most vulnerable but all plastics will suffer a reduction in transparency and become increasingly brittle.

 

Slam Dunk

We all know what a primer looks like, but I’ll remind you anyway. A Boxer primer is comprised of three components… a plain or nickel plated copper or brass cup, a two, three or four-winged insert with a pointed centre called the anvil and the explosive charge – often based around lead styphnate or lead azide and sealed with a lacquer. Close inspection of a new primer reveals that the tips of the wings of the anvil are raised above the edge of the primer cup. When the primer is correctly seated in the primer pocket the anvil will be closed into the cup, positioning the pointed centre in close proximity to the explosive charge. If the anvil does not re-position then there are three potential problems. Firstly, it may mean that the primer is proud of the head and likely to cause a jam in a revolver cylinder or worse, a slam fire. Lastly, it may result in a misfire unless the firing mechanism has sufficient energy to complete the seating process.

 

Lock Into Inconsistency

Do you leave the lock ring in the same place on your dies – batch after batch? Hmm… if you always use brass trimmed to the same dimensions… neck wall and overall length, and always use bullets from just one batch then perhaps you’re justified. For the rest of us it really is a bad idea. As the brass grows from one firing to the next their fit in the dies will change. Light roll crimps will get progressively heavier. Neck tension will change. The crimp fit into the bullet cannelure will change. All of which will affect the performance of the cartridge. Regular readers will know that I use a rubber O-ring under the locking ring in order to allow the die body to ‘float’ and self-align. This means that I have to reset the dies for each loading session but to speed things up I have a large set of assembled blanks marked with their construction details.

 

And Your Ingredients Were?

Would you buy an oven ready steak and kidney pie sealed in a totally plain can? No sell-by date, no list of contents, no makers name, no cooking instructions. Nah, neither would I. So, a year after you made that odd batch of .240 ammo, can you remember what it contains? For most of us, record keeping is a pain in the nuts, but it’s an essential one. There should be two parts to the data you create. A log, either paper or electronic that charts each and every loading session with as much data as you can gather – from the head-stamp of the brass, number of reloads, trim dimensions, powder and bullet weights to the makers batch numbers of the powder, primers and bullets together with any chrono figures. The other part should be the record kept with the ammo, created in such a way that it can be easily identified in your log. I use a new line in my database for each batch and simply add that number to the ticket in the box of ammo.

 

New Data, Old Loads

Staying with records, we turn our attention to loading manuals. How old are your manuals and are you using the same load that you worked up some 30-years ago? Things may well have changed in that time! The ‘Old Fart’ powder that you bought in the 1980’s is unlikely to be the same as the new tub you acquired a couple of months ago. Indeed, it was probably made on a different continent to a different recipe. Most of us have noted the fact that Max Load data in many of the manuals has been steadily reduced over the decades.

There is no doubt that this is in part due to the power of the ‘Law Suit’ but it also reflects the fact that improvements in materials and performance changes in the propellants have taken place. Most, if not all propellant companies provide free paper and/ or online data for their current products for use with the popular generic bullet designs for each calibre. Some are more specific, quoting particular bullet brands. As a rule of thumb, data from the powder companies will be more up to date than that in the manuals from the bullet and equipment makers. If you only use Barnes and Accurate, buy the latest Barnes manual and download the free generic data from Accurate.

 

Wrong Firing Pin?

New to using a lever action rifle? Just remember that in a tube magazine the tip of the bullet is located against the primer of the one above/in front of it. So when you fire recoil will slap the column of cartridges in the magazine into each other, like a line of firing pins. With flat-nosed bullets mainly used in pistol calibres this is not an issue, but for more powerful rifle calibres, which offers round and pointed noses this could be a disaster! Here the point/tip can set off the primer above/in front of it causing what’s known as a chain detonation and if you’ve seen the results you will never forget it. Equally if primers are not fully seated there’s also a possibility of the same thing. So be aware what sort of bullet you are using!