Reloading for Handgunners. Patrick Sweeney
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for ergonomic compliance, but in the end you’ll have to figure it out for yourself.
The benches should not be full-sized tables or other such furniture. I have found that any benchtop more than two feet deep simply collects “gear drifts” at the back. By keeping the bench relatively shallow, you have to put stuff away. Now, if you are not prone to the gear-drift phenomenon, then fine, make them the way you want them. But for me, no more than two feet deep, and I have some that are even less.
Ideally, you will have a “loading bench” that holds only your loading press and the components of the session. Less ideal is a bench that holds a press and, say, a vise, drill press or other non-loading gear. With a dedicated bench, you can keep things clean and sorted out.
If you have a press (and how can you reload without one?) you must stock spare parts for the items easily lost, bent or worn.
Reloading allows you to not only do alot more shooting for the money you spend, but also to tune your ammo for your handgun and the matches you shoot.
A progressive, like this Dillon 550B, will produce a lot of ammo for a long time.
Now comes the important part; the loading bench should have all the bullets you own on the lower shelves, and nothing else stored there. No powder, no primers, no brass. The powders, primers and brass should be stored on other shelves or benches across the room. The idea is to make it a conscious effort to re-supply powder or primers. That way, you are very much less likely to make a mistake. If your powders are right there, within arm’s reach, you’ll be tempted to grab the next bottle of whatever while you continue to do whatever it is you are doing. That is a great way to grab the wrong powder (if you have more than one on hand) and end up loading with the wrong powder.
When it comes time to refresh your powder measure, you use the bottle/canister on the bench, the one you’ve been using all along. If you run out, you have to walk over, look at the shelves, and grab another of the same kind (ideally, one from the same production lot).
Also, do not keep a supply of primers on the bench. When it comes time to reload primers, you have to walk over and get more. The walking is good. You have been loading, either sitting down or standing in the same spot. It is a good thing to move now and then to keep from getting tired.
Lighting
Nothing makes reloading more miserable than a gloomy place to load. Loading by the light of a single, 60-watt bulb (and it is always in the wrong location) is asking for trouble. I did it for years and hated it. When I had the chance I installed banks of fluorescent lights to flood the new, white-painted room with light.
If you stand to load, then the Dillon strong mount makes the press more rigid and puts it higher.
The Redding GRx die sizes your Glock brass, one at a time.
Glocks are hard on brass, especially in 40. These have been bulged from being fired in a Glock.
Ventilation
A musty, damp or moldy location is not just bad for your dies and tools, it is bad for you. Scrub the place clean, dry it, paint it and keep it dry. I have a dehumidifier running in my loading space, and keep it down at 50 percent relative humidity 24/7.
Quiet
You can have a radio going if the music is background music and not distracting. No TV, no videos, no DVDs of something else running to catch your eye and distract you.
No smoking. Not only is smoking bad for you, but there is a lot of flammable stuff you’ll be dealing with.
No food, either, to preclude lead ingestion.
When you load, start with a clean and spartan bench and loading press. Then, bring only the components to the bench that you need for that caliber and load. Nothing else. Load until you are done, then put the components back, empty the powder measure and put things away.
A little effort at the beginning to keep things neat will keep you out of trouble for a long time, perhaps forever.
BRASS PREP
Sorting
Unless you are buying your brass new and unfired, it will have to be cleaned. Brass picked up at the range (if the range allows it, some do not allow “brass mining,” you can pick up only what you shoot) will have powder residue and dirt/sand/mud/whatever on it. You must clean the brass or your loading dies will suffer heinously from the dirt. So, first things first: sort.
Sort by caliber and by cleanliness. The various calibers should go into whatever containers you use – cardboard boxes, plastic bins, used tofu containers, whatever works. Your brass will be grubby, so the containers will get grubby.
You can pluck each empty off the die if you wish. Not efficient.
Also sort by cleanliness. At the top will be brass that fell onto dry, clean soil or grass. No need for extra work. Next is the muddy stuff, and last is the chocolate-colored brass.
The top brass goes right to the next cleaning step – into the tumbler. The other stuff needs some attention. The muddy brass is easy; drop them into a bucket (wait until you have enough to warrant the effort) of water as hot as you can get it from the tap and some dishwashing soap. Stir it with a paint stirrer or similar tool until the brass does not have caked mud clinging to it, then decant the soapy water into the laundry sink (filter, to avoid brass in the drain trap) and rinse with hot water right from the tap into the bucket. Decant again and then spread the brass on an old bath towel in direct sunlight. Leave there until dry. Do not be impatient, or clinging moisture will spoil your fun later.
The chocolate brass is oxidized and requires chemical cleaners. Birchwood Casey makes a chemical cleaner, and I find my supply of “chocolate” brass is so small that using it once a year or so is all I need. I mix it twice as strong as the directions call for and soak the brass twice as long. I then decant, and treat the brass to the same hot-water process as above. Indeed, you can, if you stockpile enough brass in a caliber, make it an annual mud-and-oxide cleaning session.
You can also use a power cleaner. Hornady makes a couple of powered cleaners. They use chemical solutions and heat to accelerate the cleaning process. Depending on your range conditions, you may find that power and chemicals works better than just sorting and a tumbler.
Cleaning
On to the tumbler. Curiously, even cleaners that vibrate and swirl the brass are called “tumblers.” Basically, you pour dry and ready-to-be-cleaned brass into the bowl, add a cleaning medium and some polisher (some people skip the polishing goo) and then seal and turn on. The vibrating/swirling action rubs the media against the brass, scrubbing off the dirt. The polish scuffs the oxidized layer of brass off, leaving you with brass gleaming as if it were new.
How big a tumbler should you get? As big as you can afford and have bench room for. This