Is this guy legit? Reloading questions??

[Glock 40]

Okay I have avoided reloading up till now but know its probably in my future. Is the guy on https://ultimatereloader.com/ legit? I mean if you take away his weird voice, is what he is saying and doing appear to be good info? Or is he just trying to sell stuff? I wondered across his videos months ago when I saw him doing a $300 TC precision project.

https://ultimatereloader.com/2017/08/04/budget-precision-223-project-kick-off-and-tc-compass-setup/

 

[swampratt]

I must of not seen a video I read a little bit and there are many ways to get to the final product that is fact.

But the basics are very easy and I have done the basics at the range while doing a brass fail test in .308.
I wanted to see how many times I could reload a single case before it failed.
I took a Winchester, Lapua, Remington and a Federal case a pound of Varget some CCI 200 primers and the bullet was Sierra Game king HPBT a very forgiving bullet that had a lot of bearing surface length.

1 time fired brass got wiped down and neck brushed with a .308 bore brush to remove any carbon chunks.
Then lubed with imperial sizing die wax with my fingers and a swab of the inside of the neck with a Q tip that had a tiny amount of the sizing die wax on it.

Next step.
FLS Which stands for Full Length Size.
I did that with my Lee press and Lee die.
Then remove case and wipe clean with clean rag or paper towel. Swab inside of neck clean with Q tip.
When FLS brass is sent through the lee die it removes the primer at the same time.

Now seat a primer.
Then place case in loading block to hold steady and place funnel over case mouth and fill with powder.

I used a Scooper that measured 41.5-42 gr of varget.

After powder is in case then place case back into press and place bullet on top of case mouth.
Raise case into bullet seater die and the remove.

Ready to fire.

Now I will say you need to set up the dies properly and when I said there are many ways to get to the final product that is now explained below.

You can measure each bullet from base to Ogive and sort them and seat them accordingly.
You can chamfer the case mouth with a VLD or other chamfer .
You can trim the case length to a certain measurement and remove the burs with a tool.
You can also polish the case mouth you just trimmed with 0000 steel wool in a socket.
You can anneal the cases.
You can turn necks ID and OD
You can uniform primer pockets and deburr primer pockets.
You can sort your resized cases by weight and by volume.
You can sort cases by shoulder ogive ..Yea just because you resized in the same die do not assume each case will come out to the exact .001 from base of shoulder ogive.
You can even sort cases by how well they group when shooting and this is usually after all other prepping has been done.
This is where metallurgy plays a part.

You can clean cases 20 different ways.
There are many different case lubes different primers and powders and bullets.

Then you can also tweak your dies or have custom dies made that minimally size your cases as to not overwork them.
Or you can choose to neck size the cases.

I did an experiment on neck sizing with .308.
Many say you can neck size 5 times then you must FLS the case .

WHY! because it gets hard to chamber.
Talking bolt action here.
What I found measuring the case (.308) after neck sizing is the neck grew .0005" longer after each firing and neck sizing and the case body grew a tick fatter until firing number 5 and then the case fit pretty snug in the chamber and the case grew .0005" after every 2 firings.

Now I shot that case 20 or 22 times then misplaced it. I never FLS that case and it never got any harder to chamber than it was at the 5th firing and loading.

So when you begin reloading or Handloading your ammo and get confident and good at it you can do some tests for yourself
and put some fallacies to rest.
Did the neck sized case shoot more accurate than the FLS case? NO not in my guns.
Wish it did.
My dies minimally size my cases no more than .002" resized anywhere on my .308 case.
I have seen some dies size/reduce a case as much as .008" Over working the case in my book.
Unless it is an auto-loader and then you may need to resize it that much.

It is not rocket science once you grasp the basics. You can spend a lot on tools and goodies though.

MY first loadings were 30-30 and with a Lee Wack-A-Mole loader.
Called Lee classic loader. It is a neck sizer so if you have cases fired from your gun going back into your gun it works well.

I made ammo that shot 3/4" at 100 yards with it . Then got one for .308 and then 30-06.
I later got a real press and it was also a Lee Classic Cast press made in USA. New for 85 bucks.
Here is what I started with and some powder, primers and bullets.
OH and a small hammer.
https://ads.midwayusa.com/product/1...MIiJf6gL3s4wIVkf_jBx1ahQT1EAQYASABEgKEMvD_BwE

 

[okierider]

You are going to get answers all over the place .imagine the 9mm 45 acp conversation. I started out as cheap as I could go (Lee) just to see if reloading is something I would enjoy doing. Liked Lee and stayed with it and upgraded to a turret loader. But some guys talk about how Dillon and some of the other companies are way better. Lee does what I need it to do and then some. I load around 3-400 various caliber rounds per month. I shoot 1-2 times a week.

 

[Cowcatcher]

I've watched several of his videos. I haven't seen anything wrong but he does like to talk tools.

I mean he does go by Gavin Gear! Lol

 

[Gunbuffer]

Read Richard lees book. He’s the best for noobs

 

[Glock 40]

Read Richard lees book. He’s the best for noobs

Can you believe library doesn't have any books on reloading?
https://www.tulsalibrary.org/search/catalog?search-term=ammo+reloading

Mr. Lee also has nothing on file. I will have to ask the Comrades why not.

 

[Gunbuffer]

Can you believe library doesn't have any books on reloading?
https://www.tulsalibrary.org/search/catalog?search-term=ammo+reloading

Mr. Lee also has nothing on file. I will have to ask the Comrades why not.

You’re welcome!
http://marvinstuart.com/firearm/Man...eloading 2nd Edition by Richard Lee - ocr.pdf

 

[swampratt]

I did not have a reloading book and BIL got me a Lyman 49TH excellent reading and data.
Lots of pictures and if you can't figure it out with that book then you do not need to reload ammo.

The Lee dies I purchased came with literature on how to use the dies and the load data.
When i started reloading the lee instructions are all I had and with common sense it was all I needed to make safe reliable ammo.
It does not hurt to be over educated though.

 

[Glock 40]

Read Richard lees book. He’s the best for noobs

Okay so I bought the book I am on chapter 9. First impression Mr. Lee likes his products and must have been a heck of a salesman. Now I got some questions.

Swaging I haven't seen much mentioned on it in the book. I have seen a few different ways of doing it online. A couple stand alone tools for it and some dies for it. I know its necessary for example on 5.56 that has a crazy crimp. My question is how often is it required? For example you buy some new 223 brass. You load it and shoot it will it require swaging at some point?

Second question Lee quick change bushings. Do the dies stay in place or do you have to recheck each time you swap them? Also on the lock ring eliminator is that in place of the quick change bushing and to make sure the dies don't move? Are they calling the jam nut on a die a lock ring?

 

[Cowcatcher]

You only swage once to "open" the primer pocket if that brass originally had a crimped primer. You can also ream instead of swaging.
If you use bushings your dies stay set.
I like the bushings with the built in lock ring that you use a hex key to tighten. Yes the the nut is a jam nut/lock ring.