What did you do at your reloading bench today?

[JEBar]

Dang! Now that's commitment. Good job Jim. How are those handhelds to use?

my first reloading system was a Lee Loader that was purchased back in the mid 60's https://leeprecision.com/lee-loader-357-mag.html .... it worked but the occasional detonation using a hammer to insert a primer motivated me to look for a replacement system .... the Lee Hand Press proved to be a system I could afford .... it most certainly can produce high quality ammo but using it for mass production can be tedious .... from my experience, it excels serving as a highly portable press used to produce a few rounds at a time .... example : when developing a new load at a range .... take empty brass that is ready to add powder and seat a bullet .... have that die in the Lee Hand Press load a few test rounds .... its simple to adjust powder charges and even bullets as you test various combinations .... as noted above, it can be used to produce a large number of bullets but it is far from the best choice to do so

[Rifletom]

I too had(still have, actually) a Lee Loader for my 30-30. Using that hammer thingy for primers got me thinking of a press mighty fast. Bought a RCBS Rock Chukar in '77-78.

[dasmoeturhead]

I started off with the Lee handloader myself in 1980. I loaded .41 and .44 magnum. Didn't like the hammer either, so I bought a Lee hand primer. I finally bought a complete Lee press, scale, and measure.
Sometime down the road when I found myself needing cash, I sold the whole outfit. I was also living in California, and had to drive 75 miles one way to shoot.
When my dad passed I got his fairly new Rock Chucker, Redding scale and measure. Just recently I bought a new Hornady powder measure, and trimmer. I really like my set up now, and I know my Dad is watching from above with a smile on his face when I'm pulling the handle on the ole' Rock Chucker.

[JEBar]

well understood on smiling pulling he handle on a Rock Chucker .... our 50+ year old Rocker Chucker is now sitting on our reloading bench by a Hornady Lock-n-Load Auto-progressive 5-station reloading press .... our sons can really churn out the ammo on it but I still find myself pulling the handle on our old green machine ....

[fortyshooter]

Since I liked how 6 grs. of Red Dot worked under a 250 gr. 45 Colt I'm going to try same load with 240 gr. 44 Magnum for some target plinkers.

[runnin n gunnin]

Started yesterday and finished today.

Dacapped, resized and trimmed 2,300 -.223, 20 45-70-, 200 -.357, 600 - 38's, and NO I did not use a Lee Hand Primer !

Next up, priming, powder and bullet's !

20200705_092639.jpg (273.63 KiB) Viewed 2091 times

[BigAl52]

Thats alot of bench time there RnG. What do you use for a trimmer on the 223

[BigAl52]

I resized some 45 colt then loaded up 50 41 mag with some XTP bullets. I also cleaned 3 45 colt pistolas.

[runnin n gunnin]

I have always used a Wilson case trimmer, great well made hand trimmer. However, for Christmas my son gave me a Lyman Brass Smith Case Trim Xpress Case Trimmer. This is the first time I have had to use it with 2,300 pieces of brass. Took a couple of minutes to adjust and worked like a charm, I love it.

Since it is only for shouldered brass, I have to use the Wilson for the 45-70, but I will never be loading 2,300 rounds of that !

I Chamfer and de-burr with the Lyman Case Prep Xpress.

[BigAl52]

I figured you were using some sort of power trimmer to do that many cases. I use a WFT trimmer chucked up in a drill. They work very well. I as well have the lyman case prep center. Found it on sale at Amazon. I love that thing.