Rookie needing help

[bigbell270]

During the last ammo shortage I said never again and bought a Lee single Stage press and dues for all of the guns I have. Until today I have only used Lee Dies and only reloaded rifle ammo.

Today I wanted to put together some 38 special ammo and I pulled out the dies which I bought used and are RCBS. They didn't have the instructions and the ones I find online are a little different looking than what I have. I have included photos of what I have.

My question is what order I use the die? The last die is a no brainer. I keep 2nd guessing my self in the first die to use. Do I start with the de-primer die first or 2nd? Also am I missing something that screws into the top of the die?

 

[Jcalder]

The die with the stem hanging out is the first die. It's a sizer. The second die used is an expander. The third die used is the seater die, it should be "hollow" looking in the die

 

[DaveB]

The expander does just that-it expands the mouth of the brass to accept the bullet. You have to do this or you will shave copper off the bullet putting it ever so slightly out of balance.

The seater will push the bullet into the die and close up the mouth.

Just a note from my own 9mm experience. Pistol ammo is sensitive to charge weight. Way more sensitive than I ever thought. I would not throw a charge-using a dipper or some other none-exact tool. Weigh every charge and start LOW. You know how in your rifle loading you can be just as successful with 45 grains as 44 or or 43? Never with a pistol. Never. I was .3 grains over and that load resulted in nearly $300 in repairs to a Sig. .3 grains is not very much but in the pistol world things are different.

 

[bigbell270]

Thanks for the advice and help. On my rifle ammo the first batch I used the little dipper and found it not to be consistent. After that I measured every time. On the 38 ammo my plan is to go with the lightest possible load as this is just going to be practice ammo. I needed a box of 50 to qualify for my armed guard training and I could only find 1 box of 50 for $60. Now I will have about 200 rounds for just a little over that amount.

I enjoy seeing and knowing how things work. I use to be able to shoot more than I do now and haven't reloaded anything in about 3 years. I also have some 16 guage shotgun shells I need to put together. I have one of those Lee Loadall with kits to go 12, 16 and 20.

I have the supplies to make 500 9mm, but with a single stage press that is definitely going to be an emergency situation. I spoke with a guy at church and he has one of those dillon presses and he said I could come over and run them if I brought the dies. He has it set up for 40sw.

 

[MUP]

You need to invest in a scale, beam or digital, but a scale nonetheless. dippers aren't reliable for accurate measurements, just scooping and pouring into the pan that sits atop your scale.

 

[backyardtndeer]

Yep, a scale is a must. The Frankford arsenal intellidropper was on sale at Natchez for $179.99 the other day. May still be.