Hand dies

[vaeevictiss]

I have been looking more and more into reloading. I want to reload .308 for consistency, and 9mm Luger for cost savings. I think i want to go the hand die/seater and arbor press route, as it seems the bench rest guys find them far superior. I found the Wilson hand die for .308 no problem, but cannot for the life of me find one for 9mm.

Do they not make those kinds of seaters for pistol calibers?

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[jrswanson1]

If you're reloading 9mm for cost savings, I'd suggest at a minimum you get a turret press or it will take quite a bit of time to reload more than 100 rounds of ammunition. As for the Wilson, http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthr ... er=3312049

[vaeevictiss]

Good read, thanks for that. I may just go with a single stage press and different dies to keep it simple.

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[vaeevictiss]

I am also still not sure if i want to reload 9mm. I have a lone wolf 9mm ar and my stamps for suppressor and sbr were approved finally. I know I'm just going to be sitting out in the yard ripping through rounds lol. I know reloading would save money, but everytime i think of the ratio of how fast I'll burn thru ammo to how long it takes to reload that amount i get discouraged.

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[jrswanson1]

I currently have a Lyman big single stage press and a Lee Classic turret press. I've timed it to about 120 rounds per hour for the Lee if I'm reloading clean .40 S&W brass and 180gr lead bullets. I suspect I could crank out another 30 or so per hour if I was in a hurry. If you get a progressive press, you should be able to at least quadruple that rate.

[jdonovan]

time vs rounds made.... unless you're on a semi-progressive, or turret, forget pistol rounds.

You've got 4 different die operations size/expand/seat/crimp per round. There is a LOT of brass handling on a single stage.

I've got the forester co-ax press and it is able to produce ammo that is better than I can shoot. I get < .25 MOA when I do my part.

9mm is hard to make your money back on reloading. You are likely to save $3 a box of 50. If you are into a progressive setup for $600, you'll need to make 200 boxes before you start to break even.

Some of the more expensive ammo you make it back much much faster... my .338 I can load for about $1.50/round Factory ammo is in the $4-$5 range... a box of 20 is a savings of $50.

[jrswanson1]

I go through about 200 rounds of 9mm, 200 rounds of .40 S&W, and 100 rounds of .223 per month right now. Once I get my membership at Sharpshooters, I could easily triple that amount per month. Since I don't shoot Glocks, I can use lead bullets in my pistol rounds. Brass for the common calibers is free if you ask, since most people don't keep their brass. Most times, they'll help you pick it up!

[vaeevictiss]

Well i may just pick up what i need for doing my .308 then down the road all I'll need for 9mm is a turret press and dies, can do .40 at that point too.

Another thing i was curious about...i was watching videos on YouTube of guys using the hand dies, and never once have i seen any of them doing case trimming or resizing. Is that not needed with a hand die?

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[jrswanson1]

Case trimming is obnoxiously boring. I've done that in batches, since after 100 it had gotten really tedious. There's a max length, and a trim to length. Once my brass lasts long enough to hit max length, then I trim it down, unless I'm trying to load ammunition good enough to bag a mosquito at 300 yards, then I trim every piece down.

[jdonovan]

Another thing i was curious about...i was watching videos on YouTube of guys using the hand dies, and never once have i seen any of them doing case trimming or resizing. Is that not needed with a hand die?

Trimming is needed.

I've never needed to trim pistol brass.

Rifle brass will depend on chamber tightness, how much you are bumping the shoulder on resizing, how hot the load is etc...

figure every 3-7 loads the brass will need a trim.