Best Ideas to Make Reloading Safer and Simpler?

[marchx]

1. I double check my powder charge by RCBS Chargemaster on a second-more precise- scale.
2. I after throwing in the powder I seat the bullet, I measure my CBTO of every finished round.
3. I double check the CBTO of every round before a match for consistency.

 

[Downeast]

I generally spend about an hour in a reloading session. Once it becomes "work" I quit. I have 100 once fired cartridges sitting in an ammo box on the bench right now. This is a likely scenario.
1. Check brass and pop out primers, usually on all 100. Place in one of those chinese take out plastic bins. They work great for sorting stuff. Quit and go enjoy life.
2. Next day, play around with annealing. Quit and go enjoy life.
3. Next day, size brass. Quit and go enjoy life.
3. Next day, trim brass, check it again, wipe off. Quit and go enjoy life.
4. Next day, complete brass prep. Seat primers. Quit and go enjoy life.
5. Next day, decide whether to load brass or put it away. One of the simple joys in life is finding a 100 rounds of prepped and primed brass on a shelf that you forgot about.
6. Next day, If I decide to load I pull out the appropriate powder and place it on the bench. No other powder in sight. Decide in my mind to load 10 rounds and quit. Pour powder charge by hand one at a time and weigh, then seat bullet, place loaded round back into ammo box which has all of the load info on a sticker, including times reloaded.
After loading 10 rounds I decide whether I feel like doing another 10. If so, I load them one at a time. If not, I pour the powder back into the bottle, quit and enjoy life.

Sometimes if I'm really in the mood I may, for example, size and trim and seat primers on all 100 cases in one session, or load 40 or 50 cartridges at a time, but those times are rare. It works for me and right now I have several hundred loaded rounds for 4 or 5 calibers sitting on the shelf. And several hundred cases prepped and primed and ready to be loaded. It's a steady almost daily routine of an hour or so in the reloading room at my pace. If I want to quit, I simply get up and leave. It will be there when I get back. I'm not going to be rushed and possibly make a stupid mistake. To me it is enjoyable (and I would say, relaxing) to "piddle around" as my wife would call it, in the reloading room for an hour or so every day or so.

I think most reloading mistakes are caused by folks getting rushed, or loading to the point of getting tired and just want to get it over with. At that point it has become work, not fun. That is easy to fix. Set a goal of only going to load or prep X rounds at a session. If you complete that, then decide whether to move forward or call it quits and go enjoy life. I learned a long time ago that if something is not fun, and there is no money to be made, I try my best not to do it.

 

[Ricky Cain]

Don’t assume anything and suspect everything.

 

[SG4247]

For 100 match loads, I break the process into smaller steps, the week before a match:

Day 1 deprime and tumble, true up primer pockets.
Day 2 anneal on the AMP.
Day 3 resize, tumble briefly to remove lube.
Day 4 prime, powder drop Autotrickler, bullet seat.

This is way easier that doing it all on Friday night.

Less errors as well, and the wife is happier

 

[Tesoro]

This question needs to be posted on faceybook or some teen tictoc site or wherever else..not here. Just so ya know reloading is safe and always has been if you have a brain that works.

What simple ideas have any of you come up with that make reloading safe so we don't make any mistakes and all rounds are loaded correctly?​

 

[snert]

Use painter tape and lable all projects.

I often do a big batch of 223 LC and will have buckets of brass in varied stages of removing primers, removing crimp, sizing, cleaning, trimming. They go in painter buckets with painter tape labeled (eg. decrimped, size next). Since it may be a month before I return to a project, this helps my war weary brain from making up a memory rather than remembering right.

The painter tape (blue) pulls right off without any cussing.

 

[shooterjon]

Being my first time on here and mid 70's of age I'd like to pass on a thing or two I've learned over the years. I kept loading in the winters and camping, hiking, fishing, etc. in the summer. Then when I got more and more into reloading over 52 years. I had one Lyman hand help primer seater for all my small rifle reloading and a Frankford Arsanol one for all my large rifle priming to keep it simple. Problem was I'd have many kinds of loads and many kinds of primers being used. So I would get backing into the reloading in the cold weather and have a tray of say small rifle primers with a few left in it all summer from my last time of using it and can't remember what kind I had in there from a few months ago. I got a safe and super simple answer to that. each time I load a new batch of primers into the tray I save the pack and cut out the name and number of that primer and lay it in the corner of the tray away from the primer flow and it has not been a problem all I got to do this fall is pick it up and look say 28 primers in there and the little tag says CCI 400 on that little piece of cardboard in the tray and I then know what I was last using many month's before. No more loading primers and just not sure what I left in there. It helps made things simpler and safer for me and costs nothing!!!!

I follow the reloading outline religiously, as follows:

Case Loading _ RELOADING _ The Process​

Caliber __________________ Date_____________

Note that these steps don’t necessarily follow this ordering, and some steps are optional or dependent on the type of brass being reloaded

Dies

Clean Dies

Brass

• DE Prime Case
• Clean Neck And shoulder with Scotch bright pad
• Anneal Case
• Full Length Resize, With Lubricated Brass / to Correct Headspace - 1 ½ K to 2 K- bump
• Tumble Brass to remove any Lube with Rice Media
• Trim Case to Length, Chamfer AND Debur Case (GIRAUD TRIMMER)
• Expander Mandrel as Needed
• *Turn Case Neck Thickness -1 Time only
• *Inside Flash Hole De Burred - 1 Time Only
• Clean Flash Hole
• Primer Pocket Depth Uniformed AND Measured for & Consistency
• Brush Inside of Case Neck with Nylon Brush
• Lube Inside of case with Neo Lube NO 2. - Bullet Lube
• Check Remove any Doughnut as Necessary (K&M Carbide neck turner)
• Sort Brass by Weight
• At this point, you’ll have brass that’s ready for the reloading press. This list sounds a bit daunting, and it can be quite involved (example: for benchrest competition), but much of this work can be assisted or simplified, and with the proper case prep equipment, and with the proper case prep equipment, these tasks can be streamlined.

Bullets & Powder

• Prime case ________
• SORT Bullets Base to Ogive
• Charge Cases with Powder
• Imperial Wax lube OR Neo Lube NO. 2 on bullet Base and Seat Bullet in Case
• Seat Bullet and Sort Seating Bullets by Force Case Indicator
• Adjust Bullet to Case Concentricity with Fli Rite Indicator
• Sort Loaded Rounds Shoulder to Bullet Ogive

 

[Lee Whitsel]

Does anyone have the correct answer on a Savage 110 action. If the head on a 308/22-250/30-06/250 savage/243 etc. are all .473 along with many more rounds. Can you just change barrel on say a 243 and go to a say 30/06 with the same action and stock?????????????????

 

[Homerange]

Does anyone have the correct answer on a Savage 110 action. If the head on a 308/22-250/30-06/250 savage/243 etc. are all .473 along with many more rounds. Can you just change barrel on say a 243 and go to a say 30/06 with the same action and stock?????????????????

Mr Google finds this:

Long Action vs. Short Action - Telling the Difference - RIFLE BASIX

We'll breakdown the important information that will allow you to understand the difference between long and short actions, which rifles, or calibers fall into each category, and the benefits one offers over the other.

riflebasix.com

 

[drop_point]

I've got a couple rules I follow:

Tape on the powder dispenser with the powder and load I'm using and for what cartridge.

One powder out at a time...jug on the bench next to the powder measure.

Pistol powders are stored separately on a different part of the room.

When working up loads, write the powder and charge on the brass.

For brass that's been fired, I keep a piece of paper with a check list for each part of the process and check the box as processes are done...I WILL forget.

 

[dgeesaman]

For me, the *safety* rules I follow are simple:
1) One reloading operation at a time. (I do fill powder while seating bullets, but I make sure to finish filling a cartridge or fully seating and measuring a seated bullet before switching from one to the other)
2) One powder on the bench at a time. Never leave powder in the scale/trickler/thrower.
3) I place all brass in the loading block neck down until it's primed. Then it's neck up. I only take primers out of the container that I will use and I count the exact amount I need at the start so I don't lose track of any. I point the priming tool away from me and make sure there is nothing important (fingers) that could get torched off if it goes off.
4) I have a direct overhead light on my bench and I make sure to place the loading block where the light casts directly into the cases and makes fills of powder plainly visible. This is always where the block goes when I'm seating bullets.
5) I work from top left to bottom right on my loading block.
6) I don't do pistol anymore but when I did, I'd inspect each filled case before seating the bullet to ensure it wasn't double-charged.
7) I never load hot loads. I don't need to push anything and my barrel life is improved for it.

There are plenty of other 'rules' I follow but they exist for accuracy and so they aren't on topic in this thread.

 

[Rocketvapor]

Like your process, Except

Neck up means I'm still prepping brass.
Neck down, then prime., neck down again.
Easy to figure out where I left off.
Primed cases, Primers up, cases probably empty?
No neck up cases when charging. Never.
Bullet straight in immediately after charging one at a time.

One way to evaluate the process?
Make it look right even if you have to take a break.

 

[hicap40]

Being my first time on here and mid 70's of age I'd like to pass on a thing or two I've learned over the years. I kept loading in the winters and camping, hiking, fishing, etc. in the summer. Then when I got more and more into reloading over 52 years. I had one Lyman hand help primer seater for all my small rifle reloading and a Frankford Arsanol one for all my large rifle priming to keep it simple. Problem was I'd have many kinds of loads and many kinds of primers being used. So I would get backing into the reloading in the cold weather and have a tray of say small rifle primers with a few left in it all summer from my last time of using it and can't remember what kind I had in there from a few months ago. I got a safe and super simple answer to that. each time I load a new batch of primers into the tray I save the pack and cut out the name and number of that primer and lay it in the corner of the tray away from the primer flow and it has not been a problem all I got to do this fall is pick it up and look say 28 primers in there and the little tag says CCI 400 on that little piece of cardboard in the tray and I then know what I was last using many month's before. No more loading primers and just not sure what I left in there. It helps made things simpler and safer for me and costs nothing!!!!

notes, notes... triple check everything you do.... notes!

 

[RabbitSlayer]

1. One Powder on the bench and it stays there till I am done with it. I put a sticky note with the powder name on the hopper too.

2. I verify the charge and put a sticky note infront of me with the charge weight.

3. I only put as many primers in the tube as I need.

4. Charge and seat 1 at a time

5. I made lots of check lists for all steps and every bin of brass has a check list in it that identifies the gun it is for and firing number etc and what steps have been completed. This same list lives with the loaded rounds.

6. No priming, charging, or seating unless I feel 100%.

 

[dgeesaman]

Like your process, Except

Neck up means I'm still prepping brass.
Neck down, then prime., neck down again.
Easy to figure out where I left off.
Primed cases, Primers up, cases probably empty?
No neck up cases when charging. Never.
Bullet straight in immediately after charging one at a time.

One way to evaluate the process?
Make it look right even if you have to take a break.

Those are non safety considerations I omitted.

I keep a loading card with each group and I check boxes / write notes indicating which steps I’ve done. So that way I know what prep steps have been done to that brass. I rarely load a full loading block at a time, so I move my brass over a column or down a row as I go through a given step. That way neck up vs neck down only indicates whether it’s primed or not.

 

[JFrank]

Has anyone mentioned a check list on Excell, just press print and began checking line items as you go along ?

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

I use ammo checkers for all AR case prep and finished ammo. No ammo that doesn't chamber properly makes it into magazines. If I size a piece of range brass and it doesn't fit the ammo checker perfectly, in the scrap bucket it goes.

 

[marchboom]

Write stuff down. You may think that you will remember details but all it takes is to forget one detail and thinks can go wrong.

 

[coldboreshot]

Based on articles I've read here in the past, make sure the powder container you pull from your inventory is the one you "intend" to use, not what you "hope it is. Take an extra 2 seconds and re-read the label.

 

[dgeesaman]

Has anyone mentioned a check list on Excell, just press print and began checking line items as you go along ?

I have an excel sheet that prints me these cards. I do have to feed the paper back in to print the backside and cut them into individual cards but they fit in the lid of most MTM cases.