Super

May 28th, 2010

Little Plastic Boxes Filling Up

I finally got my ammunition press going. Last night I produced 100 rounds of .38 Super.

Every time I start the press, I find a new way for it to screw up. Last night I had to remove debris from inside the little spring-loaded primer-insertion doodad. It was sticking up about half a millimeter, blocking the primer slide. What a pain. It’s almost as if Hornady worked on finding ways to make this press break down. I guess there is a limit to the R&D a small company can do.

I’m down to two shell plate retainer springs. This is a weird item. They break all the time, so you have to keep spares on hand. Midway sells them for $2 each or…$6.69 for three.

Buy in volume and lose money! What a concept!

Hornady advises people to smooth out the rough edges the spring contacts. Unfortunately, they don’t tell you this until you call them up and ask them why the spring keeps breaking. I don’t know of a good tool for removing a knife edge from a curved slot. Is a deburring tool the right thing? I don’t know. Hornady says to use sandpaper. If I had a tiny ball end mill, I could mount this thing in the rotary table and have at it.

In order to get 100 rounds of .38 Super, I had to run 105 cases through. Five times, the primer system failed, leaving the primer pockets open so powder escaped onto the press. I also had to guide the rounds into the sizing die. That may be a pawl-adjustment issue, but I don’t think so. I think the plate doesn’t grip the brass well enough to align it reliably. Maybe Hornady made the shell pocket too wide. As I recall, the .45 plate and die work much better.

I plan to make as much .38 Super as I can stand to produce. I think I have about 400 bullets left, and maybe 300 cases. Might as well crank it all out now so I don’t have to set the press up more often than necessary.

I may get a Hornady Powder Cop die, to make sure the charges are uniform. Seems like cheap insurance against death and mayhem.

I was upset because my powder measure, which has an expensive pistol micrometer thing on it, was throwing charges that were off by up to 0.2 grains. I started looking for a better powder measure. I read that the Lyman #55 was better, and I considered ordering one. Then I read that the accuracy I was getting was actually about as good as I could hope for without using a trickler, so I decided to forget about it. Now I’d like to do some super-accurate charges and see if it affects my shooting. If it did, I would be the king of the gun range. Then, of course, I would be obligated to lie and say I was reloading the same way everyone else does.

I did some research on 7.62x39mm ammunition last night. I learned something interesting. Most of the cheap Russian hollowpoints don’t expand too well. I have read that they do fall apart and yaw, and that’s good, but expansion is what you hope for when you buy hollowpoints. It turns out two brands expand: Wolf Military Classic and Silver Bear match ammunition. So if you, like me, like cheap Russian ammunition, this may be helpful to you. Now I have to shoot all my second-rate ammunition and make room for the good stuff!

Hornady makes V-Max bullets in this size (for reloading), and they’re supposed to be great, but the bullets alone run like 20 cents each, so the cost is not low.

Increasingly, I am drawn to the idea of getting an AK pistol for the truck. A truck allows for bigger weapons than concealed carry, but it’s not as big and roomy as a house, so there is good reason to look for a short gun. The AK pistol should give much better accuracy in real-world situations than a pistol, plus higher capacity and infinitely better ballistics. And you can even put a laser on it. I mean a real laser, not a dinky red one you can barely see ten feet away.

The more I think about the shortcomings of pistols, the more convinced I am that I should avoid depending on one. They are absolutely pathetic compared to long guns. Not even in the same ball park. I feel like Tom Selleck in Quigley Down Under. “Never had much use for one.” I’m a very good pistol shot and just an okay rifle shot, but an okay rifle shot is still many times more lethal than a world-class pistol shot.

I had another fun tool experience. My Sears Craftsman mechanic’s stool busted. It has two tubes under it which receive the supports for the backrest. One of the tubes popped off. It had been welded in place, but two welds were bad, and the third was mostly imaginary.

I considered calling Sears to see if their tool warranty applied, but their site says it only applies to hand tools. I decided to try to fix it. I got out my little Proxxon grinder and cleaned up the metal, and then I fastened the tube in place as well as possible with magnets. I fired up the welder and either welded or glued the part in place. I was working in a tiny area, and I can’t tell whether I achieved a real weld, but I stuffed lots of melted steel in there, so if it’s not a weld, it’s acting like glue, and that should be good enough. The part turned a little on its axis while I welded, but it’s straight. The little knob that goes into the tube to fasten the backrest in place now goes in at a slight angle, but no one will ever notice. This sure beats paying $80 for a new stool.

I wonder why Lincoln doesn’t make a skinny nozzle for tight places. Maybe they do. I would love to have a tiny TIG or MIG welder that only goes up to 20 gauge steel.

Tools are life. A man with no tools is wretched, indeed.

2 Responses to “Super”

  1. blindshooter Says:

    On the powder charge variations, don’t sweat it if they are close. I did a test once using a very accurate match rifle and two batches of ammo. The first batch of 200 rounds were weighed cases, powder and bullets to as close to perfect as possible( took lots of time). The second batch I loaded on the progressive with no extra time other than normal set up, very quick compared to the first batch. I fired these in 200 yd sitting rapid fire matches where I keep good records and notes and also this was one of my better positions with consistent scores. After firing all the rounds(8 matches on the first and 9 on the second, had to fire a range alibi while using the first batch) I compared the scores and the rounds loaded on the progressive scored about 5% better than the ones I spent so much time getting perfect.
    .
    Another way to average out some variables with rifle ammo is the way you decide which load to use. A chronograph is helpful but it can be done without one. Start out close to the minimum recommended charge, build groups of three rounds increasing the charge about .3 grains with each group marking them well. I stop about a half grain before max when using untested components. I fired these on the three hundred yard line supported prone on one target. Pulling and marking each shot so you can keep up with where each charge is impacting. Most of the time you will see where a group of charges form a tight group with the others stringing vertical. Pick the charge in the middle of the tightest group. My math sucks but I’m sure you can see the statistics at work here, find a load that works even if the powder charges are not consistent. In my experience this load will almost always come from the middle of the recommended charge range but sometimes it falls toward the high end. I never found the sweet spot at the low end.
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    Its a lot more fun shooting when the time on the loading bench is minimized as much as possible and at the same time producing bullets you have confidence in.
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    Yes, any confrontation exceeding rock throwing ranges a rifle will be the winner nearly every time. If you have room to maneuver with the long gun(or short long gun) the numbers are on your side. I have no experience with the “rife pistols” but a shorty AR is pretty handy in the vehicle environment.
    .
    Thanks again for the prayers for my Father, he is home and doing much better.

  2. Steve H. Says:

    “crowded playground or a session of Congress”
    .
    I think I repeated myself.