Sweet

This is beyond belief. I made about 70 bullets.

I only plan to shoot 51 of the ones I’ve made so far. The first 10-20 taught me how easy it is to screw up the charge, so I’ve already taken most of them apart, and I’m going to take the rest apart later.

I finally realized that a person as attention-deficient as I am would need a system pretty badly, so I actually sit there and say “casing, bullet, down, up” every time I crank the handle. That makes it pretty hard to miss a step.

The priming problem was caused by crud in the primer slide. I think. It appears that the hole the primers pop through isn’t quite perfectly round, so I may remedy that myself. I also adjusted the rod that determines how far back the primer slide goes. I had a few misfeeds, but things went okay.

I hosed the inside of the feed tube with Hornady One Shot, and I put a piece of a coat hanger on top of the primers to gently make sure they were seated down in the press. Some people leave a brass rod on top of the stack of primers permanently, to push them down the tube.

I mentioned priming primerless rounds earlier. I guess I was having a low blood sugar moment. Two commenters have pointed out that this is not a bright idea, and I agree. When I get a primed case with no charge, I run it through again, but I won’t prime a case that has a charge in it.

Powder is all over the place. When a primer fails to feed, powder flies. When I take a bullet apart, powder flies. I guess it’s unavoidable.

I truly hope I don’t blow up my beautiful SW1911 with a double charge. I can’t see how that could happen. I was very careful. Now that I’ve actually made ammunition, I can see the danger, so I’m definitely going to get a doodad to monitor the charges. I can’t weigh the rounds after I make them, because the cases vary in weight. I think the Dillon powder checker is the best bet. It’s electronic, so it yells at you when you make a mistake.

Thanks again for all the help.