And thanks to Bigtony making a brick of SMPs available to me I was able to begin reloading again.
My last reloading experience was using a Pacific Press, scales and dies to reload 30-06 ammo for my two M1 Garands, in the late 1950s.
A couple days ago 4 lbs of HP-38 arrived. I had ordered it over a month ago. (Today, 8 lbs of Titegroup arrived. It was ordered over three months ago. I had given up on it and even got a message from Powder Valley that the order was canceled, along with my CCI #500 primers order. So, it was a real surprise when the UPS man showed up. Hey, anyone still want to trade some of the HP-38 or Titegroup for some small pistol primers?)
Anyway, last night I did some research on a recipe for Berry's 124 gr JRN and HP-38.
Hodgdon gave the following:
HP-38
124gr RN
Start 3.9 gr (1009 '/s)
Max 4.4 gr (1080 '/s)
OAL 1.125"
I decided to make 10 rds with 3.9 grs and 1.125" OAL and 10 rds with 4.1grs and 1.125", staying on the low side to make up for any extra kick the magnum small pistol primers might give.
I had previously purchased a LEE 50th Anniversary Loader for $109 from Amazon, and a LEE 4 carbide die set for $40. I had purchased two sets of Quick Lock Bushings so that each die would have its own bushing and I could switch dies without having to readjust the die each time. Or at least, that was the plan.
I had also cleaned 500 brass casing. The first thing was to adjust the die for inserting the primers. That was straight forward using the info sheet that came with the dies. The kit came with two primer lever arms. They appear identical. While I was at it I followed the directions for setting the other dies. Using the depriming die the first couple used primers fell out and onto the floor because I forgot to hook the primer level arm onto the pin in the ram. Correcting that, the remainder of the 500 used primers fell into the flexible plastic tube attached to the press. The tube was filled to the top with about 450 used primers. As I deprimed each case I cleaned the primer hole with the hand tool that came with the reloading kit. The depriming tool also resized the casing by restoring the desired roundness and diameter.
Next I needed to prime the cases. I took out a pack of 100 SMPs from the brick and put them into the primer tray and placed the clear plastic lid on the black plastic tray. The instructions said to shake the tray side to side to tip the primers "upright". What side is the upright side? Shaking the tray answered the question. The side of the primer facing the powder is the "upright" side. You should see the inside of all the primers staring up at you. If you see the bright shiny side that gets hit by the firing pin then it is upside down. I placed the Priming System loaded with primers onto the bracket I installed into the press for that purpose.
When the press lever arm is pulled UP, the primer lever arm is tipped by the bottom of the frame to put the spring loaded cup holding the primer directly underneath the primer hole on the casing. I firm but moderate lift against the resistance results in the feeling of the primer sliding into the hole, followed by a firm stop of the press lever arm. Once you get the feel of it there is little chance of lifting too hard on the arm of the press and setting off the primer. I always felt the primer to make sure it wasn't protruding, and none ever did. ALL were flush with the back of the case except one. It was missing. I retried but it was obvious that the primer hole was too big to hold the primer so I threw that case into the trash.
After that I used the "Powder Through Expanding Die" to open the mouth of the resized casing just enough to allow the base of the bullet be inserted into the casing after the powder is put in. Making the opening too big can allow the bullet to fall onto the powder and later resizing it would over work the brass, leading to cracking the case. Open it just enough to barely grip the base of the bullet.
This die has a pass through to allow powder fall into a primed casing while the mouth is being opened slightly, but I could see no way to mount the powder measure to the press. I'm not sure it matters because after priming the case I put it into a holder tray which I then pass under the powder measure tool and drop measured powder into each case one after the other very quickly. Then, a bullet can be started into the mouth of each case while it is setting in the holding tray, readying it for the next step which is seating the bullet to the correct OAL with the "Bullet Seat And Feed Die".
My next task was to calibrate the powder dispensing tool that came with the reloading kit. It is a stand alone device in the kit I purchased. I bolted it to the table I bolted the press to. The documentation that comes with the device is very clear. It comes with a table listing the "Volume Measure Density" (VMD) for a large number of commonly used powders. For the HP-38 the VMD is given as 0.0926. I need 3.9 gr of powder so multiplying 0.0926 X 3.9 gr = 0.361 Cubic Centimeters of powder by volume. (The Lee reloader I am using uses the Avoirdupois system so 7,000 grains equals 16 ounces or 1 lbs. If you use 4 gr of powder per cartridge you should be able to reload about 1,700 rounds.) The metering assembly has a rotor calibrated in cubic centimeters and the vernier around the barrel of the assembly divides the measurement into tenths, with estimations to +- 0.05 CC.
That will only get you in the ball park. A balance is still necessary for final calibration. First, I filled the powder tank with powder and then I cycled the lever arm to dispense 50 or so charges into a small bowl, dumping it back into the tank when it was nearly full. I did this several times so that approximately all of the tank full of powder was cycled through the dispenser. This is done so that the graphic on the powder lubricates all the interior surfaces of the device. The documentation suggests that successive charges will get larger and larger until the device is lubricated if this lubrication step is avoided. My own experience is that once lubricated there was NO difference in weight between the first charge dispensed and the last, 20 cartridges later. So, I adjusted the roter to read 0.36 and then dispensed a charge into a case, then transferred the charge to my scale to weight it. I did small movements and retested until the charge dispensed zeroed the preset balance to exactly 3.9 gr. The balance itself is theoretically adjustable to +- 0.05 gr, but it takes practice to achieve that accuracy. When I moved the rotor to dispense the heavier 4.1 gr charge I had to move the veiner only 0.15. I would estimate that the 4.1 gr charge varied between 4.05 and 4.15, as did the 3.9 grain charge, so using the balance to make sure the dispensed charge is as accurate as the balance can be set to is important, because I found that the 0.2 gr difference made a significant difference on the range in terms of loudness, recoil, smoke and how far the casing was ejected.
After all the primed casing were given the correct charge of powder, with care taken to make sure that NO case received a double charge (which would be hard to do because the case isn't big enough to hold a double charge and the excess would fall on the table) I installed the "Bullet Seat and Die Feed" With the first bullet I adjusted the nob on top to barely touch the bullet while the ram was at the top of its stroke. Then I backed off the ram, turned the nob half a turn, compressed the bullet, and then took it out and measured the OAL with my electronic calipers. I found that a 16th to an 8th of a turn would push the bullet another 0.02 inches into the casing, so I used small increments of the nob until the OAL was 1.125". I noticed that a light pressure on the ram stopping when the ram hit the top of the press produced an OAL of about 1.128", while a firm pressure till the ram stopped gave an OAL of 1.123", so consistency of pressure application and stroking style is important. While I was an analytical chemist for Bradford Labs, and later their trainer for regional labs, I found that consistency gave the best results when weighing or titrating. If you have a habit of titrating while standing on your right foot only then always stand on your right foot. If you hold your right foot 6 inches off the ground then always hold it 6 inches off the ground, not 3 or 9 or 12. Believe it or not, such detail makes a distance because it affects how you read the meniscus, which translates into what you read as the titer volume. Reloading cartridges, I found, is just as sensitive.
With reloading done I took the 20 rounds out to the IKES range and gave them a test fire The 4.1 gr load was very loud and the ejected cartridge flew as far as my Winchester Super X 147 gr FMJ cartridges were ejected, and the recoil was just as much and the sound just as loud. The 3.9 gr load was noticeably quieter and the cartridge did not eject as far, AND, there were no FTE problems with the lighter load. So, that is the one I am going to use with the other 480 RN bullets.
I am amazed that 0.2 gr +- 0.05 gr can make such a difference. I know that 55 years ago, as a 16 or 17 year old kid I was ignorant of such things and just jammed powder and bullets together and took them out to shoot. However, 4gr is much more than 40 gr and .2 gr won't make that much difference. Had I been reloading a pistol back then I would have probably blown my gun apart.
