(1) When asked about primer seaters, allot of you said that you prefered the Lee Auto Prime. This manual says (page 32) that Lee specifically cautions against the use of Federal, Remington, RWS, or Fiocchi primers in the Auto Prime, and you should use only Winchester and CCI primers in this tool. Wonder what the reason for this is? and/or whether this is correct? Also I purchased the Sinclair Stainless tool, Wonder if it has the same problems?

(2) I've been thinking about working up a load for my Marlin 1895M 450 using Solids. This manual (page 59) says that when seating Solids Homongeneous Copper or Copper Alloy, such as with Barnes-X's and Winchester Fail Safe's. That freebore should be kept to a full .050 minimum. I know that allot of you talk about backing away from the rifling .005 with lead and jacketed bullets, but does this seem excessive?

Sounds like Freebore, can be the most critical aspect of reloading, or easiest to make a mistake with. So which Head Space Guage would you all recomend to get the most accurate picture of the rifles required dimensions.

Thank you,
Phil

quote:

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Originally posted by Greyghost:
Haven't started re-loading yet, and still have gear coming in. But have been spending allot of time reading these loading manuals. Two cautions that I've run across that seem kind of peculiar, and both from the same "Metallic Cartridge Reloading 3rd edition" are.

(1) When asked about primer seaters, allot of you said that you prefered the Lee Auto Prime. This manual says (page 32) that Lee specifically cautions against the use of Federal, Remington, RWS, or Fiocchi primers in the Auto Prime, and you should use only Winchester and CCI primers in this tool. Wonder what the reason for this is? and/or whether this is correct? Also I purchased the Sinclair Stainless tool, Wonder if it has the same problems?

(2) I've been thinking about working up a load for my Marlin 1895M 450 using Solids. This manual (page 59) says that when seating Solids Homongeneous Copper or Copper Alloy, such as with Barnes-X's and Winchester Fail Safe's. That freebore should be kept to a full .050 minimum. I know that allot of you talk about backing away from the rifling .005 with lead and jacketed bullets, but does this seem excessive?

Sounds like Freebore, can be the most critical aspect of reloading, or easiest to make a mistake with. So which Head Space Guage would you all recomend to get the most accurate picture of the rifles required dimensions.

Thank you,
Phil

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I use all of the above primers in my Lee Auto Prime and have not had any problems in 15 years. I think the remington's are made of the the softest material and sometimes are VERY slightly dented when seated? If they are soft enough to be VERY SLIGHTLY dented by hand imagine what you could do in a press! As far as the bullet seating goes you will find it too be RIFLE SPECIFIC. What is the fat ticket and super accurate in one may not shoot for sh$t in a different gun.

Good Luck read lots and go slow and you will have a hobby that can suck up money and time second only to a BOAT!!!LOL

HAVE FUN!!!!

The reason for the warning is safety...the Lee Loader has a tray that holds your supply of primers and feeds them into the tube for pressing into the case...the fear is if one of the primers "goes off" it will set the others off too and that isn't something you want to happen while you are holding it.

Not a problem with the Sinclair as it only holds one primer at a time.

With the primer issue, seems like almost all hand held primer tools use a tray, and only RCBS has a safty feature with their sliding bar to seperate the tray from the primer being seated. Was just curious as to what the reasoning with the Lee was.

Best regards,
Phil

Dannee

Always wear safety glasses when loading, I learnt the hard way.

I know fedral primers are soft, or were anyway.
A fellow shooter when I was at my club one day, quite a few years ago now had a round go off that was sitting in a tray by his feet when a empty case from the pistol he was firing hit a live round in the tray. They were fedral primers.

Having said all that we all kept using them because they were soft.

There's two kinds of Stoney Point Overall Length Gauges, one that measures actions whose chamber is accessible from the back, and one that measures around corners. Get the right one for your rifle. And the right adapter for your chamber.

Get a bullet comparator so you can measure the correct distance to seat the bullet at the lands properly off the Overall Length Gauge and off the rounds coming out of your bullet seat die. You can also just measure the overall length, but I do not recommend that for reasons that are apparent below.

A problem that I have had is that if the seater in your die presses on the end of the bullet, normal bullet to bullet variations (we're talking Sierra HPBTs here) mean that there will be differences in the distance between the full caliber portion of the bullet (as measured with your comparator) and the lands in the barrel of as much as .01". It seems like the best dies press on the full caliber portion of the bullet to seat it. I think this would not be an issue in a .450.

Two caveats: 1) I hardly ever read instructions, and 2) I don't know much about Marlin 1895Ms.

Another method for doing this that I do not recommend is the magic marker method: use a black magic marker to color the full caliber portion of a bullet seated in a dummy cartridge and wait for the ink to dry. Cycle the round through the chamber. If the bullet touches the rifling, there will be scratches through the marker into the bullet. Seat the bullet deeper, color it black all over, and do it again. When there are no scratches through the marker, you are "off the lands." Do it again with a fresh bullet to be sure. Then you can make changes from that length to get the seating you want.

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Originally posted by SDS:
I recommend:
1. The Stoney Point Overall Length Gauge (available from Sinclair).
2. A bullet comparator which in combination with your dial calipers will allow you to measure the relevant length of the rounds, and:
3. Dies with a bullet seater that presses on the full caliber portion of the bullet instead of on the end.

There's two kinds of Stoney Point Overall Length Gauges, one that measures actions whose chamber is accessible from the back, and one that measures around corners. Get the right one for your rifle. And the right adapter for your chamber.

Get a bullet comparator so you can measure the correct distance to seat the bullet at the lands properly off the Overall Length Gauge and off the rounds coming out of your bullet seat die. You can also just measure the overall length, but I do not recommend that for reasons that are apparent below.

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Ditto on all. See the thread on quickly shot-out barrels for a post I sent with tips for using the Stoney Point tools.

I've used both the Lee and RCBS hand priming tools. The Lee is easier to set up but takes more force to seat the primers fully. I got the RCBS because Lee doesn't make a shellholder for the .30 Remington. Over time I think I'll use it more. I only use CCI and Winchester primers anyway.