Reloading items given to me, going to start

A

Antimony

Inactive
First post, hello, intro, I had a person give me a reloading set before he passed away. Here is what i have,
single stage c-press,
set of 38special dies, Texan brand, Beam scale
hand primer, 1000 cci 550 magnum primers
Powder measure dropper, Primer cleaning tool, Case trimmer
some sort of primer tool that goes into press but i think i am missing 2 parts, the sleeve, and holder for tube
I have the part with the spring on it
Question,i think i will sart with trying the 38 special as soon as i can find powder, but i need bullets,bhn of 9
Or should i go with about a bhn of 12 like Missouri bullet company.

i need to to try the dies first, dont know if the seater die is also a crimp die, the 3 dies i have say sizer,seater,expander, just the 3.
Now about proper size of bullets, i have a Rossi 4 inch barrel.
My cyclinder exit is .362, i slugged the end of barrel and got around .358,kinda hard because its a 5 groove barrel, and it has small grooves.

so what would be a good size of cast bullet, .358, or .359
I also will buy my own mold as soon i see how a couple sizes work out, am going to try both .358, and .359 unless someone here has a better answer, thanks, have a great year. I removed my first sentence as it was throwing people off.
 
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Time out.

A Colt 1851 Navy is .36 caliber a cap-and-ball revolver. It doesn't take cartridges, so there is no "reloading" involved (unless you want to take up making your own paper cartridges, which is a totally different thing than metallic cartridge reloading). So, a couple of questions:

1) Is your 1851 a .36 caliber, or is it one of the .44 caliber clones of a gun that never existed?

2) Do you have a cartridge conversion cylinder for the gun? Is that what you are going to be reloading for?
 
I was stating the info as i shoot, i cast, ect not a total newbie, just to reloading cartridges,i know the basic steps as i have the ABC of reloading book, 9th edition, just asking a few questions because i cant find any info on texan dies, plus the sizer is steel and i dont want to be messing with lubes, ect, probably buy a newer set, i bought a luyman seater with a roll crimp because the set only had a RN seater, and i have some SWC bullets, so i bought the seater and crmip die with swc
 
Another question, i ran the decapping die with 100 cases but it was in the expander die, and not the sizer, so now i have 100 cases that are decapped, and just belled a hair at the mouth and a bullet just starts, so i tried a dummy to test. after seating the bullet, but no crimp, i could turn the bullet in the case, just in a circle, so my question is, do we have to size if its new brass, fired once in my gun,from a manufacturer,and my case ID is .358 and my bullet is .358, would it be ok, or do i have to resize all the brass, plus this is an old steel set, so i my as well buy a newer carbide or nitride set.
 
polska said:
The op states he has a 4 inch Rossi. You must read the entire post
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I read the entire post. He said he had an 1851 Colt clone. He has since edited the post to remove that statement.

He then said he has a Rossi 4 inch barrel. Nowhere did he say he wants to reload for a Rossi .38 Special firearm.
 
Antimony said:
Another question, i ran the decapping die with 100 cases but it was in the expander die, and not the sizer, so now i have 100 cases that are decapped, and just belled a hair at the mouth and a bullet just starts, so i tried a dummy to test. after seating the bullet, but no crimp, i could turn the bullet in the case, just in a circle, so my question is, do we have to size if its new brass, fired once in my gun,from a manufacturer,and my case ID is .358 and my bullet is .358, would it be ok, or do i have to resize all the brass, plus this is an old steel set, so i my as well buy a newer carbide or nitride set.
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You do want to resize new brass. Besides shipping dings and such getting cases out of round you have a good time to inspect it. Cases without complete primer holes have been found or "stuff" lodged in cases.

And resize every firing. You may not be moving the brass much with low power loads but it does move. If you don't resize those cases that were a tad difficult to extract will be just as hard to seat in the cylinder/ chamber.

There's nothing wrong with plain steel dies, that's all we had for a long time and you don't use that much lube. And few folks lube even with the carbide just to make things easier. The aerosols make it pretty easy if you don't want to use the venerable lube on a pad and roll method. If the objection is the time to wipe them afterwards that's another story.
 
Please get a modern reloading manual, Lyman's are good, and read the first chapters. This will help you get a good understanding of why and how. After 55 years of reloading I still refer to the books. I have a neighbor who wanted to get into reloading and he will not read the manual, he only asks questions that I'm afraid to answer because he thinks he understands what I'm trying to tell him, when in fact, he doesn't know what he asks.
 
my ABCs of reloading is the 9th edition 2010, i will check into spray lube, but maybe cheaper to get new dies set that doesnt need lube compared to cost.
 
ballardw said:
There's nothing wrong with plain steel dies, that's all we had for a long time and you don't use that much lube. And few folks lube even with the carbide just to make things easier. The aerosols make it pretty easy if you don't want to use the venerable lube on a pad and roll method. If the objection is the time to wipe them afterwards that's another story.
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I lube with carbide dies. I use Hornady One Shot aerosol, and there is no clean-up afterwards. It dries almost instantly after spraying, it only takes a very light spray (i hit all the cases from three sides, to ensure uniform coverage), and that's it. It's a dry film lubricant.

I've been doing that for at least fifteen years, and I don't know how many thousands of rounds (all straight wall handgun rounds). I don't have any problems with the lube gumming up my dies, or with the lube gumming up my chambers.
 
The BHN of your bullets won't matter much in the 38. If you were loading a higher pressure round you would need harder lead. Use whatever you can find for now. Get a couple different hardness and see what shoots best for you.

The dies you have are a little different than current production. You size first, then decap/bell the case, then seat the bullet. Your seating die should have a crimp in it too. If you run an empty case up into the die and turn the die down onto it you will feel it contact the edge of the crimp ring. The farther you turn it down the heavier it will crimp.

For the first few loads you will have better success if you seat all the bullets first then crimp as a separate step. But you can set it to seat and crimp at the same time. I seat a bullet by slowly adjusting the seater stem until the case mouth is even with the crimp groove in the bullet. Then I back the seater stem out a long way to ensure it doesn't touch the bullet while I set the crimp. Then I turn the die in until it touches the case at the crimp ring. Then I turn it in small increments and run the cartridge into the die after each small turn until I have the level of crimp I desire. It doesn't take much of a turn to make a big difference. Then turn the seater stem in until it contacts the bullet. It will now seat and crimp in one step.

If your cases are different lengths the crimp will be different from cartridge to cartridge. If you have trouble with consistency you may need to trim your brass so it is all the same length.
 
Antimony said:
My cyclinder exit is .362, i slugged the end of barrel and got around .358,kinda hard because its a 5 groove barrel, and it has small grooves.
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Normally, you use a 5-flute V-anvil micrometer to measure those slugs. That link shows you what they are. The 5-flute type means they are intended to measure 5-flute endmills, but any 5-sided thing can be measured by them. They have the correct 108° angle V-anvil for that. The problem is, the least expensive new one I find is $105 (cdcotools.com), which may be more than you want to invest if you don't own a number of 5-groove guns. You can call the bullet company you intend to buy from and see if they can measure the slug for you or, if not, perhaps a local machine shop will have one and would be willing to measure it for you.

As to resizing new cases, I believe you described once-fired cases, not new ones (new means never loaded or fired by anybody; i.e., bulk brass). The cases are going to have expanded in your chambers, and how much will depend on how wide your chambers are. They will need resizing.
 
First I’m baffled by the fact you say the die with the decapping rod also has an expander, what kind of dies are these? I’ve never heard of that before and seems like something may be amiss. Every set of dies I’ve had in the last 36 years has the decapping pin in the sizing die except for body only dies for bottlenecked rifle cases. When you use the term expander I’m assuming you mean the plug for belling the case mouth, not actually expanding the case itself. So if all this is correct then I’d say you need to first resize the cases before decapping/belling the case mouth.
 
If you read the OP, you will see he stated they were Texan brand. It is a long-defunct maker of reloading equipment. If you go back in time, you can find all sorts of variations on the die designs that have been settled on today.
 
Unclenick said:
If you read the OP, you will see he stated they were Texan brand. It is a long-defunct maker of reloading equipment. If you go back in time, you can find all sorts of variations on the die designs that have been settled on today.
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Ah, I thought he was referring to the scale not the die.
 
Hard to know if you have all the bits and bobs for reloading.

Your texan dies are probably not carbide so you'll need a lube. Hornady one shot works well. The sizing die should decap the primer.

Then clean/polish the cases to get the lube off.

You then need to prime and flair the case to accept the base of the bullet about 1/16 to 1/8 deep. .358 for lead bullets in 38 special. As with most things, the harder the better! Go with a 158swc.

The seating stem in the seating die sets bullet depth but adjustment takes a little knowledge. Take a factory SWC and back the die and stem out. With the ram at the top of the press stroke screw the die in until you feel resistance firm up and you can't turn the die by hand. Then screw the seater stem down until it is firm on the bullet tip. Then remove that factory round and try a semi wadcutter bullet in a prepared case with no powder and primer. This dummy round is a model of your completed rounds to save for reference. Make sure the crimp groove lines up with the case mouth. If it doesn't screw the seater stem up or down so that the crimp groove meets the end of the case. Make sure you have a good roll crimp on your dummy round. Once you are satisfied you have a good crimp press the dummy onto a table nose first and make sure it doesn't move with firm hand pressure. Then drop it in your gun and make sure it chambers. If all looks good, add primer and powder. You will need to figure out the priming. Some presses have a press mounted priming system or you can just get a hand priming tool to use. Then add powder and seat bullets. With single stage loading you prep your cases in stages. Size, polish, flair, prime seat and crimp, enjoy. If you clean cases with media make sure the primer hole isn't plugged when you prime.
 
im pretty sure i got it figured out, the decapping was in the expanding die, but can go in the sizing die since the bell is on the decapping rod.

I have a couple parts for the primer setup that attaches to the press with a spring loaded lever, but have to get a bolt to hold the stem in, or just use the single hand primer press.
tried to upload a couple pics but they failed, maybe to big
 
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