I’m Back in Business…..

Ms. Pat shot with her Ladies class at the gun club yesterday, so my vacation ended. Here I am cleaning her gun when we got home. I have it all broken down and sprayed with cleaning solvent, ready to clean, lube and put back together. I usually do this 3 times a week with her gun and twice a week on mine. That’s a lot of gun cleaning in anybody's book. I told her that I thought she should learn to clean her own gun.  She said “Who would cook supper”?   I came right back with “I’ll clean your gun”!! I do kinda enjoy cleaning guns but don’t tell her. It is great therapy and gives me a chance to really get acquainted with all the parts and pieces of the gun and how it functions….   “Bonding” as my Friend JRoger says!



This picture was taken on Jan 25,2012. Just ONE short year ago. Long time shooter, reloader,  and Ms. Pat's instructor, Jerry,  is showing me his reloading set up and telling me that if we were going to shoot much, we should think about reloading our own ammo.  It wasn’t long after this that I purchased my reloading set up……. Unbelievable that was just a short year ago…




After a lot of looking and shopping my Reloading Press finally came. Here I am unpacking it last January..




Soon I had parts and pieces strung all over the shop and I was getting it put together. Starting with the base mount…Lets see what's next?,,




OK, it might help to read the directions...ya think?





Moving right along… Hey, it's starting to look more like Jerry’s all the time..  This is FUN, I enjoy doing stuff like this.





Lots of little parts and pieces and they all have to go together just “SO”!





Aw, now for the real precision stuff.. These are the Die’s for .40 S&W cartridges. These are what really take some careful fine tuning…





There, I have the powder die on and I’m in the process of adjusting it. This is the die that adjusts the amount of powder that goes into the bullet. A very critical step in the process. Too much powder and you may blow the gun up. Not enough powder and the bullet may not fire properly and get stuck in the barrel of your gun. Neither is a good thing to have happen. Imagine firing another bullet when you have one stuck in the barrel.  No, not good at all. I don’t want to try it…





Here it all set up and ready to roll...I think. 






Jerry, being the great helpful guy he is, agreed to come over to my shop and check out all my settings before I actually loaded any bullets. I had it set to the best of my ability but I wasn’t exactly sure about a couple things. So I welcomed Jerry’s input.  Jerry has been reloading for over 50 years!!  After checking it all out and showing me how to make a few minor adjustments, he said “Well you did Good.  Now lets load some bullets”!  I told him “You go ahead, You first”! :-)





After Jerry loaded a few, he said “OK, your turn”.  So here I am, loading my very FIRST bullet on my new Dillon RL550B press.  This was a big moment that I had been waiting for. Gosh, my heart was even beating fast, this is exciting!!





After my first bullet we checked it carefully with the calipers and it was RIGHT ON!! Hurray! Jerry then said “There ya go, I believe you're ready”!  This was on Feb, 14th., 2012.  At the same time, I knew that I was no where near “READY”. I had to be extremely careful and take it slow as I knew enough to realize this is a very serious business and could be dangerous. I certainly did not want to hurt anybody, including myself. I am still just a beginner and continue to be extremely careful and cautious as I reload bullets. I’m still learning as I continually read about it and discuss it with other experienced shooters..   Even after loading nearly 10,000 in the last year, I am by no means experienced at it. I’m just a beginner...but I love it!

It is a GREAT WEEK!!!!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will come on back…



Have a good week!

Mike

This Blog is Published every Wednesday and Sunday..