Livngr8ful wrote:It is Greek to me at this point.
It's actually very simple.
Firing pin strikes the primer, ignites the powder, creates gas/pressure, expands the case tightly against the chamber, forces the bullet out the bbl.
1. clean the case (lots of us use a vibratory tumbler filled with crushed corn-cob and polish)
2. knock out the dead primer, and resize the case (this is done with the decap/size die ... does both in one step ... ram of the press simply forces the case into a steel cylinder which is narrower than the chamber of your bbl)
3. seat a new primer (some presses have some way of doing this, otherwise there's handheld deallies you can use ... basically jest a force-fit)
4. expand the case-mouth (kinda the same as the decap/size die, except w/o the decapping-pin ... and a plug the bells out the case mouth, as the ram pushes it up, against it)
5. put new powder in the case (this is where it can get ugly ... if ya got a case-activated powder-measure, ya can avoid a lotta problems ... so long as ya don't let it run outta powder, 'er otherwise double-charge the case
)6. seat a new bullet (kinda the same as the decap/size die, except w/o the decapping-pin ... and a "plug" to keep the bullet from moving, as the ram pushes the case upward, around it)
7. crimp (kinda like the decap/size die, except w/o the decapping-pin ... and at some point, the inside of the die curves inward, forcing the case-mouth against the bullet ... to hold it in place )
This is considering a 4-die set. Regardless, the seat die (of nearly any manufacturer) also crimps. However, not crimping at the same time as seating is a simple matter of raising the die (so the "crimp" does not engage the case) and lowering the "plug", to maintain proper seating depth.
This is also describing crimping for a rimmed revolver cartridge. Crimping is somewhat different for semi-auto cartridges.
There are particular things that can go wrong, in this process (i.e. high-primers, too much crimp, not enough crimp, backwards primer, no primer, no powder, not enough powder, too much powder, double-charge, insufficient resizing, bulged brass, split case, loose primer pocket). Most everyone can learn how to "get going" in about 10min. It's the next 40yr, ya spend figuring out how to avoid all them problems ... and discovering new ones!
Here's a little video of an auto-indexing (turret rotates automatically, each time the lever is pulled) turret-press ... this is relatively quick, for a beginner ... but you can wait as long as ya like, between pulls!
Ya might consider stopping by some shop somewhere and picking up a reloading manual ... Lyman, Hornady, Speer ... all good manuals! They'll have a hunderd 'er more pages of "recipes" (amounts of powder, which primer, and which bullets) fer the better part of all cartridges ever manufactured. They'll also have 20 - 50 pages of how to handload ... and how to avoid most of them problems ... good stuff!
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