I have two reloading rooms, one in the garage for using most of the time, and one in the basement for when the garage is too hot or cold. Keep the side-cutter inherited from my father in the basement, and the CT in the garage.
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.” John Steinbeck
Very interesting thread. Wish I had know about this decades ago. The old inertia type bullet pullers were kind of a pain. They did hint though at varying amounts of neck tension in your reloads assuming you were hammering at roughly the same force each time.
Put cartridge in shell holder and run it up to where bullet is sticking above the press. Grab with dykes. Lower ram.
I have the leather tongue from an old shoe that I cut a slot in for the bullet to go through. I hold it on top of the press so that I don't have whichever type of pliers I use contacting the top of the press directly.
Not a real member - just an ordinary guy who appreciates being able to hang around and say something once in awhile.
Happily Trapped In the Past (Thanks, Joe)
Not only a less than minimally educated person, but stupid and out of touch as well.
Its all right to be white!! Stupidity left unattended will run rampant Don't argue with stupid people, They will drag you down to their level and then win by experience
I have a Lee four whole turret press and use a heavy duty set of needle nose pliers with the wire cutter jaws. That way it will fit over one of the open threaded die holes without having to remove a die. Regular dykes would not have the clearance that the needle nose has.
"You may all go to Hell, and I will go to Texas" - Davy Crockett
Having to disassemble cartridges is a pain, but the GNP made the task a little less onerous. I gave it a workout after I had problems with a Lyman 1500 digital scale.
When I do work ups, I check the powder weight on two scales. Last year, I was working with some 85 grain 6mm bullets for a 6x45mm.
I was in a rush and decided not to use a second scale. The Lyman had always been reliable. That was a mistake. Had I used the second one, I would have discovered that the Lyman was weighing light. I had become complacent. I was using 4198, N120 and H335 and a couple of others.
Of the charges I weighed after pulling the bullets, there was an overcharge of .4 to .7 of a grain. Possibly higher than that with some others. In a 223 case with those particular powders, that is unsettling. I had one shot that chronoed at over 2900 fps, powered by H335. I went home and pulled all the cartridges with the Grip N Pull. There were about 70.
As it was, I was angry with myself, and I hate going backwards on work ups, but it was necessary. It would have taken a long time had I used either an inertia or collet bullet puller, and probably added to my frustration. The bullets and the powder were saved for future use.
And I relearned the lesson of using two scales. It was the reloading equivalent of writing lines out 100 times on a blackboard.
"I will pay closer attention to my work in the future!"
Yep, something's gonna catch all of us now and then!
Right now I have a brand-new, super-improved e-scale sent to me by a major handloading company for testing. Haven't taken it out of the box yet...but will, eventually.
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.” John Steinbeck
SOLD. Got me a couple. Very impressed. Tired of banging the inertial on a big hunk of end-grain hickory. I've used the pilers method a lot too but always leave at least a little mark. This device looks like "the bomb."
Not trying to change this thread, but as a follow up, I only trust digital scales when using them in pairs.
A Lyman rep who I was talking to at a show gave me the Pocket Touch pictured above. At least he meant well. Regardless of manufacturer, the odds of two scales being off the same amount is slim. I do use the Hornady G3 and the i201 almost exclusively. I haven't had the Ohaus out lately. Or the Lee. I will say that the Lee is dependable. I have two, and neither has let me down.
Rex, NP.
I have been using mine for a while and am very happy with it.