I've been meaning to get into reloading ammunition for quite some time, even having some of the necessary equipment. With other things on my plate, it was hard to find time to sit down and invest the time and energy to make sure I wouldn't blow myself up. I'd received a Lee reloading kit as a gift some time ago, which came with a book on how to reload. One psychological barrier came down when I talked with a guy who'd been involved in C4L and is an NRA-certified instructor who had nothing but good to say about the Lee system.

So I finally hunkered down this morning and got down to the business of making bullets. Why this morning? I don't know—perhaps because I'd put it off for so long that it became irritating enough to jump up on my priority list? (That and attending the GOP county convention all day Saturday and going to a dinner party afterward—which lasted until midnight—at my wife's behest likely demanded some personal satisfaction.) The pistol die set has 4 dies: resizing, expander, bullet seating, and crimp. I'd even tried the resizing die on some brass that I'd saved, both punching out the spent primer and resizing the case to length. Just in case there was a mishap, I had decided to load 9x19mm first, since I have a 9 that I'm not super-concerned about.

After resizing 20 cases, the next step was to prime the brass. I'd picked up small primers by CCI, which went in without a hitch. The expander was where I first had some issues. See, the powder gets loaded at the same time, and the Accurate #2 powder that I'd picked essentially at random wouldn't work with volumetric 0.5cc dipper included with the dies. I had to use the phenolic scale to weigh out the starting charge of 3.7 grains for the 124gr flatnose jacketed bullets that I'd bought through Midway. That was a serious chore, so I decided to only load 10 rounds to test.

Next was the real trouble: seating the bullet. Well, I'd relied on the documentation that came with the press, which indicated that the die should be backed out one turn from where it touched the shell holder. The die instructions said three turns, but when I tried that, it seemed that the die was too far set back. Yeah. I ended up crushing my first case that way. Eventually I took a live round to check the seating and found out that oops, -3 turns was the way to go. After that things went fine. I loaded the 10 rounds, five with no crimp, five with a crimp. Visibly there wasn't much of a difference: possibly the seating die is good enough. The rounds compared well in size to a Winchester factory round, which was a good sign.

Then off to the range. Admittedly, I was apprehensive the first time I pulled the trigger. Was I going to get a face-full of shrapnel? Well, I'd followed the directions (except for the bit about the bullet seating die...) and had double-checked the scale calibration and powder amounts so I figured I'd be ok. One shot went bang, followed by four more. All in the black, albeit at 5 yds. The rest went at 15 yds, with the same good results. Yeah! There's something satisfying about assembling your own ammunition and then blasting it off. I would've gone to Gander Mountain afterward but didn't get done in time; perhaps tomorrow after work.... I'm already thumbing through the Midway catalog again looking at picking up some rifle die sets.