Reloading Ammo: Case, Round, Primer, Die, Bullet, Brass…
Guest post: by ‘Tripod XL’
What happens when you pull the trigger? This is not a “shooting aftermath”. This is recycling at it’s best! This is about reloading ammunition. When you shoot a round of BRASS CASED, BOXER PRIMED ammo, you leave a significant recyclable component, the brass case, which most people throw away.
First, there are four components to a “round” of ammunition (ammo). There is the case, the primer, the bullet and the “propellant”. This is what most people call a “bullet”, which is actually a “round” (one shot) of ammo. A complete round of ammo is these four components in one assembly. All are necessary to make the round function completely. Below is a picture of a rifle round and a shot shell, showing both the similarities and the difference.
The shot shell has another component, the wad for buffering the “trauma” to the shot during the recoil of the round going off. Google; “ammunition cartridge component pictures” and you can see many more images.
The shot shell, the rifle round and a pistol round, all have the 4 common elements for functioning that every round of ammo have. The four components have specific purposes. First, the primer is impacted by the firing pin and this in turn “ignites” the propellant, creating hot expanding gases, which then propel the projectile (the actual bullet) down and out the barrel and on its trajectory to WHERE IT WAS AIMED. The case is what holds these 3 elements together to function as a single round of ammo. The following picture shows the process of this happening.
What you have left after the firing of a round of ammo is the case. If it is brass AND is “Boxer” primed, it can be easily “reloaded”, saving 50% or more of the cost of a box of ammunition. It depends on the particular round in question and how many times you can use the case in question as to how much you can save.
What is reloading? It is exactly what it sounds like. You “reload” the brass case with the “other” three components and save a bunch of money, as well as have some independence from the ammo manufacturers, with appropriate preparation. Everyone that preps should have BASIC reloading capability for their main rifle and handgun rounds. It will and can mean the difference in surviving or not. It also will allow you to tailor the ammo to your specific needs. If you need a varmint round you can load up a high-speed, lightweight bullet at high velocity to do the deed. If you need a slower, heavier, soft-pointed round for stopping power for larger needs, you can make it so and have a lot of variability in one caliber.
So, what is needed for reloading? First you need someone to teach you what and how to reload. Reloading can be a hazardous activity if not done in an appropriately safe manner. I have reloaded since 1976 and have not had a single accident that involved any explosions, fire or accidental damage to me, my equipment or anyone else. Now, having said that, I had to “teach myself” to reload from a book. Today, you can get DVDs and books with a lot better presentations in them than I had. So it is possible to learn on your own but I STRONGLY advise that you get some “hands on training” from someone of repute.
Reloading involves “resizing” the brass to it’s original dimensions, removing the old primer (called decapping), installing a new primer, loading new powder into the case and then inserting, and then seating and crimping a new projectile in the case. This is all done on what is called a reloading “press”. A reloading press has an arm on it with some leveraged linkage to apply significant pressure to “reload” the used case to “new specs”. The easiest to understand is the “single stage press”, shown below.
Here are three different ones but as you can see they are very similar. The third one shows a case on the ram head and if you pull the handle down, the ram via the linkage with the handle, will push the case up into the “die”. The die, powered by the ram, is what performs the actual steps that will reload a round of ammo that started this paragraph.
Now, I can’t actually tell you how to reload in a blog article, I can only tell you about it, so this is by no means comprehensive, so you reloaders out there try to bear with me for the others sake. On rifle “dies” for reloading, there are two dies (on standard die sets, trite trivia) and both serve multiple functions. As I said before, these are single station presses, which means that you can ONLY perform one set of these 4 functions that I mentioned above, on one die at a time.
The first die will do two things (three actually but trite trivia). It will resize the case to the original specs as it is pushed up into the tight fitting “case shaped” die interior to force the case back into shape. This is why I mentioned the massive amount of leverage you need for this amount of pressure. BE sure this is a BOXER PRIMED case, (i.e. reloadable), or you will damage something. As the case goes into the “sizer die” a decapper pin descends (case is rising) into the interior of the case and goes through the center “primer flash hole”, and as the case bottoms out in the die, the old primer is “punched” out of the case as this happens. So at this point you have what amounts to a “new’ case, ready to reload. There are some other trivial steps here, but this is the big picture.
At this point a primer will be pressed into the now empty “primer pocket” of the case. There are several ways to do this and I will not try to describe it other than to say it is a relatively easy and simple process. Some systems are “stand alone” priming systems and some are integral to the press itself, each having their pros and cons.
Now that the primer is in you will need to load an ACCURATELY MEASURED amount of propellant into the case prior to inserting the bullet. This can be done in one of several ways, which like the primers can be integral to the press itself or stand alone powder loading systems.
Now you have a resized case with a new primer and powder in it. All you need is a bullet and that is what the second “die” is for. This one is called the “seater/crimper” die. It has a nose punch in the top of the die that is screw adjustable so that you can control how “deep” the bullet goes into the case. This die is also one that you need to hold your mouth right to get correct as there is some timing involved. It must be adjusted so that when the bullet reaches the proper depth, the tightest part of the die is reached at the same time so that the bullet is “crimped” in place in the case, at the right spot to hold it tight.
Well, that’s the over view and it isn’t hard to do. Most vendors have complete packages so that you can start reloading right away. Here is one below.
Reloading will require a little room but the room will be well worth the lower cost of ammo and therefore more practice with your firearms. Here is a fairly nominal “corner of the den” reloading bench and setup.
My first one was in a mobile home in the kitchen and consisted of a surplus old, wooden “teachers desk”.
Even though I show particular brands, the ones that I recommend are RCBS, Hornady and Lyman. Keep in mind that if you buy one particular brand, you may have to specifically buy other things of theirs to make stuff work. The dies ARE interchangeable among the different vendors. My brand of choice is RCBS for single stage presses. Also, you WILL get what you pay for. Don’t buy cheap stuff made in China and don’t buy anything that only has three letters in the name. As far as progressive presses, which I purposely left out, the only brand I recommend is Dillon. Learn single stage reloading first, THEN, go progressive if you can.
As far as good instruction, I’m a visual person and the Sierra video “Introduction to Handloading” is outstanding. You will need a load manual and the Speer “Reloading Manual #14”
Just to give you an idea of the cost difference in the price of “store bought” ammo versus your reloads, here are the numbers. A box of 5.56mm Hornady, TAP FPD 75 gr., 20-count box, ammo costs $20, a dollar a round. If you have reloadable cases available to you, you can reload it for the following costs. Same projectile is 18.1 cents, the powder for that round is 5.7 cents and the primer costs 3 cents. So the total cost of the ammo that you reload, less your time, is 26.8 cents per round versus a dollar ($5.36 a box). If you’re shooting cheaper ammo the gain isn’t as great but it is still significant at a nominal price of about 35-40 cents a round for RELOADABLE ammo and a reload cost of about 18-20 cents a round. There is no way to compare it to NON-reloadable ammo, that’s not a useful metric.
Reloading can save you money in the long run and help provide you less expensive practice. It also allows you to customize ammo to your purposes. Again, get one on one instruction and use care in the processes of reloading and handling ammo and firearms. All use of this information is for philosophical discussion only and the reader assumes ALL responsibility for any use or consequences thereof. This information is not warranted to be the most up to date, best or safest. It is the users responsibility to ensure their own safety and appropriate uses of this information and topic. Survive well. Enjoy.
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@Ken.
Is it possible to make the graphics in this post bigger? Old eyes here.
@TripodXL.
Nice post. You might want to mention other steps like cleaning and trimming the brass. It is also important to have something to measure both length and thickness of the brass.
I would add Lee to the list of approved single stage presses. Mine was made in the USA. Have had it for about 20 years. The RCBS Rockchucker(the green one in the post) used to be the cats meow. Might still be the best. Also costs twice a much, or more, as the Lee(when I got mine). A single stage press is not rocket science. The only time I ever met someone using a Hornady press was for shotgun ammo.
Not being negative. Your price comparison is stacking the deck a bit. Anytime you put “tactical(TAP)” or “zombie” in the name of a round it will cost more. Marketing folks should be put on the same footing as lawyers. The raft or barge story. Comparing the price vs a 62 grain round will not be nearly so favorable.
Be well.
@All. Lost my train of thought. The dog came over to say hi.
Buy primers locally if you can. Hazmat fees are crazy and do apply to primers. By crazy I mean $25 or more per shipment with a weight restriction. Loaded ammunition is ORM-D, no Hazmat fees.
Primers are also the most dangerous part of the reloading process to those of you that are considering it. If something doesn’t seem right when seating a primer you might want to think it through.
I got a bunch of magnesium flares several months ago. Just to send a signal, you understand. The box arrived just fine. It also was marked as being explosives. Might have received more careful handling by UPS. Evil grin.
Be well.
@Mortimer; While I always recommend supporting your LOCAL gunshop, they make very little of their money from reloading equipment and supplies. Their prices have to be significantly higher to make a reasonable profit and yet they still don’t sell many primers. A typical price is about $30/K bulk price versus $40+ locally. I suggest that you shop the gunshows versus the big online vendors and find the best price, sometimes it is a push. Of course if you are only buying them by the thousand, then buy locally. If you “go in on” a bulk order with you friends you can save a lot by buying a “sleeve” (5000) of primers at a time and buy multiples of those. I think (maybe) you can buy 25K for one Hazmat fee per order. Primers, for the neophyte, come in 4 sizes for metallic cartridges; large rifle, small rifle, large pistol and small pistol. For the uninitiated, ORM-D is Other Regulated Materials-Domestic for standard shipping and mail for “consumer commodities” as defined by the CFR for particular quantities fo the defined materials. Survive well. Enjoy.
@Mortimer; Well, the reason I didn’t mention the other stuff is information overload. As I said, the “reloaders” need to bear with me as this was obviously focused on information for the NON-reloader. The Rock Chucker is still the benchmark for single station presses. It does cost more, but it will live longer than “you” (the ‘general you’, not to be confused with the Chinese chicken dish). ‘Usta be’ that Lee only made “C” type presses (see the 3rd graphic, there is a “C” press first and then two “O”type presses) and everyone that I know that has had THAT particular press has “sprung” it. The “O” type press (#2 in the 3rd graphic is a Lee press) is okay for general reloading. The Rock Chucker can be used for swaging and sizing large difficult cases quite easily. I have torn up reloading benches with this press with no harm to the press in 38 years. If all you load is handgun rounds or smaller rifle rounds, it is probably okay, but you still get what you pay for. Let me restate for the record, that I only recommend the Dillon for progressive reloading and I don’t recommend three letter reloading equipment as a rule. This is based on my experience and as near as I can estimate, in 38 years I have reloaded and shot over 1.5 million rounds of ammo (not related to military service). Some competitive shooters go through 200K+ rounds a year and I spent over 25 years as an active competitive shooter, though I don’t shoot that much anymore. Also, the Hornady press is the only one to compete with the RCBS quality for metallic case reloading. It CAN be used to transition to progressive reloading and so can the RCBS. As far as the price comparison, yes TAP is a more expensive round…that makes my point, that you can make THAT (very expensive) ammo for a price comparable to the price of Tula or Wolf ammo. Even PMC 55 gr. Bronze Point at Cheaper Than Dirt is right at 31 cents a round and the best price on bulk ammo (reloadable, brass case) that I can find anywhere is 30 cents a round (LESS SHIPPING). At that price you can save (@18 cents to reload) $120 per thousand or $12 per 100. That is a significant price difference for average FMJ ammo and I think the average person would see that as worth it. I don’t have a $12 bill to throw away for every 100 rounds of 5.56mm I shoot. At $3.60 a box that is about a 45% savings. Survive well. Enjoy.
@All.
A bit off topic. This is an exchange I had with Dillon that may prove useful.
First, remove the shellplate, handle and then the primer system from the machine. Next, remove the two bolts that attach the platform to the top of the shaft, and lift off the platform.
Now remove the set screw from the bottom of the shaft. This allows you to push out the cross pin that connects the bottom of the shaft to the crank, pushes out either way. Be aware that when you remove this pin, the shaft will fall out.
Once the shaft is removed, the upper link arm pins can be removed. One upper link arm pin, typically the right side, is hollow. Run a long punch (an 8D nail with the point cut off works well) thru the hollow pin to pound out the solid pin. Run the punch thru from the opposite side to pound out the hollow pin.
With both pins removed, the link arms and crank assembly are now released. Use grease on the pivot pins, 30wt motor oil on the shaft. Don’t use WD-40, break-free, or any aerosol lubricants.
Reassemble in the reverse.
When reattaching the platform, a special alignment tool is required. It is available at no charge just by calling and asking for one.
30 wt motor oil on the shaft, grease everywhere else.
We don’t have any videos on http://www.youtube.
We now sell a new instructional DVD #19483.
Thank you,
Dillon Precision Products, Inc.
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Hello,
I have a 550B that has been sitting around for about ten years. Looking to resume reloading. I purchased it in 1990 or so.
The questions:
1) What do you suggest for cleaning the unit? Lots of dust, etc.
2) Should it be lubed? If so with what?
3) I have the original video on VHS. Nothing to play it on. Do you have the video in an Internet form?
4) Are there any parts that should be upgraded? By this I mean if problems were found that need to be corrected.
Thanks and have a great day!
Be well.
Thanks to Ken and TripodXL,
You addressed the intro to reloading much better than I could have since I am not real good at this computer stuff. For that, Thank You very much. I wanted to share with the readers of this blog why I got rid of my progressive presses years ago.
In the small town I lived in, my reloading room became a hangout for off-duty local cops and shooting team members (present or aspiring.) In between reloading for others who had old vintage rifles and were gearing up to go to Africa, my house was very crowded. I had a job which was 40 hrs a week with a lot of mandated overtime.
This all changed when I got married. Many of these people either went away or obtained presses for themselves. It was necessary in my newlywed status to make my house a less crowded place, I do not miss those days for the following reasons: (WARNING: the following is meant to be humorous though very real)
Economic: Primers and bullets are expensive. Powder is less so, but it is still an expense to be factored in. During times of primer shortages (I remember this happening numerous times over 30 years,) the real cost far exceeds the price label on the package. (price goes up in times of short supply) A message to my former LE coworkers: Cheap beer and Dominoe’s Pizza is no substitute for Federal Match Rifle Primers. BRING CASH!
Aesthetics: Please take a shower prior to coming over my house to reload. The combination of a smelly dude cleaning his toenails with his tactical folding knife while griping about why his wife is not intimate with him anymore while drinking mass quantities of my Heineken Beer was getting old. (Mass quantities of Heineken Beer ties into the economic factor-see above.)
Lifestyle changes: I stopped competing in matches. Especially in the springtime, I don’t want to go to the Palma match in the Central Valley (where it is hot and dry) I would rather go to the local reservoir where the crappie bite is on right now. I have multiple vices. I hunt AND fish and I am still married (unbelievable isn’t it?)
Social factors: Some of the people I’ve met at matches-not the ones i like to hang out with: I remember a software engineer coming over to a group of us sitting around talking. Some of us have shot, others were waiting for their relay. This guy sits down and tells us how we should use some technique to shoot faster and better to survive a gunfight. We kept quiet because we were all LE officers at the time. Most of us have been in at least 2 shootings on duty and several were currently working on serving felony-warrent squad or tactical team. At the end of the day, a match is just a game. After you pick up your plaque or trophy, you can go home.
Old age: Nowdays, I am in a position where I have enough accumulated knowledge and funny stories to pass on to the younger generation. There are also many aspiring pistol champions out there so there was a ready market for my Dillon 550 machine when I sold it for reduced price. Like TripodXL, I love the Dillon press because their warranty is transferable between owners and their customer service is superb. If you buy one, the resale potential is very high. (a classic illustration on you get what you pay for)
I gotta go now, I hear my wife calling me for another honey-do project. Good shooting and happy hunting.