may be tempted to scrimp on gear, to “make do” with a compromise or a something of lesser quality. I don’t want to give the impression that I’m solely advocating the purchase of gold-plated equipment, but keep this in mind: you’ll most likely be the one holding the firearm that will be firing the ammo you loaded.
The controls on any scale are clear. Pay attention to what it is telling you.
LOADING ROOM
Archimedes famously said, “Give me a place to stand, and a lever long enough, and I can move the earth.” When it comes to loading, you can be too comfortable, but only because the room or its contents distract you.
Clean, warm, dry and well-lit is a good place to start. And since you’ll need a place to load, we’ll cover this before the actual gear or loading.
I must confess a fondness for Hornady dies.
Benches
Benches, as many as you can fit, should be at a good working height and secured either by mass or by being bolted to the wall. You’ll be working a lever that will be squeezing brass, so you need mass or bolts to keep from ending up with a bench that “walks” its way around the room as you load on it. Some of us load sitting, some load standing, and the bench height will have to be correct for you. If you have never worked at a workbench, get out and get some practice. Offer to pull the handle on a friend’s loading press to see what height works for you. I could offer elaborate measurements, based on OSHA standards for ergonomic compliance, but in the end you’ll have to figure it out for yourself.
The benches should not be full-sized tables or other such furniture. I have found that any benchtop more than two feet deep simply collects “gear drifts” at the back. By keeping the bench relatively shallow, you have to put stuff away. Now, if you are not prone to the gear-drift phenomenon, then fine, make them the way you want them. But for me, no more than two feet deep, and I have some that are even less.
Ideally, you will have a “loading bench” that holds only your loading press and the components of the session. Less ideal is a bench that holds a press and, say, a vise, drill press or other non-loading gear. With a dedicated bench, you can keep things clean and sorted out.
If you have a press (and how can you reload without one?) you must stock spare parts for the items easily lost, bent or worn.
Reloading allows you to not only do alot more shooting for the money you spend, but also to tune your ammo for your handgun and the matches you shoot.
A progressive, like this Dillon 550B, will produce a lot of ammo for a long time.
Now comes the important part; the loading bench should have all the bullets you own on the lower shelves, and nothing else stored there. No powder, no primers, no brass. The powders, primers and brass should be stored on other shelves or benches across the room. The idea is to make it a conscious effort to re-supply powder or primers. That way, you are very much less likely to make a mistake. If your powders are right there, within arm’s reach, you’ll be tempted to grab the next bottle of whatever while you continue to do whatever it is you are doing. That is a great way to grab the wrong powder (if you have more than one on hand) and end up loading with the wrong powder.
When it comes time to refresh your powder measure, you use the bottle/canister on the bench, the one you’ve been using all along. If you run out, you have to walk over, look at the shelves, and grab another of the same kind (ideally, one from the same production lot).
Also, do not keep a supply of primers on the bench. When it comes time to reload primers, you have to walk over and get more. The walking is good. You have been loading, either sitting down or standing in the same spot. It is a good thing to move now and then to keep from getting tired.
Lighting
Nothing makes reloading more miserable than a gloomy place to load. Loading by the light of a single, 60-watt bulb (and it is always in the wrong location) is asking for trouble. I did it for years and hated it. When I had the chance I installed banks of fluorescent lights to flood the new, white-painted room with light.
If you stand to load, then the Dillon strong mount makes the press more rigid and puts it higher.
The Redding GRx die sizes your Glock brass, one at a time.
Glocks are hard on brass, especially in 40. These have been bulged from being fired in a Glock.
Ventilation
A musty, damp or moldy location is not just bad for your dies and tools, it is bad for you. Scrub the place clean, dry it, paint it and keep it dry. I have a dehumidifier running in my loading space, and keep it down at 50 percent relative humidity 24/7.
Quiet
You can have a radio going if the music is background music and not distracting. No TV, no videos, no DVDs of something else running to catch your eye and distract you.
No smoking. Not only is smoking bad for you, but there is a lot of flammable stuff you’ll be dealing with.
No food, either, to preclude lead ingestion.
When you load, start with a clean and spartan bench and loading press. Then, bring only the components to the bench that you need for that caliber and load. Nothing else. Load until you are done, then put the components back, empty the powder measure and put things away.
A little effort at the beginning to keep things neat will keep you out of trouble for a long time, perhaps forever.
BRASS PREP
Sorting
Unless you are buying your brass new and unfired, it will have to be cleaned. Brass picked up at the range (if the range allows it, some do not allow “brass mining,” you can pick up only what you shoot) will have powder residue and dirt/sand/mud/whatever on it. You must clean the brass or your loading dies will suffer heinously from the dirt. So, first things first: sort.
Sort by caliber and by cleanliness. The various calibers should go into whatever containers you use – cardboard boxes, plastic bins, used tofu containers, whatever works. Your brass will be grubby, so the containers will get grubby.
You can pluck each empty off the die if you wish. Not efficient.
Also sort by cleanliness. At the top will be brass that fell onto dry, clean soil or grass.
