This weekend I loaded up 50 cartridges of 6.8 SPC. My recipe
Now, I'd not loaded up much of the 6.8 because it was expensive, and my AR tosses the brass into another zip code making losses significant. I managed to snag some brass recently as well as the Fiocchi primers to review (range time coming up this week!), so I figured I needed to get off my duff and load up.
Getting my press set for the 6.8 was not exactly the easy transition I was expecting. Generally, I replace the die head, remove the spindle that turns the turret for rifle, replace the shell holder, and get to work. Well, when I replaced the shell holder, I apparently missed the slot it was supposed to go into and my first piece of brass when into the resizing die then didn't come out…
#@%^&
This was bad because the amount of force required to pull that brass out isn't something you can just yank on with a pair of pliers and get the job done. Add to the fun the shell plate that couldn't come off because the decapping pin was in the way, and you had me cursing up a storm as I'm trying to get leverage on the damnable thing to get the brass out. Which I eventually did, but not after slightly bending the decapping pin.
While the brass looked fine, I wasn't going to risk it. If there was enough lateral pressure to bend the decapping pin, then the brass was surely pushed sideways. It got tossed.
As this was new brass, the decapping pin wasn't an issue so I set everything up properly and went to town. Until the first brass came out with its neck deformed and torn. Which I didn't notice until after I had set the primer. I adjusted the resizing die and tried again, with the same results. I reset the resizing die and the third time everything from then on out was just golden.
New cases require case lube. Period. Otherwise, you're going to get a workout getting them in and out of the resizing die.
Once I had all the cases sized and primed, it was time to charge and seat. Getting powder in is the most tedious part for me since I do each and every case by hand. I use a 5cc dipper (the only one I have) to dump ~18ccs of X-Terminator on the balance scale's plate. Then I use a trickler to get the powder to exactly 28.5 grains, and use a funnel to put it into a case. I then visual inspect all the cases to ensure they all have powder and they all are at least visually at the same level.
Oh… Case lube in the neck sucks. X-Terminator is like a fine, fine sand. No matter how careful you are, some of it will spill and it will get into the cracks of a wood table in a heart beat. Also, it gets statically charged and sticks to everything, especially the excess case lube still inside the neck. And the case. And your fingers. And you can't get the last few pebbles of sand out of the funnel because it's stuck there too.
If you people loved me, you'd get me one of these. I'd be willing to bet I toss powder faster than it could, but it's still a PITA to do.
Loading the bb's was easy, although the adjustment was slightly off. My first 3 rounds are a bit short (by .01") as tightening the die pushed it down a bit. Once that was back in place, the rest of the loading went butter smooth.
There should be range time this week with a few more reviews coming – the new Sevigny Sights, the Fiocchi primers, and the new brass catcher I got from Vector Tactical. Stay tuned!