Lee Loader

mikld wrote:Jes a thought; I always tell newer reloaders to find a load, in their reloading manual(s) first, then buy components. Many fewer headaches, questions...

yes, I'm definitely prestaging it, my press gets delivered tomorrow with calipers, scales and lubricant Thursday. I live in a tiny town and was visiting family over the weekend, made a stop at a shop, grabbed some powder I'd read about, same with primers and the only type of 9mm bullets they had
Got a couple books in today, hindsight is 20/20
Really excited about all the replies, can't wait to begin the journey this Friday, I even have the day off

Let me preface this by saying up front that what follows is decidedly a case of do as they say not as I do, particularly for the new hand loader.

Let us consider the lowly 9mm 115 grain FMJ 9mm projectile for the 9mm Parabelum cartridge and along with said projectile the various and sundry immutable laws of the universe or at least physics, chemistry and metallurgy. No matter how you look at the bullet there are only a very few ways to put it together and have it remain the correct size (115 grain and .355-.356 diameter). Lead is lead and copper alloy is copper allow no matter whether you're Speer or Hornady or Nosler or who ever. I guess what I saying is that baring any radical difference in bearing surface or diameter a minimum published load of a given powder for one will pretty much work with all of them and since the overall abiding rule is start low and work up it should stand you in good stead.

As to plated and cast in the 9mm or the 45 ACP for that matter I've found that the minimum load for a same weight jacketed bullet makes a pretty good jumping off point. In the case of cast it's not a bad idea to be .001 over your groove diameter.

Just a thought from 50+ years of hand loading, be safe, load 'em and
Make smoke,