Horniest Lock-N-Load
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Ron IL
Bearcat
I got started when I was a working man. Not a lot of spare time. A Lee anniversary kit with one press. Deprime brass, hand clean and prime, then weigh powder insert bullet, then crimp. Pretty slow going. Not bad for rifle shooting. But went to 45 acp. I picked up two more cheap Lee presses so I could just move case through three dies. A lot faster. Then got a tumbler. Then tried a Lee progressive press. I had it three days and never could get it adjusted right. Sent it back and got a Lee Classic 4 hole turret. I now load 45 acp, 45 Colt, and 38 spl. Now I am up to three of the die holders with powder measures mounted on each. So swapping calibers is just a matter of changing the shell holder and the die holder. It takes 30 seconds to switch calibers. It is not as fast as a progressive but good for me. I can put out around 200 per hour. It makes good quality ammo and I can inspect each completed round. All of this took about 2 years to complete. Been using this setup for the last 3 years.
The Blackhawk Kid
Blackhawk
I have four Dillons and NO ISSUES! fwiw
Big Old Boy
Hunter
I enjoy reloading as much as shooting being retired I have all the time in the world.
Rick Courtright
Hawkeye
Hi,
Years ago I worked in the insurance industry for a short while, and at least once a week we'd have a training session on "time management."
I can't say those sessions changed how I manage my time, but they did cause me to look at it thru different eyes. Those eyes bring out two particular issues with reloading. The one involved here is the time involved with swapping dies. We'll spend hours at the range, sometimes shooting only 20-50 rounds, and examining the results of each shot. No problem. We'll drive hours to go find a place to shoot, either out of necessity or curiosity. No problem. When we're done shooting, we'll go have lunch or breakfast with our shooting buddies and spend quite a bit of time talking about our newest gun, scope, load, or trinket. Then we'll go home and spend untold time cleaning the guns we shot that day. Again, no problem. It's been a good day!
Hours and hours and hours have been involved here. Yet we fuss about a few seconds, a minute or two maybe, swapping dies as if that short time is critical in the grand scheme of things?
Methinks anyone with a sense of humor who looks in the mirror every morning must just bust out laughing now and then, as I often find myself doing! :lol:
Rick C
Years ago I worked in the insurance industry for a short while, and at least once a week we'd have a training session on "time management."
I can't say those sessions changed how I manage my time, but they did cause me to look at it thru different eyes. Those eyes bring out two particular issues with reloading. The one involved here is the time involved with swapping dies. We'll spend hours at the range, sometimes shooting only 20-50 rounds, and examining the results of each shot. No problem. We'll drive hours to go find a place to shoot, either out of necessity or curiosity. No problem. When we're done shooting, we'll go have lunch or breakfast with our shooting buddies and spend quite a bit of time talking about our newest gun, scope, load, or trinket. Then we'll go home and spend untold time cleaning the guns we shot that day. Again, no problem. It's been a good day!
Hours and hours and hours have been involved here. Yet we fuss about a few seconds, a minute or two maybe, swapping dies as if that short time is critical in the grand scheme of things?
Methinks anyone with a sense of humor who looks in the mirror every morning must just bust out laughing now and then, as I often find myself doing! :lol:
Rick C
Rick Courtright said:
I hear ya Rick...Or to put all of that into my own red neck vernacular, it's more a case of "a lot to do about nothing" than anything else. I mean really, I could have changed a whole set of threaded dies in less time it's taken me to write this one short response...so what the heck a "quick change die"? :lol: :lol: :lol: .
DGW
Jimbo357mag
Hawkeye
I too found Rick's explanation to be interesting... But, what if you look at the situation in a different way. Let's say reloading is a task that you allow approximately 2 or 3 hours a week for. It doesn't interfere with your other activities. So why not use your reloading time wisely, that is finding efficient ways to use that 2 to 3 hours. You wouldn't want to do everything the 'old fashion' way would you? Hence we have new equipment, progressive reloaders, tumblers and all the modern stuff we use. Quick change dies just make sense.DGW1949 said:
...and I don't use them but I see why they are available.
woodperson
Single-Sixer
Pulling this old thread up. I read it all at the time. Thought I would screw dies in and out forever.
Then I found a little kit on Amazon that screws into my Lee Classic press and converts it to Lock n Load. Best $20 I have spent for a while. The bushings are $4 if you buy them in packs of 10. I did not like the rubber lock rings on the Lee. But when they are locked into the Lock n Load bushing they work fine. I am now really enjoying the fact that I know that when I put a die in the press the body of the die is positioned correctly with no adjustments needed. Silly as it may seem, I found I just hated the process of spinning the die in and out. Not so much the time. Just the feeling that it is somehow wrong to have to keep moving that many threads and to have to worry about whether the "locking ring" moved when I took the die loose or when I tightened it in. And of course I can put a empty Lock n Load bushing in and screw dies in and out if I still need to for some reason There is a lot to like about this system. I did have to make a storage system since the dies will not fit in the original boxes with the bushings attached.
Then I found a little kit on Amazon that screws into my Lee Classic press and converts it to Lock n Load. Best $20 I have spent for a while. The bushings are $4 if you buy them in packs of 10. I did not like the rubber lock rings on the Lee. But when they are locked into the Lock n Load bushing they work fine. I am now really enjoying the fact that I know that when I put a die in the press the body of the die is positioned correctly with no adjustments needed. Silly as it may seem, I found I just hated the process of spinning the die in and out. Not so much the time. Just the feeling that it is somehow wrong to have to keep moving that many threads and to have to worry about whether the "locking ring" moved when I took the die loose or when I tightened it in. And of course I can put a empty Lock n Load bushing in and screw dies in and out if I still need to for some reason There is a lot to like about this system. I did have to make a storage system since the dies will not fit in the original boxes with the bushings attached.
