Load Master & 7.62x39

[Ranch Dog]

Well, Load Master #4 is up and running and dedicated to my Ruger Mini-30! The only thing I will manually do is set the bullet on the case mouth as the bullet length and a rifle bullet seating die does not allow the use of the bullet feeder. I had it setup with the Auto Drum and decided to go to the storage room and pull out my trusty Perfect Powder Measure along with the discontinued Rifle Charging Die and use them. I've had the PPM as long as they have been offered and it has never let me down and had bought the die for this very purpose a few years back. So, welcome back old friends!



It works just as well as the Auto Drum without the stress of the spring tension on the case mouth.



After a week of several projects taking place at one time, my room is a mess! This weekend will be spent putting everything back where it should be before I start an run of the 7.62x39 ammo.

[GasGuzzler]

Perfect Powder Measure along with the discontinued Rifle Charging Die

Tell me more about this die. I must have fallen asleep in class that day.

[Ranch Dog]

Perfect Powder Measure along with the discontinued Rifle Charging Die

Tell me more about this die. I must have fallen asleep in class that day.

I miss labeled the die; it is the Universal Charging Die (#90273) which was used for charging large capacity cases with the Perfect Powder Measure on either the Pro 1000 or Load Master. It cannot be used on a turret press. This die set was dropped once the Auto Drum and new Long and Short Rifle Charging Dies became available.



The single die body served any rifle through a brass length of .64" through 2.62" by using a combination of brass plugs to match the drop tube to the cartridge. The longest cartridges would use only one brass plug and the shortest three. The 7.62x39 uses two. Here are the instructions for the Universal Charging Die.

In reality, the Auto Drum is a better setup if not for one reason. If you stop the downward movement of the ram/shell plate and return up, the PPM is going to dump another full load of powder onto the press. Reversing the ram without reaching an up or down stop is a HUGE NO-NO on the progressives, to begin with, the #1 rule in fact for a lot of reasons. The difference with the Auto Drum is that at the drop, the drum is disengaged until the ram/shell plate reaches the bottom end of travel. At that point, the charge case has rotated out of position and moved to the bullet seating station, no chance of a double or spilled charge.

The Auto Drum is also better suited for the finest grains of powder, whatever the shape, where the PPM can leak. With the 7.62x39, I'm using H4198 so you would have to drill a hole through the PPM to get it to leak.

[GasGuzzler]

Thanks!

[Ranch Dog]

On this 7.62x39 setup, I'm using the following dies at the stations

1. Decapping Die
2. 7.62x39 Bullet Seating Die without any innards
3. Universal Charging Die
4. Bullet Seating Die
5. Factory Crimp Die

I started the setup with a Sizing Die at station #1, but in that my charges are at 103% of the case cavity, I didn't like the "bump" that was occurring as the expander ball left the case neck. So, I went with the Decapping die.



On my pistol setups, I like the Sizing Die with the decapper removed at Station #2. That's not possible with the bottlenecked cartridge as the neck would be sized back down and the EzXpander cannot be in the die here. I want a die touching the shell holder here to provide positive plate pressure at all five stations, so I tried the Bullet Seating Die. It has a very close fit to help align the case for primer seating or at the least through feeling it will tell me if primming isn't going to work out before I get to seating. Lee is sending me a die body, and I'm using an empty Universal Expanding Die for now to provide the pressure.

I am full sizing the cartridges as part of case prep. I special ordered EzXpanders from Lee and use one that is +.002" over the standard for the Speer Bullet and one that is +.004" over for my TLC313. I'm doing this with all my rifle cartridges now that have EzXpanders rather than use a flaring die. It eliminates the setback into the bottleneck that an oversized bullet can produce with just the mouth flared. CH4D set me sized balls for my 35-30 as well.

[Ranch Dog]

This is the first time I've used a Load Master for an entire set of incremental and evaluation loads for a new load; it went very well!

Sad news, the Perfect Powder Measure is spent. I noticed powder collecting in the "hole" in the center of the turret head. I soon discovered that the slide over coupling of the PPM is leaking from the actuation and recovery motion it experiences.



There is no fix as this fitting is part of the body, it has seen the end I'm certain. So, I replaced it with the Auto Drum that had already been set up. I kept the powder drop stats of the rounds I loaded; this meant pulling the charged cartridge, weighing the powder, and then recharging the cases from the scale pan before I moved on with the next ram stroke. The stats are so-so, but I think it will improve when the ram is cycled in near a continuous motion.



I also interrupted the loading cycle to adjust neck tension via my .312" EzXpander. It was too loose. The .311" EzX is too tight; it causes an ever so slight buckle at the shoulder/neck. The bullet cannot sit on a case without being stuck to it with wax, and as the bullet starts its effort south, it creates a very slight buckle. I wish I had got a picture of this for you guys, it's ever so slight, and more of a player with cast bullets and bottlenecked cartridges but with the variations of jacketed bullet diameters for the 7.62x39, you run into it here as well.

One way of identifying it is you take a sized case that has had the tough fit during bullet seating and knock it out. Then, when you run that case back into the sizer, you will notice that the shellholder will not make contact with the bottom of the sizing die for full-length sizing. The space between the steel parts is the length of the buckle. It cannot be corrected until the case is pulled out of the die, the EzXpander will pull it out as it acts against the shoulder cut of the die. To true the case and confirm the shoulder is reset, the case must be sized again with shellholder/die base contact.

Anyway, I slowly turned down the .312" EzXpander to get the neck tension I desired with the Speer #2213. That ended up being .3115". So, a lot of interruptions in this session so I'm sure the powder stats will improve with a production run.

[horseman]

RD, I just went and looked through my "miscelaneous" die boxes and found I still have a Lee Universal charging die. No chain but every thing else appears to be there. Pretty sure this is a new one I bought a while back to use with the PPM when I still had my LM presses. I've since downsized and have only three metallic presses left and two of those are SS so have no use for that die. If you have a use for it let me know and how to get it to you.

[Ranch Dog]

RD, I just went and looked through my "miscelaneous" die boxes and found I still have a Lee Universal charging die. No chain but every thing else appears to be there. Pretty sure this is a new one I bought a while back to use with the PPM when I still had my LM presses. I've since downsized and have only three metallic presses left and two of those are SS so have no use for that die. If you have a use for it let me know and how to get it to you.

I appreciate it Horseman but with the sad loss of my PPM, I will stay with the Auto Drum. I actually have another NIB UCD, probably put both of them in the BST forum here and if they don't sell, move them to eBay. I have another PPM but have never cared for it, it has given me a lot of problems so it will hit the road one way or another.

[Ranch Dog]

The Load-Master has now done a couple of short production runs, and it continues to operate flawlessly. Twelve cases fit into a single tube, so 48 are completed before you know it. I have a small LED gooseneck book light coming that I should be able to clip on the frame to watch the fill. In that the cases are at 98% of the useful capacity with the bullet seated, the level is up in the 7.62x39's short neck. The extra illumination will be appreciated for bullet seating as well.

I ended up turning the .312" EzXpander down some more to increase neck tension. Once I was on the range, I looked at what was happening to a cartridge after the effects of recoil while in the magazine and then being forced up into the chamber. I found the bullet a bit lose in one out of eight cartridges. In that the bullet is factory crimped in the cannelure, there is no increase or decrease in overall cartridge length, rather the bullet under a bit of torque can rotate about a 1/8 of a turn. It seems the FCD stops that as well where the segments are located. It doesn't rotate back, just the single motion under as much torque as I can apply with my hands. Anyway, I cut the EzXpander from the last measurement of .3115" to .3112," and all is good now. The bullets still can rest on the case mouth, but I am using bullet stick wax on their base to make sure they stay in position on their way up into the die.

Not a missed, overturned, or sideways primer one. I am beveling or chamfering the primer hole in every case I reload now, any cartridge. It is not a big deal with the Lyman Case Prep ( a couple of seconds). I consider it a must with on press priming regardless if the press is progressive or not. This single, one-time step has eliminated all the frustration that my Load-Masters created. Nothing to do with the press, once you start this work you understand just how poor primer pockets are formed, to begin with. I would say PPU and Starline are the best and Hornady the worst. I throw a lot of the latter away.

I always wondered about rifle cartridge reloading on a progressive it is awesome!