.38 Winchester Under lever accuracy

[RDC]

I agree, I've certainly found it interesting.

Reloading is not something I currently have the space or time to do at the moment but looking to start soon for rifle and shotgun. Reading the journey of someone in this much detail is fantastic.

[Dellboy]

Alpha please continue its good to see .

[TomH]

Alpha please continue its good to see .

Yes, and more in depth product reviews like the Lee Priming Tool one please.

[Alpha1]

How long did it take to load the 100?

I'm not sure to be honest bare in mind I am taking photographs as I go. The longest job was the priming with the stupid piece of rubbish from Lee. I was starting to get annoyed with the damn thing so I took a break and started again. What really annoys me is I wasted an hour of my life making a proper stand for the darn thing. Once I get over my annoyance at the pile of s--t I may well rescue it from the bin and take it to bits and see why its such a pile of s--t from an engineering point of view. (Takes a deep breath)

Any way I'm curious as to why you asked the question.

I love hand loading ammo. Time does not come into it when I am crafting ammo. I just enjoy the whole experience I like to make or modify bits of kit like the use of the Lee reloader and arbor press to seat the bullets. You can feel the bullets going in and seating. I have conventional presses and could krank the stuff out if I wanted to.
But I choose not to.
I could I guess turn out 100 .38 specials using this method in probably an hour. I really don't know.
I may give it a go and see how it goes.
Hmm whats next

[ovenpaa]

What is the issue with the Lee tool?

[Alpha1]

What is the issue with the Lee tool?

The one I am referring to is the bench mounted version. I tried it with large primers initially it jammed up after about 5 rounds I had to dismantle the plastic feeder unit to remove the jammed primer. I went on line and checked it out on you tube and apparently the first thing you should do on purchasing one of these is remove the rubber ring that acts as a buffer. So I did that and moved on to small pistol primers. It was inconsistent in feeding the primers you have to keep tapping the tray to feed primers it jammed up again. It took ages to prime 100 cases.
After priming the 100 38 special cases. I had another go with large primers. The plastic primer insert has a spring loaded safety gate that cuts of the primer feed while seating a primer. Once you have seated the primer the spring loaded cut off slides out of the cut off position and allows another primer to fall into the feed position. That’s how it’s supposed to work. The plastic cut off gate did not spring back at all it just jammed up so not allowing any more primers to feed.
The problem is its plastic and it binds up. The whole thing is held together with three screws. If the tension on the screws is not right the whole thing locks up. I backed the screws off and ended up with a very loose fit. I tried polishing the cut of slide the darn thing still keeps jamming.
Its just so frustrating if the cut off slide was polished aluminium I think it might be better. I can prime with the small primer set up well sort of if I don’t run out of patience with the constant faf on. But the large primer thingy is just a pain in the but. I might have a go dismantling it and making an aluminium cut of slide if I get bored and need a project. For now it’s back to hand priming or priming on the press.

[Alpha1]

I have copied the previous post into the thread discussing the lee priming tool in question. So this discussion does not go of on a tangent.

[farmer7]

I am using my under lever a lot more now that I have access to an indoor range. I found that using lead PPU semi wad cutters bought ammunition the rifle performed OK ish.
When I tried home loads using 158 grain round nose flat point GM hard cast bullets with unique powder the groups are terrible.
I spent to day scrubbing the barrel clean and generally cleaning and oiling the rifle to eliminate a dirty or leaded barrel being the cause.
It was not to bad to be fair.
I measured the bought bullets and they came out at .3578 to .3581. Rog suggests that GM hardcast are generally to hard to drive with light loads. He knows what he is talking about when it comes to cast bullets so I will listen to his advice.
I all ready suspected this might be the case. Any way I had a rummage and found the two molds I used back in the day.
One is a Lee tumble lube 158 grain semi wad cutter that I used in my .357 revolver. If I remember rightly it worked OK in the underlever with 3.6 grains of bulls eye.

Today was a good day for me, finally I got my marlin .357 to shoot with a light load!

It always shot great with jacketed, and shot very well with the GM 158RNFP and unique as long as they were driven fairly hard but finding an accurate light load has been a trial going through 7 different cast bullets of varying hardness, some groups at 50 yards would be as big as 9 or 10 inches.

Anyway I saw a few mentions online of Marlins shooting better with heavier bullets so I ordered some GM 180gr TC and what a revelation! Despite being hard and the only bullet of the lot that is sized at .357 rather than what I assume would be normal for cast at .358 or .359 they shot brilliantly. Seven shot groups were averaging just under 2" at 50 yards and 25 yards under one inch using the Williams peep sight. And no sign of any leading either.

[Hrun]

Interesting as when I couldn't get any 158 I bought 140 and my groups tightened up even more..

[Alpha1]

Quote:Today was a good day for me, finally I got my marlin .357 to shoot with a light load!

It always shot great with jacketed, and shot very well with the GM 158RNFP and unique as long as they were driven fairly hard but finding an accurate light load has been a trial going through 7 different cast bullets of varying hardness, some groups at 50 yards would be as big as 9 or 10 inches.

Anyway I saw a few mentions online of Marlins shooting better with heavier bullets so I ordered some GM 180gr TC and what a revelation! Despite being hard and the only bullet of the lot that is sized at .357 rather than what I assume would be normal for cast at .358 or .359 they shot brilliantly. Seven shot groups were averaging just under 2" at 50 yards and 25 yards under one inch using the Williams peep sight. And no sign of any leading either:Quote

What powder load etc did you use.