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- Set-up the turret press for rifle for the first time tonight. Had a bag of old 30-30 labeled "tired"... These were the cases I used to work-up my loads with the old loader. Had been reloaded and fired several times each, some with rather hot loads. Neck-sized only before now. Never trimmed.

- So I tumbled, deprimed, and trimmed 'em. Oddly, none really were that over-length. Maybe it was because of the previous neck-only resizing. Or maybe pounding them into the loader die with a mallet shortened the suckers back down to original length each time. Lubed them thick (breaking-in brand new dies), and gave them their first full-length resizing. They were sure blown-out. Took a bit of force to get them into the first die, and some wound up with sort-of crumple-ripples in a few places.

- The Auto Disk Powder Measure doesn't much like the fine, grainy H335. Kinda' gritted-up the mechanism. It still threw consistently, but was a little "crunchy" on the spring return... The disk hole actually threw exactly what the chart said it was supposed to, which is unusual for a Lee volume measure. None of the disk holes throws a full 30-30 charge, so I set it to throw a half charge and double-stroked at that station.

- Teething issues weren't too bad. Got 18 of the 20 old cases reloaded. Had a primer get half-crushed into the pocket in such a way that it still protruded too far for the case to slide out of the shell holder. Had to get the Lee Loader depriming rod, then took the case in shell holder over to an anvil to tap the primer out. I was amazed that it came out without going-off. Too bad I marred-up the case getting it off the depriming rod or I could've still reloaded it.

- Had one bullet that was a bit "edgy" at the heel, so the case neck was crushed when I tried to seat it.

- Getting the bullet to seat right on the cannelure was no problem. I just put a loaded round (with the same bullet) into the seater die and turned down the plunger until it made solid contact.

- The Factory Crimp Die worked easily, and the bullets are quite tight in the cases. Important with the 30-30, as recoil with all the cases in-line in the tube magazine can drive the bullets into the cases, and the lever-action mechanism is also tough on cartridges.

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Some powder measures are worse than others for shearing the grains on certain powders, particularly cylindrical kernel ones.

I wonder if using a mallet with the Lee Loaders shortens the life of the case more than using a proper press, since you're repeatedly stressing and work-hardening the case for even one operation.

- So I've heard. I don't use any cylindrical powders now, so I haven't run into that particular problem.


- They say it's easier on the brass than most press reloading, since only the neck gets resized. The problem comes when you have more than one gun in a caliber. Cases fire-formed to one gun may not easily chamber in another.

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