Reloading with Lee Classic Loader

This time I'm going to give you an example on how I use the Lee Classic Loader.

The Classic Loader is ideal for people who just want try out reloading and don't want to spend lots of money on fancy reloading equipment. In it's most basic form, you only need the Classic Loader kit, a mallet, shell casings, primers, gun powder and bullets. For you doomsday preppers, this is the reloading kit you want. The reloading process with this kit is quite noisy, so it might not be suitable for people living in apartment houses.

This is what comes in the package. On the left is a priming rod, next is a loader body and a priming chamber, then a powder dipper and a depriming chamber, and finally a depriming rod.

The first step in reloading is to deprime the fired brass. Remember to check that the brass you are using is not damaged in any way.

Take out the brass, depriming rod, depriming chamber and a mallet.

 Put the brass into the depriming chamber and insert the rod in the brass.

Give the rod couple of taps with the mallet, so that the spent primer pops out.
Repeat this process until you have enough deprimed casings for your reloading needs.

Next step is cleaning the brass. I like to use an ultrasound washer, as it cleans the primer pocket and flash hole better than a tumbler. I simply pour hot water and some dish washing liquid into the washer and put the deprimed casings in. It takes about 30 minutes for the ultrasound washer to clean the brass. After washing the brass must be rinsed in running water and then dried.

When the brass is clean and shiny, it's time for neck sizing. For this you need clean casing, the loader's body and a mallet.

Put the brass into the loader.

Using a mallet drive the brass completely inside the loader. The neck is now resized.

To get the resized brass out of the loader, you need depriming chamber, priming rod (which I'm not using for priming at all) and of course a mallet.

Put the brass and loader combination on the depriming chamber and insert the priming rod in the loader.

With a few whacks from the mallet on the rod, the brass drops out of the loader. At this point it is wise to check the dimensions of the brass with a caliper. Do the neck sizing for all the casings.

After all the casings have been neck sized, it's time for priming. I use a hand priming tool, as I don't like the idea about hammering the primer in.

Remember to check that the new primer isn't inserted too deep or too high.

After all the casings have been primed, it's time for gun powder and bullets. First measure the desired amount of gun powder.

 Then put the prepared case in depriming chamber and pour the gun powder in it using a funnel.

Next you need is the loader body, priming chamber (I'm not using it for priming), a mallet and a bullet.

Put the loader body on the filled case and drop the bullet in the loader.

 

Put the rod of the priming chamber on top of the bullet and hit it with the mallet until the chamber meets a stop collar. Make sure there is no debris or anything in the depriming chamber that could strike the primer while hammering!

Take off the priming chamber and loader body. The cartridge is now finished. It takes a bit of trial and error to get the depth of the bullet right, you can adjust it by the locking nut on the loader body.

 Check the overall length of the cartridge to ensure everything is by the book.

This is how I use the Lee Classic Loader. I think my way is a bit safer and more accurate than the traditional way, which you can see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeEl9wZyabc

Happy reloading!

My first post, a recap of my last hunting season

Hey!

This is my blog, where I write about my hobbies, such as hunting and long range shooting. I hope you enjoy reading about the stuff that I do!

The hunting season is pretty much over for me here in Finland, as I don't hunt foxes, beavers, raccoon dogs or anything like that. So I think that I'll try to sum up my last hunting season with this post.

This season was my third one, but it was special for me as I had my own little hunting buddy with me for the first time. I'm of course talking about my dog Ruska, a female Finnish Spitz. She was only four months old when we went out to the woods for the first time.

Of course the first months Ruska was just getting used to the forest. It was sometimes scary for a little dog to see mooses or get a little bit lost in the woods. But she was very brave and eager to go for an adventure.

When the duck hunting season started, I was supposed to hunt with my friend who has a retrieving dog. But when I got to the small lake where we were supposed to meet, he called and said that he couldn't make it that day. I had driven two hours to get there, so I wasn't going home without getting anything.

I thought that there would be no use for my shotgun, as it would be very hard to find falling ducks without a dog by myself. So I decided to try to shoot the ducks with a rifle while they were chilling on the rocks or swimming near the shore. I managed to get one, which was swimming about 50 meters from the shore. I had to retrieve it by swimming, as I had no boat. :D

The first game bird which I shot in cooperation with my dog was a hazel grouse. We had been walking around the woods for hours and had many encounters with black grouses and capercaillies, but I didn't get a chance to shoot at them. Just as we we're heading home, I saw something move in the corner of my eye and I realized it was a hazel grouse running for it's life. I took one shot at it with my shotgun, and then Ruska jumped on it and finished it off. She was really proud of herself, even though she actually didn't do anything. :D

Just before moose hunting season started, I took my trusty Tikka T3 rifle and headed to the wetlands to hunt black grouses in the morning. It was still dark when I made my way to the edge of the bog, so I had good time to scout a good shooting position and put my ghillie suit on. When the first rays of sunlight started to hit the treetops, grouses started to fly around the bog.

 
After a while I saw five male grouses land on pine trees about 250 meters away from me. I used laser range finder to find out the exact distance and then I just looked up my ballistic chart for the correct elevation. As I was camouflaged and was using a silencer on my rifle, I managed to shoot two grouses without scaring away the others.

Before I started to make dinner out of the grouses, I let Ruska play with them and sniff them to make sure she would know what she was supposed to hunt.

Then moose hunting season started. We were hunting only on weekends and almost every hunting day someone managed to shoot a moose, so things were going smoothly. I got my season's first moose, when we were hunting in a small island. I was stalking on the shore of main land when I saw a female moose and a young moose run near the shore of the island. Then they jumped in the water and started to swim towards me. I made a decision to scare them back to the island, as they might get away if they could make their way to main land. They turned back, and just when they were getting out of the water, I decided to take a shot at the young moose. It took me a while to get to the island after the shot, but we managed to track and find the moose.

On the final day of grouse hunting season, I took few hours off from work and went back to the wetlands in early morning. It was a really cold weather and the grouses were having their mating dance. I had the luxury of picking out the grouse I wanted to shoot, as they were all over the place.

 

After the grouse hunting season, I was mainly hunting moose and deer. I managed to shoot two more moose, but I wasn't so lucky with deers. I saw deers many times, but we we're advised not to shoot them before the ground was covered in snow to make tracking the wounded deers easier. When the snow came, I didn't see a single deer.

In late February I got a chance to train Ruska with pheasants. Terrain was covered in snow when we made our way to the forest. 

After a while we came across a male pheasant and Ruska scared it up to a tree. Ruska found the bird and started to bark at it really well. I loaded my rifle and sneaked towards the bird. I found the bird sitting on a branch, looking at Ruska. I took a shot at it and it fell rumbling down. When I got to the bird and picked it up, it looked like a feathered octopus. I had it hit it straight to the big bones in the chest, which caused the bullet to fragment and it blew up the bird. But at least Ruska got good training.