What did you do in the reloading room today?

Snuby642 said:

Interested in your 223 / 69 / tack load, could you expand on that a little.
That is my next load to do development on.

100 round boxes ? Why ?View attachment 7923960

Everything except ladder tests / development goes into these for working stock and range grabers.

The big penut butter size stores 120 223 and fits the side pocket on a ruck. View attachment 7923961

Free and a reasonable give away size. Controls people wanting to dive into big ammo cans for a range orgy.

Click to expand...

I get the boxes for $2 ea and they're designed for purpose, so why not?!

M

edited to add: I picked a load from the book that isn't either max or min. In this case, it should be the same speed as the varget accuracy load listed. I'm saving my varget for the 77gr bullets that are on their way.

PRIMING



My hand hurts. A little past half way

Ledzep said:

PRIMING

View attachment 7924186

My hand hurts. A little past half way

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Are you using a hand primer? That would get old fast with that kind of volume.

I dug out my 300BO die.


And discovered I had mislabeled it. Turns out I don’t have a 300BO die dammit.

357Max said:

Are you using a hand primer? That would get old fast with that kind of volume.

Click to expand...

Yeah I'm doing a couple hundred at a time while I watch YouTube.

Well since i put in a serious shift aprox 8 hours.
I figured id post a picture.
400- 300.norma laser beams
200 brass was prepped. 200 was tumbled and dried last night. Had to anneal size and trim.

Ready to go to RFMA High angle course in alberta tomorrow.

Deer season peaking its head around the corner. Getting the 44 mag ready to go.

I'm out of primers till my buddy gets off his keister and brings over the 2k of SRPs he bought for me

The box of 77gr Sierras came in. Got some of those loaded for testing

M

Found another batch of Frontier range brass to start working, yea.

That will make enough to bother setting up the dillon for the bobs/ H335.

My problem is 25.2g or 25.3g ?


Interesting string at 25.0g.
The 52g speer is gtg.

Note: This sheet was shot at 50 yards.

25.0-25.4gr of H335 has always been a winner under 55gr bullets.

My go to is 25.2-25.4 and 55gr Nosler Ballistic Tips.

Worked in every .223/5.56 I've owned, ranging from 16in barrels to 26in.

Made up some dummy rounds of 44 mag going to see if the 255gr SWC gas checked cast bullets will feed through my 1892 clone.

According to Lyman these should be seated coal 1.68” but max saami is 1.61 so I’m curious to see if they they will cycle.

If not, 44 spec cases it is

Scrummy

I finally got tired of hand trimming cases after a couple of years and decided to go all in on the Henderson Precision Case trimmer. What use to take me an hour and a half is down to fifteen minutes, I couldn't be happier. All fifty cases were within 0.001" of each other and the chamfer and debur is top notch. The unit arrived three weeks after placing my order, still waiting for the catch bin and #3 collet to arrive.

reubenski said:

Ya, the Henderson is the best thing going these days. All the Giraud guys are holding on. Even tho their sore fingers are slipping

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I checked the Giraud out but it just looked like it was going to be too much work to setup multiple calipers. The Henderson was a lot more than I'd like to spend but I figured why not, you only live once and it should last a lifetime.

439$ and powered by your hand drill ?

155 gr smk Palma (#2156), Peterson .308 SRP case, 46.8 gr Varget, CCI #450 SRP

Was looking at this monstrosity from Hornady but last powder measure from them crapped out on me.

Loaded some starting loads for my mates brand new EDGE

We loaded 300gr bergers at 3.960” to start with at 90 thou jump, his chamber is measuring 4.050” COAL with a jammed projectile

Had good results straight up, still at mild pressure, lots more work to do but it’s looking like a good barrel

Just 50 308 Win from the last of the 150 pre-primed Winchester brass I had put away since moving on to Lapua brass a while back.

I use a lighter projectile for the critters we cull here at night:
*125 grn Sierra SPFB over 39.4 grns AR2207 (H 4198). Rem 9 1/2 primer, 40 Lb neck tension, BTO of 2.192 (0.005 off the lands) COAL of 2.689" .
Velocities Avg 3026 with around 18 SD which, is great for Win brass.
Ten rounds into 0.8 MOA more often than not.

Getting ready to move everything reloading related from my shed/man cave into a bedroom formerly occupied by one of the offspring...

This should just about triple the space dedicated to reloading. It should also free up a bunch of space in the shed for my other hobby... leatherwork.

My bench is cobbled together from scrap lumber. But my wife surprised me a while back with a butcher block top. I rigged it up on hinges so I could raise it up to reveal a storage area underneath.

Worked better on paper than in practice though. I don't recommend it... You gotta move all your crap off the bench top to open it. I knew that going in. But I didn't figure it would be as big a problem as it turned out to be...
The butcher block was heavy enough; bolt a press to the edge and you can kiss your fingers goodbye if it ever fell. I believe I will change it to an "open front" design... Like a lap drawer but just a cubby to keep certain items handy.

Lot of moving and work to be done. Any advice on shelves/organization or must have items?

Mike

Inline Fabrication has some nice goods.

OkieMike said:

Getting ready to move everything reloading related from my shed/man cave into a bedroom formerly occupied by one of the offspring...

This should just about triple the space dedicated to reloading. It should also free up a bunch of space in the shed for my other hobby... leatherwork.

My bench is cobbled together from scrap lumber. But my wife surprised me a while back with a butcher block top. I rigged it up on hinges so I could raise it up to reveal a storage area underneath.

Worked better on paper than in practice though. I don't recommend it... You gotta move all your crap off the bench top to open it. I knew that going in. But I didn't figure it would be as big a problem as it turned out to be...
The butcher block was heavy enough; bolt a press to the edge and you can kiss your fingers goodbye if it ever fell. I believe I will change it to an "open front" design... Like a lap drawer but just a cubby to keep certain items handy.

Lot of moving and work to be done. Any advice on shelves/organization or must have items?

Mike

Click to expand...

Use different kind of hinge.

Got around to depriming, tumbling and drying some brass I had. Now need to chamfer/trim and prime them to get ready for load testing 308 and 6ARC.

Cleaned new Hornady 6mm Creedmoor dies. Getting ready to reform 200 pcs 6.5 Creedmoor to the 6mm variety this week.

Had trouble on the dillon with the priming system today.

Gave up fighting it and disconnected it. They wouldn't seat fully and primer was sticking up in machine also making indexing rough.

I size in my single stage anyway on range brass


I primed on my single stage and cranked out enough to play with.

Loaded 100 rounds of 38 special with 3 grains of green dot and 148 hollow base wad cutters. Gonna go poke some holes in paper tomorrow

I swapped tool heads on my T7 press to the 9x19 and .223 dies.

Loading 9mm with 124g Precision Deltas, I haven't decided which powder I am going to use yet.

Butterburger said:

I swapped tool heads on my T7 press to the 9x19 and .223 dies.

Loading 9mm with 124g Precision Deltas, I haven't decided which powder I am going to use yet.

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124 PDs... nice round for sure. Open gun for USPSA or just normal ammo? Im a huge fan of Titegroup, but not sure of your purposes

Loaded 200 9mm during the kids’ nap.
4.0gr Bullseye, 115gr plated round nose.

Been single staging my 45 acp because have dillon set for 223.

The lee auto drum sitting on the flairing die is holding the powder setting very well according to both my scales.

I may just move it to the dillon when I get a plate and tool head and use the lee dies I like better anyway.

My lgs hasn't had spray lube for sizing for a long while. Been using Imperial wax for rifle.

What's y'alls favorite ?

I just figured out how to be left alone for an entire day I told everyone that I was going to clean brass and if they came out they had a job waiting for them mean while I cleaned brass , resized it and watched 6 old westerns and a whole collection of old Godzilla movies undesterbed I mean not a peep It was wonderful .

Snuby642 said:

Been single staging my 45 acp because have dillon set for 223.

The lee auto drum sitting on the flairing die is holding the powder setting very well according to both my scales.

I may just move it to the dillon when I get a plate and tool head and use the lee dies I like better anyway.

My lgs hasn't had spray lube for sizing for a long while. Been using Imperial wax for rifle.

What's y'alls favorite ?

Click to expand...

I use the dillon spray lube. I've used my original(as in the first reloading dies I ever owned) Lee Ten mike-mike dies in my 550 for almost 30yrs.

Updated my AMP to latest firmware version, giving me auto start. No more pushing button to anneal. Certainly quicker and beats hitting that thing thousands of times. Always thought that button would be the first to go with all the depressing.

Prepped 500 cases of once fired GAP 6MM GT (Hornady). Deprimed, tumbled and annealed.

How old is the update? I got my amp a few months ago, should probably have it, i would think. Ive never thought to look

BLKWLFK9 said:

How old is the update? I got my amp a few months ago, should probably have it, i would think. Ive never thought to look

Click to expand...

I believe it came out late last year... you need it just for the auto start!

Snuby642 said:

Been single staging my 45 acp because have dillon set for 223.

The lee auto drum sitting on the flairing die is holding the powder setting very well according to both my scales.

I may just move it to the dillon when I get a plate and tool head and use the lee dies I like better anyway.

My lgs hasn't had spray lube for sizing for a long while. Been using Imperial wax for rifle.

What's y'alls favorite ?

Click to expand...

I started out using the Lee toothpaste. It worked OK but was a bit time/labor intensive. Went to Hornady Unique and it has worked flawlessly.

I guess it's my "favorite." But since it's only the 2nd product I've tried it isn't much of a basis for comparison... But it works good and was like $4 for the little tub.

I have a can of One Shot lube I've never used... Heard all the horror stories so it has just sat and collected dust. I'm going to have to figure out something though... I have a ton of Lake City that I'm going to have to process and the fingertip dip and swipe with Unique isn't going to cut it timewise.

Mike

When I first started rifle brass I stuck a few with one shot and the dillon lubes.

Started in on Imperial wax and never stuck another case.

I may have been too stupid to use those other products at the time but want to try the lanolin / alcohol spray and follow conventional wisdom.

The wax really eats up time.

The biggest problems caused by Oneshot lube isn't the lube.
It's caused by incorrectly using it and trying to be sparing with it.
If you follow the directions, you won't stick cases.

Also, with any lube, if you feel heavy resistance, STOP.
Don't try forcing the brass into the die.

Snuby642 said:

When I first started rifle brass I stuck a few with one shot and the dillon lubes.

Started in on Imperial wax and never stuck another case.

I may have been too stupid to use those other products at the time but want to try the lanolin / alcohol spray and follow conventional wisdom.

The wax really eats up time.

Click to expand...

I always have a tin of Imperial by the press for one-off sizing tests, but the lanolin/alcohol is the cats ass for lubing anything larger than 25 cases. I throw them in the tumbler after sizing for about 20-30 minutes to clean all the lube off. You will go through 10 cans of oneshot before you come close to using a quart of alcohol in a 4 to 1 ratio with lanolin. I use a gallon Ziplock baggie to put the cases in, couple pumps from the spray bottle, massage the brass in the baggie, put them in the loading blocks, and wait about 5 minutes for the alcohol to evaporate.

Have sized over 5000 cases this year of mostly 6 BRA and 284, and haven't gone through a pint of the mix yet. Shake the bottle before you spray the brass to make sure the lanolin is mixed well with the alcohol.

So ya got ingredients scrounged up.

Fiber optic cleaning solution I had laying around 99.8% IPA.
Standard squirt bottle courtesy of the wife.
And for the grand finale, courtesy of the wife an ingredient that may be sitting around.



That's right nipple cream, for you deplorables 100% lanolin.
Because no one wants bad brass or tough tities.

Govt Mule said:

I always have a tin of Imperial by the press for one-off sizing tests, but the lanolin/alcohol is the cats ass for lubing anything larger than 25 cases. I throw them in the tumbler after sizing for about 20-30 minutes to clean all the lube off. You will go through 10 cans of oneshot before you come close to using a quart of alcohol in a 4 to 1 ratio with lanolin. I use a gallon Ziplock baggie to put the cases in, couple pumps from the spray bottle, massage the brass in the baggie, put them in the loading blocks, and wait about 5 minutes for the alcohol to evaporate.

Have sized over 5000 cases this year of mostly 6 BRA and 284, and haven't gone through a pint of the mix yet. Shake the bottle before you spray the brass to make sure the lanolin is mixed well with the alcohol.

Click to expand...

That mixture has been around forever.
For good reasons.

Snuby642 said:

So ya got ingredients scrounged up.

Fiber optic cleaning solution I had laying around 99.8% IPA.
Standard squirt bottle courtesy of the wife.
And for the grand finale, courtesy of the wife an ingredient that may be sitting around.

View attachment 7932070

That's right nipple cream, for you deplorables 100% lanolin.
Because no one wants bad brass or tough tities.

Click to expand...

For tough titties, you just gotta chew on them longer. They eventually soften up and she'll be happy you didn't just go straight for the gold.

Finished 500 rounds of 6 MM GT
GAP Hornady Once fired Cases
SMK 107
H4350 35 Grains
CCI 400, FROM THE 80S

Mike Casselton said:

The biggest problems caused by Oneshot lube isn't the lube.
It's caused by incorrectly using it and trying to be sparing with it.
If you follow the directions, you won't stick cases.

Also, with any lube, if you feel heavy resistance, STOP.
Don't try forcing the brass into the die.

Click to expand...

Sad to say I have occasionally resembled that remark.

Mike Casselton said:

The biggest problems caused by Oneshot lube isn't the lube.
It's caused by incorrectly using it and trying to be sparing with it.
If you follow the directions, you won't stick cases.

Also, with any lube, if you feel heavy resistance, STOP.
Don't try forcing the brass into the die.

Click to expand...

I was also told to clean the die(s) of any traces of other lube used prior before you use One Shot.

I can't verify because I still haven't used any of it yet.

Mike

I sometimes use Imperial on a few cases. I never bother cleaning either one out.
I do tend to clean my dies once a year whether they need it or not.

I finally got tired of having crappy gun vises and decided to put a proper vise on my bench:



I installed threaded inserts into the bench so I can move (or remove) the vise as needed.



I was soooooo tempted to buy an Orange Vise, but couldn't justify the cost.

Spent an enjoyable afternoon at the bench handloading some 300 PRC for tomorrow morning at the range, our club is planning on installing a one mile target.

FedEx dropped off a case of new Hornady 6mm 109 ELDM today, Sunday!

I was surprised no plastic bag, just loose bullets in the factory box! Luckily, it didn't spring a leak and leave a bread crumb like trail!

Loaded a 1/2 box worth of 6.5 Grendel to verify load development and zero the rifle for my father. This was after discovering a self created problem with my Charge Master Dispenser unit. Now to be calling RCBS in the morning.