What did you do in the reloading room today?

[Snuby642]

I'm loosing my mind. Cleaned up my brass that I caused the mouths to become wicked/peend using my giraud. Also switched to walnut vibratory cleaning. Lot less cleanup I will say.

But....

I noticed several cases have it again. I've already trimmed these cases below spec to clean them up. What now? I have no idea how this is occurring.

Sounds like your case trimmer is set up or adjusted wrong.

Peening, even from wet tumbling, isn't the result of the media being used. It's the cases themselves banging against each other. The amount of brass to media ratio and the amount of time being tumbled that's a play. Overload the tumbler with brass and that brass is going to bang around against each other a lot. Reduce the amount of brass you're tumbling at one and try to reduce the amount of time tumbling to a minimum to get the results you want.

I have put 250 rounds of 223 into a vibratory tumbler with walnut media to overflowing, only worries are wearing out the motor or making a mess. Too much brass in the vibro and not enough media?
Fill it to recommended max and let it ride.

I have let brass "tumble" overnight just to see how shiny it would get. No preening or other defects noted. It didn't look much better than a 4 hour run.

How do people come up with so many problems with one of the simplest tasks of reloading?

The tumblers wet or dry come with instructions and you can see video online. Then as allways get plenty of help on this forum.

Take a few pictures and let the guys see what's going on.

 

[Im2bent]

By any chance are you annealing the fuck out of your brass before tumbling?

 

[Snuby642]

Ya that might do it if you ignored instructions and conventional wisdom.

A couple of my favorite brands of range brass are very soft to start with but never had problems with tumbler.

I noticed some problems with trimming the soft stuff with a few different trimming devices causing chatter.

You have to slow the feeding down or try another device. Hard brass trims nice and clean.

 

[HemiPowrd]

Loaded 50 rounds of 300 PRC ammo for a semi long range competition as perfect as I can make it. Weight sorted everything and then weight sorted the loaded rounds.

 

[jLorenzo]

I had a groundbreaking revelation...

 

[XTREM HTR16]

I'm loosing my mind. Cleaned up my brass that I caused the mouths to become wicked/peend using my giraud. Also switched to walnut vibratory cleaning. Lot less cleanup I will say.

But....

I noticed several cases have it again. I've already trimmed these cases below spec to clean them up. What now? I have no idea how this is occurring.

Consider not cleaning them. Just resize, make sure they’re good, load and shoot

 

[farrar86]

I do anneal before sizing yes. I don't feel it's over done. But maybe. How would that cause the mouths to have that lip on them?

 

[VSP968]

Gunstop Reloading has Lapua 223 if anyone is looking for it. They’re legit; I’ve been buying from them for years.

Lapua 223 Remington (100)

Gunstop is a premier dealer of reloading supplies and ammunition. Established in 1991, we pride ourselves on providing unbeatable value and client satisfaction.

www.gunstop.com

 

[Mike Casselton]

I had a groundbreaking revelation...

Harrell's, Redding and about three or four other manufacturers sell bottle adapters.
What's old, is new again.

Good thinking though.

 

[45-90]

Cutting bullets & re pointing to fit the magazine of the 338 ARC improved, and loading them in a progressive press.

Notice the false shoulder on the 338 ARC neck, to get a bit more velocity out of the light supers, but unchanged for subs, and still have good fill for subs as the long bullets take up most of the case, way down past the neck.

Notice the 338 ARC has a dedicated mag now...especially those blunt 307 gr bullets.

 

[straightshooter1]

Since I want to fire form some cases that I can measure their case volume, I’ve annealed, sized, prepped and loaded up 10 cases that I’ll also measure velocity to get some idea for velocity with a load of IMR-4064 that I’ve used before. Primers that were removed were reseated to the same depth as before (.004 blow flush).
View attachment 8656948

The rest of the cases were put through my annealing process as well (flame annealing to a red glow) then expanded the necks with a .305” expander mandrel. Once all the cases are fire formed, I’ll then turn the necks to .014” thick.
View attachment 8656951

To make sure all the powder is out of the cases and take care of the oxidation layer after annealing, I wet tumbled them with SS pins (25 min).
View attachment 8656952

Took the clean cases and FL sized them all, dry tumbled to remove lube and trimmed to length. Here the finished product:
View attachment 8656953

BTW: While sizing the cases, there was one case of the batch that had a funny sound when removing it from the sizing die. That sound and the way it felt alerted me that something wasn't right. I measured the case OAL and it was way long, like .032" longer that is should be. Measuring its headspace had the same issue. Apparently the steel head fitting to the brass has pulled out as there was much more space between the steel head and the brass body on the outside surface. So, it's not a case I'm going to try to use in any way.
View attachment 8657338

Finally got around to firing those 10 cartridge's I loaded with 41.7 grs of IMR-4064 behind some 190gr SMK's that's been just laying around for some time. This was simply to fire form them that I can measure their case volumes before I load the rest of them up. Case volume wasn't quite as much as I expected at an average of 56.3 grs H2O and the case weight averaged 165.5 grs. Neck thickness for these cases varied from ~.014" - ~ .015" on various cases. Case head space measured ~.001 longer than my fired Lapua cases, though they started out a little shorter.

SD was 4.7 with ES of 15 for the 10 shots, which is surprisingly good considering I reseated the primers that had been removed to the same seating depth. For an arbitrary load I used, it did surprisingly well (it's not a powder or load I plan to use, being it was just for fire forming).

The transition from the steel head to brass body appears to have tightened up nicely (left is an original case, right is a fired .308 case):

 

[Bacarrat]

Have you tried measuring water capacity on multiple cases? I did 1 but later realized there are 4 headstamps in the hybrid cases 23, 24, Fury and No Year. Me and a friend have had good luck so far with converted hybrid cases into 6.5CM, but I have been having some problems getting the converted 308s to shoot with the higher pressure loads. Doing all my checks everything seemed fine. I got bored and started to measure the weight of the cases, usually a very useless exercise. But these will very a lot, easily 12-15 grains different. For reference, I got some Lapua cases and they all measured within 1-1.5 of a grain. Usually the 24 headstamps will weigh more and the No Year brass is usually the lightest. Haven't had the chance to measure the water capacity between the head stamps yet.

 

[straightshooter1]

Have you tried measuring water capacity on multiple cases? I did 1 but later realized there are 4 headstamps in the hybrid cases 23, 24, Fury and No Year. Me and a friend have had good luck so far with converted hybrid cases into 6.5CM, but I have been having some problems getting the converted 308s to shoot with the higher pressure loads. Doing all my checks everything seemed fine. I got bored and started to measure the weight of the cases, usually a very useless exercise. But these will very a lot, easily 12-15 grains different. For reference, I got some Lapua cases and they all measured within 1-1.5 of a grain. Usually the 24 headstamps will weigh more and the No Year brass is usually the lightest. Haven't had the chance to measure the water capacity between the head stamps yet.

I did notice 2 different headstamps when I was selecting the 10 cases to fire form, but I haven't gone through the box of them to see if there are more than 2. Those that I fire formed had the headstamp of SIG 24 6.8mm (the 24 apparently being the year) and the others, which are much lighter like you mentioned, just had SIG 6.8x51mm. Those with the "24" weighed around 165 grs where the other's I mentioned weighted 148-151 grs and I suppose they'll have more case capacity (I'm guessing something like 57.5 grs for a fired .308 case???).

 

[Bacarrat]

From memory it was a 24 case with 57.1gr when I weighed the 1 case. I have some more loaded for this weekend and weigh them after.

Have only gone to the range a couple of times with the hybrids. Have learned a lot about what gun and bolt set up likes to be pushed. Seems like the small firing pin setups can be pushed pretty hard. Large firing pin and larger firing pin holes will show pressures sooner.

 

[Sossa]

40 25-06 casings were prepared in preparation for loading up some test rounds with IMR 4831 and retumbo. Speer 120 grain hot cor and 117 grain interlocks were used; the 110 accubond was attempted but unsuccessful.

 

[45-90]

My current 308 hybrid cases usually run 57 gr to 57.5 grs of H2O after firing depending on chamber and variations in the manufacturing, and how many places are tooled up to manufacture them.

 

[smithpa68]

Decapped some GP11. I found some Berdan primers and am thinking... why not try reloading these GP11 cases. A new challenge I suppose.