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What did you do in the reloading room today?

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Continuing to get the new reloading space set up. My wife bought a tumbler for me that showed up yesterday so I'll be setting that up this weekend and get started on some brass prep. Spent a lot of time reading the debate over wet vs. dry tumbling and decided to start with a wet tumbler. I've been slowly accumulating tools and equipment to upgrade (several items from the PX here) and scored the bench from a friend show was making some changes at his business. Its a U-Line packaging table so has a lot of bolt-ons available.

I added a second shelf on the back last weekend - still need to adjust things and I'll likely lower the top shelf a bit. Also considering the light kit that has arm and an LED fixture that mounts to the top of the uprights on the back of the bench. Not sure what I'll do with the pegboard as I prefer tools put away in a tool chest. I'm waiting on a quick change mount from Inline for the new Dillon 750 and my old single stage. Looking forward to getting the presses mounted so I can get going. Its in the garage so I'll still store powder and a lot of other things inside where the temp is more stable.
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I also added an optional extension outlet. The legs are pre-punched for outlets. I was pleasantly surprised that it had outlet on both side of the box and a switch on the back to shut off the outlet. I might get another one.
 
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Continuing to get the new reloading space set up. My wife bought a tumbler for me that showed up yesterday so I'll be setting that up this weekend and get started on some brass prep. Spent a lot of time reading the debate over wet vs. dry tumbling and decided to start with a wet tumbler. I've been slowly accumulating tools and equipment to upgrade (several items from the PX here) and scored the bench from a friend show was making some changes at his business. Its a U-Line packaging table so has a lot of bolt-ons available.

I added a second shelf on the back last weekend - still need to adjust things and I'll likely lower the top shelf a bit. Also considering the light kit that has arm and an LED fixture that mounts to the top of the uprights on the back of the bench. Not sure what I'll do with the pegboard as I prefer tools put away in a tool chest. I'm waiting on a quick change mount from Inline for the new Dillon 750 and my old single stage. Looking forward to getting the presses mounted so I can get going. Its in the garage so I'll still store powder and a lot of other things inside where the temp is more stable.
View attachment 7533743

I also added an optional extension outlet. The legs are pre-punched for outlets. I was pleasantly surprised that it had outlet on both side of the box and a switch on the back to shut off the outlet. I might get another one.
That’s an awesome bench!
 
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The 223 77gn seconds I got from midway have a giant BTO variance so sorting 1k of them out. Getting extreme spreads of .040
 
I have recently recived 1k seconds in 55g 223 that was very much the same.

Concesus from my mentors on the hide was to just shoot them first.

A. You paid for seconds.
B. The accuracy loss in a semi automatic may be within acceptable limits.

It was explained to me that you seat by the ogive and it's a constant.

You are fretting over a 5% deviance.

I will add.
C. Consider it lucky to have them at all these days.
 
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I have recently recived 1k seconds in 55g 223 that was very much the same.

Concesus from my mentors on the hide was to just shoot them first.

A. You paid for seconds.
B. The accuracy loss in a semi automatic may be within acceptable limits.

It was explained to me that you seat by the ogive and it's a constant.

You are fretting over a 5% deviance.

I will add.
C. Consider it lucky to have them at all these days.
It’s more about them not fitting inside of the mag if I seated them all to the same length. Found 150 that were .020-.030 longer than normal. with those 77s you need to seat them as long as you can.

and I do use that AR and those loads in a more precision type roll. I got em to shoot pretty well. And the gun does get shot out to 500-600 yards a lot.

23.6gn imr 8208 xbr with those 77gn factory seconds
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Mine were base to ogive variables.
You said yours were bto variables.

My ogive to metplat remained fairly constant.

So my jump didn't move and my coal didn't change.

It made a lot more difference when my headstamps were changed. With range brass and on a dillon.

Ultimately I have those cheap seconds shooting 1.12 moa in a cheap AR Stoner 16 in barrel and if I get a new rear bag (too soft) it may get better.

If the ogive to tip is moving .040 that's a different story.

There have been articles basicly have you find max length you have available iether mag or chamber whichever you hit first, back up for safety, run loads then tweek by going shorter in 0.003 increments.

 
Today I mixed up powder. Had 3lbs of H 4831sc in a 8 lb jug and 4 1 lb. bottles of the same, no common lot #.
Added 1 lb at a time and rolled it around til I had 7 lbs in one jug. Rolled it and rolled it and turned too.
I will load down a bit but would predict this jug shoots the same as the last one.
Does anyone else shoot 6.5/06? on here. I love it.
 
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Today I mixed up powder. Had 3lbs of H 4831sc in a 8 lb jug and 4 1 lb. bottles of the same, no common lot #.
Added 1 lb at a time and rolled it around til I had 7 lbs in one jug. Rolled it and rolled it and turned too.
I will load down a bit but would predict this jug shoots the same as the last one.
Does anyone else shoot 6.5/06? on here. I love it.
15 years ago at a gunshow, a XTR Featherweight in 6.5-06, it called out to me, Buy Me! I did not and I have regretted it everyday since.
I did inventory this past weekend and mixed H4895 together.
 
Today was recycling day for me.
Working on precious metals this evening till my hands gave out.

Cleaning and uniforming pockets on some precious brass getting them ready to recycle and emptying some precious aluminum getting it ready to recycle as well.

My little piece of civic duty for the day.

Maybe if I cast some bullets out of recycled precious lead the tree hugging bitches would kiss my ass?
 
Today, this AM, I sized 20 rds. of old LC67 brass for my 6.5/06, 3 times fired brass. Just a little experiment I have going on.
I inspect each round carefully and did cull 1 piece as it looked to me that a split neck was going to happen but I am really anal about inspecting brass at all stages of the game.
 
Just realized the 200 rounds of cleaned deprimed range brass (exceptionally clean and picked over for culls) I sorted out for this batch is GFL (Ficochi).

Was going to save it for armageddon. Lol

Guess I will see how it shoots.
 
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Ran a new circuit in the basement and added 6 outlets and two more led lights. Should be set to make the reloading bench a permanent fixture.
 
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Today I had to deprime 50 6.5g rounds that were not sized properly? Something got loose.

Those new primers fell into a bin with about a thousand dirty spent primers.

Damn.
 
Was too frustrated in how my headspace is changing by 2-0.003.

The lee quick change die "base" has play in it. I will use it on a universal die or something that will not matter.

Now I have 30 6.5g cases with slop but within tolerance.
Will use them for rough test, foulers ect.
Thier still closer than factory.

This may have been a factor in previous tests un noticed.
I check several rounds then run a small batch, larger batches get intermittent checks.

I had been running 25 at a time so went un noticed.

What the hell next ?
Murphy's Law strikes again !
 
Was too frustrated in how my headspace is changing by 2-0.003.

The lee quick change die "base" has play in it. I will use it on a universal die or something that will not matter.

Now I have 30 6.5g cases with slop but within tolerance.
Will use them for rough test, foulers ect.
Thier still closer than factory.

This may have been a factor in previous tests un noticed.
I check several rounds then run a small batch, larger batches get intermittent checks.

I had been running 25 at a time so went un noticed.

What the hell next ?
Murphy's Law strikes again !
Could you just resize without decap pin therefore not having to lose good primers?
 
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Well yes, if while you were pissed off you remembered that your 6.5 sinclair turning mandrell pin had finally came in after waiting 5 months..

I purchased it to uniform neck tension between different brass and hadn't used it since it came in.

Have been on 223 & 308 for months on end.

Now to top off my day hornady and lee books vary 200 fps and by just over 1 full grain on published max.

I have another book and look online to sort that out better tomorrow.

The H335 is new to me.
The lee book shows it hitting 2500 fps with the h335 and a 123 bullet.
 
Well yes, if while you were pissed off you remembered that your 6.5 sinclair turning mandrell pin had finally came in after waiting 5 months..

I purchased it to uniform neck tension between different brass and hadn't used it since it came in.

Have been on 223 & 308 for months on end.

Now to top off my day hornady and lee books vary 200 fps and by just over 1 full grain on published max.

I have another book and look online to sort that out better tomorrow.

The H335 is new to me.
The lee book shows it hitting 2500 fps with the h335 and a 123 bullet.
Hodgdon says 28.7gn of H335 @2508fps w/ a 24” barrel
 
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Thanks that matches the lee book exactly I think.
Thanks
I had to stop for the nite.
 
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I got the tumbler my wife bought for me unboxed and set up - easy assembly. Smaller than I expected but looking forward to getting it going. I received some annealer parts from Giraud - great service and they were sent with minimal delay (which is rare for shooting related items these days!)

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I also unpacked my press mounts from Inline Precision. I can't say enough good things about Dan and his team and the service at Inline Precision. I went with the quick change system and plates for my new Dillon, a plate for my co-ax (still a rust bucket rebuild project), and a custom plate for my old Pacific press that I'll continue to use even its just for decapping, etc. The custom plate is perfect and everything was wrapped and packed very well! Picked up a couple more bins as well.

On the Dillon 750 I'm not sure how much space I'll need on either side. I'd like to mount it near the right end of the bench. Any feedback on how much working room I'll want on the right side of the press would be greatly appreciated. I don't want any bins or anything else hanging past the right end of the bench.
 
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Still trying to get my 460 XVR to shoot my “homegrown” 400 grain, powder coated, cast bullets at the speed and accuracy I desire! A work in progress! memtb
 
Not just today but pretty much since Deer Season closed I've been trying to get better organized. I have almost every piece of brass that I own deprimed, tumbled, sorted by caliber, sorted by headstamp and stored away in either plastic coffee cans, MTM boxes or ammo cans that are labeled. The pistol brass has also been resized. I shoot premium brass in my precision and hunting rifles but I use range brass in my handguns.

I also built a set of shelves out of 2X8's and cinder blocks for my loaded ammo. I copied these from another member that posted pictures of his. I don't remember who it was but if I did I would give him credit. This ammo is in ammo cans that are labeled on the outside and have notes on the inside.

Somewhere along the way I have inventoried my powder and primers and created a spread sheet for them. As you can imagine I found stuff that I had forgot about.

This is a new level of organization for me and while it doesn't sound like much it represents several days and hours of work. I've vowed to keep it this way!

Next up is to permanently stamp about 12,000 lead ingots with initials showing their contents. WW = Clip-on Wheelweights, PB = stick-on weights and sheet lead, RL= Range Lead, ISO = Isotope Lead. This will take a while! Whenever it warms up some of these will get cast into bullets!
 
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A couple of free common containers for organizing or transport.

The peanut jar fits nicely into the side pockets of a backpack / ruck.

The square snack container stacks well for working batches / segregation of headstamps.

But yes I have ammo boxes, plastic shoe boxes, and 5 gallon buckets of ammo and brass. Those were purchased and most of the time a larger amount than working on .

Those free containers are fine for components and plinking ammo I use ammo boxes for precision rounds.

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Edit: Who would have ever thought you could put 200$ worth of ammo into a plastic peanut jar.
 
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I sorted some 1 fire 25/06 brass I got from a friend. Half WW and half Frontier, that is kind of old.

Tomorrow it goes through the die to 6.5/06 and play with it some more.
 
Last night put all my 6.5 and .308 brass in MTM 100 round boxes. I have always kept home in bulk bins, but really never knew how much I had, especially of each headstamp. The OCD in me feels better now, and I can keep better track of the various stages of brass prep in 100 round batches.
 
Deprimed and resized about 80 270 win and about 200 223/556 tonight. Will put them through the wet tumbler tomorrow and then check for case length and trim if necessary. Will probably follow up the next day with priming and loading. I still have a batch of primed 270 win, primed 224 valkyrie that needs loading. Also got new unprimed 458 socom to load. By the time all the brass is loaded up, my primer stash will be low.

The plan
223 rem + cfe 223 + 50gr frangibles
556 nato + cfe 223 + 75 gr bergers
224 val + cfe 223 + 88 eld-m
458 socom + accurate 5744 + rainier 350
458 socom + h110 + nosler 300gr
270 win + RL16 + hammer hunter 156
270 win + RL26 + 170 berger eol

Need 6.5 prc brass, and dies. Have a barrel ready to swap but no components or dies.
 
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Cleaned the pigsty and reloaded about 1000 22 lr from pulled bullets and Fedarms shit primed brass. Madness!
 
I moved 3200 22lr rounds from one spot to another. Then I got bored and made some sugar rockets.
 
Took a quick inventory of powder and primers.

Developed an ELR load for the FN five seven.
 

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Loaded poors brass for the last time. It’s getting shaky. Added five pieces of shiny new brass to check speed.
Next report will be with
all new brass.
 
Took a quick inventory of powder and primers.

Developed an ELR load for the FN five seven.
40g A or Z max loaded speedy, and shot from the proper 5.7 platform will surprise you on how far it will reach consistently
 
Took an actual inventory of my .22lr ammo, then sorted it all into two different ammo drawers; bulk ammo and target ammo.
Less than I thought I had, but still plenty to get me through the next few years. Realized the other day I’ll be teaching my son to shoot during this presidency...
 
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I made a pressure work up with 800-x for my 10mm. Was using aa #9, but got tired of 14 grains per pull.