What did you reload today?

[Caveman Jim]

SQUIRREL DADDY!!!!

 

[oremike]

Broke the decapping pin on my universal die on the LEE APP... time to try the squirrel daddy brand next.

Also full length sized a few hundred 30 Carbine brass and then wet tumbled to shine them up prior to loading.

View attachment 1443821

Before you get to loading the 30 Carbine be sure to trim the long ones, 30 Carbine grow.

 

[Bill Siegle]

Well today at work I decided to add another 15 test rounds to my box so when I got home I measured out a few more grains and built some 45-70 rounds. All was going great till I shook the table and had an object fall and knock the RCBS scale just horribly! Apparently with enough force to knock out some of the ballast in the pan! A quick look on the Tube and a little lead added and I was back in business I confirmed everything with the electronic scale

 

[Caveman Jim]

Well today at work I decided to add another 15 test rounds to my box so when I got home I measured out a few more grains and built some 45-70 rounds. All was going great till I shook the table and had an object fall and knock the RCBS scale just horribly! Apparently with enough force to knock out some of the ballast in the pan! A quick look on the Tube and a little lead added and I was back in business I confirmed everything with the electronic scale

I hate when that happens but IMHO it is inevitable.

 

[Mono1]

swapped it over to use a universal decapping die to save money on pins

Universal Baby! That's the ticket!!

 

[Mikej]

Broke the decapping pin on my universal die on the LEE APP... time to try the squirrel daddy brand next.

Also full length sized a few hundred 30 Carbine brass and then wet tumbled to shine them up prior to loading.

View attachment 1443821

I use the same setup.

Have I been blessed? I've been loading since Nov 2011 and never broken a pin. Lee and Hornady dies. In that time there has only been crimped ought 6 and .223/5.56 in the last few years.
How do all these pins get broken?

Maybe I shouldn't be saying anything? Doesn't sound like a fun club to be in.

 

[oremike]

Have I been blessed? I've been loading since Nov 2011 and never broken a pin. Lee and Hornady dies. In that time there has only been crimped ought 6 and .223/5.56 in the last few years.
How do all these pins get broken?

Maybe I shouldn't be saying anything? Doesn't sound like a fun club to be in.

It's good to have yets. Rocks, lessor cases inside or berdan primers can bend or break decapping pins. I go gently, use squirrel daddy pins and very rarely bend or break a pin.

 

[Mikej]

It's good to have yets. Rocks, lessor cases inside or berdan primers can bend or break decapping pins. I go gently, use squirrel daddy pins and very rarely bend or break a pin.

In just the last week, processing some old LC '69-'77 .30-06 brass, I ran into some primers much harder to pop out than any others. The Hornady dies come with a couple extra pins thankfully. I would imagine that you, processing the brass you do, have had 50-1000 times the amount I've deprimed.

 

[Newberg]

The LEE APP allows fast processing, and just like mentioned above, you'll hit a rock or have a slight misalignment that hard stops the rhythm.

 

[Caveman Jim]

Have I been blessed? I've been loading since Nov 2011 and never broken a pin. Lee and Hornady dies. In that time there has only been crimped ought 6 and .223/5.56 in the last few years.
How do all these pins get broken?

Maybe I shouldn't be saying anything? Doesn't sound like a fun club to be in.

You ain't trying hard enough my friend, get with it and break some pins.

 

[Catfishmoon]

Have I been blessed? I've been loading since Nov 2011 and never broken a pin. Lee and Hornady dies. In that time there has only been crimped ought 6 and .223/5.56 in the last few years.
How do all these pins get broken?

Maybe I shouldn't be saying anything? Doesn't sound like a fun club to be in.

I have bent a few, but I have never had one break. It does seem to be the occasional berdan primer that caused me a problem, But Squirrel Daddy pins are stronger and I have never had an issue with one of those.

 

[Mikej]

You ain't trying hard enough my friend, get with it and break some pins.

Well I get the idea you are a HARD CORE brass scrounger. Probably done way more primer punching than me. Like I said though, some of that Lake City military stuff had real firmly seated primers. It was all CMP stuff, in CMP boxes. A good many of those cases were pulled down from belts for machine gun. you could see where the links were on the brass.

 

[oremike]

Looks like today is the last non loading day for awhile, but I did get the bucket of rifle brass sorted last week and took the 38 super out for some happy can therapy yesterday. Tomorrow I'll be getting 9mm and 45 acp bullets and soon some for the 38 Special and 32 H&R for a cowboy action customer. I'm still waiting for bullets and brass for 30 Carbine. I don't know what's up with that.

 

[Newberg]

Broke the LEE APP shuttle yesterday. LEE is sending me a new shuttle assembly and spring so I should be back to normal soon.

Even with this busted, I was still able to decap and then swage a few hundred 5.56 cases.

Once the shuttle breaks like this, it won't return to normal back position so a case won't drop in. But if you use your left hand to snap it back a case falls and you can still do everything else normally. So with limited ergonomic movements it was still possible to process brass very fast. Even when busted.

 

[Newberg]

Deprimed and swaged cases headed to Annealing today prior to full length sizing. Once done then off to the 3 way trimmer.

Final step is a quick tumble to clean lube, primer pockets and polish prior to loading.

 

[Newberg]

Annealing in progress now.

Done with my cleaned brass that has been deprimed and swaged.

Now working on the dirty brass that was deprimed and swaged.

Annealing can be done clean or dirty, doesn't matter, as long as it's prior to resizing.

 

[Newberg]

Dirty cases about to be annealed.

 

[Caveman Jim]

I loaded up some 38 special with some of @Agingstudent coated 125g bullets yesterday.
All I had was 38+ P and 357.

I also got all my speed loaders labeled.

 

[JJE76]

Annealing in progress now.

Done with my cleaned brass that has been deprimed and swaged.

Now working on the dirty brass that was deprimed and swaged.

Annealing can be done clean or dirty, doesn't matter, as long as it's prior to resizing.

View attachment 1444627 View attachment 1444628

What machine is that? Thinking of going to the dark side.

 

[Caveman Jim]

@Mikej is gonna like this… I resized 9 shy of 1k PMC .223 cases and didn't break a decapping pin (Go Squirrel Daddy). I threw out a bunch that didn't make the cut, I'm picky. Cleaned the Lanolin/Heet line with lacquer thinner and then wet tumbled half (they all wouldn't fit) with SS pins. I'll get a pic of the end product tomorrow.
I'm tired Boss, dog tired.