What did you reload today?

[nammac]

Early on in my casting adventure, a buddy and I kinda learned casting together. The lesson was make sure you've cast rounds with appropriate hardness and proper lubrication for the intended application. He turned a Ruger GP-100 into a smooth bore What a mess to get the barrel back to lands and grooves...

Agreed powder coating has completely changed the game, no need for messy lubes...

 

[DLS]

I'll add to the "Don't let your barrel get leaded" gang! It's a pain to clean. At least revolvers have short barrels and you can use the "Lewis Lead Remover" tool to simplify the cleanup, but it's still a lot of work.

I shot some cast bullets in a 98k Mauser that really filled up the grooves with lead After hundreds of passes with a brush and JB's it was still clogged up. I had a pharmacist friend that had some old mercury sitting around the shop from the days they actually compounded drugs. He had never gotten around to getting rid of it and when hearing my tales of woe he let me use it. This will never happen today with today's environmental laws by the way.

Mercury dissolves lead almost instantly. So I cleaned the barrel this way, being ultra careful to keep the mercury off of me and to capture all of it by covering the muzzle with a plastic bottle to catch all the patches and overspray and working over a plastic sheet covered with absorbent paper towels. I then returned the mercury, towels, patches etc. to him and he got rid of it through the proper haz-mat procedures.

I tell this tale to underscore how hard it is to get leading out of a rifle barrel. The best cleaning method is to avoid leading in the first place.

I can see that the Lee mold does not have provisions for a gas check, the velocity in .300 AAC Blackout would be low enough to not need one.

I also say thumbs up to powder coating. A garage sale toaster oven, a peanut butter jar and some Harbor Freight red works far better than any of the old style lubes. And there are even better coatings than the cheap H.F. powder.

 

[Lesliet]

I'm a big fan of the Hi-Tek coatings, I find them easy to get good results with. Makes me feel better not to have to handle lead quite as much, directly, with the coated slugs... plus they don't gum up bullet feeders with sticky lube.

 

[Lesliet]

Got the MEC 9000g press running pretty well, just had to go through and make all the adjustments, and clean/lube. Did 300 more rounds of 12 gauge trap loads , should be good to go for trap tomorrow. Out of hulls... guess that's a good stopping point, eh?

 

[Red98422]

Just loaded up 283 rounds of .45acp

230gn LRN Hitec 5.2gn universal....then I damaged my dang loading press . Got the parts coming to repair from lee, but it's frustrating being down while you have time to load

 

[Mikej]

Just loaded up 283 rounds of .45acp

230gn LRN Hitec 5.2gn universal....then I damaged my dang loading press . Got the parts coming to repair from lee, but it's frustrating being down while you have time to load

What happened to your press? I don't think there's anything on my Rock Chucker to break? UNLESS, it was the little priming arm thingy, which I've never used. Easier for me to hand prime.

 

[Lesliet]

230gn LRN Hitec 5.2gn universal.

What mold are you using? I'm using Lee's 452-230-TC for .45 acp, have a bunch of bullets to coat today after trap! Seems like in 9mm, my tc bullets are the most accurate thing I have, more accurate than the store-bought ones. Need to figure out a more ergonomic position to cast in, though, these big sessions are killin my back.

 

[Red98422]

What happened to your press? I don't think there's anything on my Rock Chucker to break? UNLESS, it was the little priming arm thingy, which I've never used. Easier for me to hand prime.

I'm using the Lee breach lock pro, and it feeds cases with a little shuttle along a ramp. Well when I got to going a bit too fast on the handle and a piece of brass got caught between the press body and that ramp and dented the heck out of it so it will not feed cases anymore. I could feed them one at a time I guess, but it kinda defeats the purpose of having a progressive imo.

What mold are you using? I'm using Lee's 452-230-TC for .45 acp, have a bunch of bullets to coat today after trap! Seems like in 9mm, my tc bullets are the most accurate thing I have, more accurate than the store-bought ones. Need to figure out a more ergonomic position to cast in, though, these big sessions are killin my back.

I haven't yet gotten into casting yet....not sure if I need another rabbit hole just yet lol, I'm purchasing my bullets from T&B Bullets which I have been very happy with.

I do hear you on the back issue, when I try to stand for long periods setting up my press for a new load or ladder it seems like no time at all and I start hurting. Thinking I might try a seated position here in the near future

 

[Red98422]

@Lesliet here is a picture of the bullet in question if that helps.

 

[Lesliet]

Pretty busy shooting/reloading day! Went and shot trap, came back and reloaded all the empties plus a few someone else gave me. ~ 300 rounds of 12 ga trap loads. Cleaned the reloading bench, pulled the Hornady press off and did the fab work I needed to do to mount the "Inline Fabrication" bin mount. So now, instead of the floppy tin bin holder and cam wire bracket for the case feed, it has a much beefier plate to locate the bin 90 degrees from where it was. The best part, is that the case feeder works perfect, now, no more fiddly cases not going into the shell plate right! So I had to celebrate by loading up all the SNS 147 grn poly coats I had, not sure how many, but a shoebox full. Coated some .45 ACP slugs I cast last week, just need to size them.

 

[Lesliet]

New toy today, I got a gauge block for 9mm Luger that fits mtm cases, so you can use a lid to flip 100 gauged rounds over, and then put your plastic mtm box over the rounds, flip it again, and the box is loaded.

 

[Red98422]

is that what direction those rounds are supposed to go in?!?

I have 500rds with the bullet tip up

New toy today, I got a gauge block for 9mm Luger that fits mtm cases, so you can use a lid to flip 100 gauged rounds over, and then put your plastic mtm box over the rounds, flip it again, and the box is loaded.

View attachment 726171 View attachment 726172 View attachment 726173 View attachment 726174 View attachment 726175

 

[Lesliet]

is that what direction those rounds are supposed to go in?!?

Most of the poly-coats I load are too slippery to pick up by the nose, so I load em primer side up. Easy to grab the bases!

 

[Mikej]

is that what direction those rounds are supposed to go in?!?

I have 500rds with the bullet tip up

You can put them in the box any way you see fit.

 

[Red98422]

Most of the poly-coats I load are too slippery to pick up by the nose, so I load em primer side up. Easy to grab the bases!

yup that's definitely going to give me trouble...I also run coated, what's worse is they're also round nose

 

[Lesliet]

If you take an empty plastic ammo box and line it up over the full one, it's easy to invert the ammo without having to entirely re-do it.

 

[Red98422]

If you take an empty plastic ammo box and line it up over the full one, it's easy to invert the ammo without having to entirely re-do it.

Oh a bonus round!!!...I don't have any spares at this moment, So at least 100 of those will have to get dumped....yay me! Lol well I (probably) won't be doing that again!

 

[fuqyeahammo]

I cant see howbit would only take an 1.5 hours to cast 1000 bullets .,. I might have to employ you if you cast 357 ? Lol ... What press are you using and what do you use to cast?

Took me 2hours to cast 450 230gr .308 for my blackout today. I wanna employ him too hahaha

 

[Scout 38S]

50 rounds of 357 with 125 Sierra JHC over 9.5 grains of Power Pistol and a CCI primer. GP loads for my Kimber K6s. They like midrange 357.

 

[nammac]

600 rounds of 9mm, loaded up with 115 gr Berry's Plated Bullets