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Funny you guys mention plastic containers. I've had this sitting in my reloading area for a while now. I pull down anything questionable for components, but any random leftovers I have, ammo that's good but doesn't have anywhere else to go, goes into this leftover jar. It's getting pretty full now.

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Well I flew back from NC the week of Thanksgiving with my Rockchucker Supreme press as well as other components aloud on an aircraft. All packed in a Pelican 1600 case. Today I found a set of RCBS .45acp dies at Walmart in Longview for $35. Should be back to loading anytime now.
 
Sunday afternoon I cranked out another couple of .50 cal ammo cans of M855 clone ammo as well as swaged the primer crimp on 15 pounds of WCC 5.56 brass. If the number per pound charts are correct that 1850 cases. After all that I'm done pulling press handles in a cold garage for at least a few days!

Well, probably not. I have just under 2,000 62gr. bullets still sitting in their box, so I really should finish prepping the swaged cases and load them up right? :(

After all, it's a pain storing a bullet carton that is only 2/5 full right? Right?

Someone please talk me out of this! ;)

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Finally got around to trying trail Boss in .45 acp. I always have it on hand for .45 colt loads, and thought 'why not ' ?
My goal lately is a low recoil load and in the acp cases, starting data of 3.5 grains for a 200 grain swc worked great. (low end TB loads seldom shoot decent in large cases like Colt rounds. )

All hit dead center at 7 yards,sandbagged, and ejected over my shoulder, shooting my loosy goosey ol' Norinco.

The 'cheerios' flakes really filled the case compared to other powders, imho making ignition very even sounding.

trust me if u buy it right , ie: at Bimart, the cost is very close to all other powders.
 
Well I flew back from NC the week of Thanksgiving with my Rockchucker Supreme press as well as other components aloud on an aircraft. All packed in a Pelican 1600 case. Today I found a set of RCBS .45acp dies at Walmart in Longview for $35. Should be back to loading anytime now.
at that price were the dies carbide ? If so...SCORE
 
Regarding the economic practicality of loading 9mm, yes and no.

I cast and powder coat my own, and have a load I like that shoots really well. I pick up free brass off the ground at the range, and free scrap lead off the berm, so my out of pocket cost for powder and primer are about 3 cents per round.

Yes, it takes a lot of time to reclaim the scrap, cast and coat bullets, and load them up. That's a lot of hours, and it's really not "worth" the time. The money saved per hour is a fraction of my wage at work.

On the other hand, I can't justify spending $180 out of the family budget for a case of ammo, too many other obligations on that money. I can justify spending $30 on powder and primers, so that's what I do.
 
Regarding the economic practicality of loading 9mm, yes and no.

I cast and powder coat my own, and have a load I like that shoots really well. I pick up free brass off the ground at the range, and free scrap lead off the berm, so my out of pocket cost for powder and primer are about 3 cents per round.

Yes, it takes a lot of time to reclaim the scrap, cast and coat bullets, and load them up. That's a lot of hours, and it's really not "worth" the time. The money saved per hour is a fraction of my wage at work.

On the other hand, I can't justify spending $180 out of the family budget for a case of ammo, too many other obligations on that money. I can justify spending $30 on powder and primers, so that's what I do.
Plus I'm pretty sure you enjoy the process and custom product as much as I do. There's value in doing something you truly have passion for and enjoy in your spare moments. It beats watching football re-runs and carp tv all day.
 
Plus I'm pretty sure you enjoy the process and custom product as much as I do. There's value in doing something you truly have passion for and enjoy in your spare moments. It beats watching football re-runs and carp tv all day.

Yes and no to that too. I enjoy it to a degree, but after so many hours I have to admit it starts to get really old. Casting a couple hundred for a new project is fun, but casting and coating a couple thousand becomes a chore.
 
Sort of on the subject of reloading.

Lately I've been shooting up some old Israeli 8mm Mauser ammo and had a 30% failure to fire rate. OK....no big deal. I'll just pull down the ammo. This is what I found....

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Hummmm…….I wasn't expecting to see various bullets and some clumped powder. Not to mention, "ball powder".

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The BT bullet came in at 197.5 gr. (0.322"), and the flat base bullet came in at 178 gr (0.3215").

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The problem is.....I didn't record which bullets came out of which cases.:eek:

So....what was happening in Israel during that time period? Yes, it's sort of a history lesson to look backwards in time. But, it's also important history of the middle east.

Aloha, Mark
 
They made their bullets and armed their troops initially with Axis war reparation materials is what I understood. You used to be able to find Israeli mausers with swastikas still on them years ago. Oh, the irony. Since the bullets over the WWII years went from 175ish grains to 196ish, I am not surprised, but that is a cool piece of history.
 
There may be some supply chain history involved in the two bullet weights.

The BT at 197.5 gr. isn't likely to be a tracer bullet to account for it's extra length.

Note the dates on the cases, 1956-57. Big Suez Canal war in 1956. I know the following was the case in 1948, could also have been a factor in 1956. The Israelis had to get whatever they needed from wherever. They hadn't completely set up their own military industries yet. Could be the difference in bullet weight reflects what they were able to purchase.

Those grotty cases, if not too bad, can be salvaged and reloaded. Cleaning them with a solution of diluted phosphoric acid works wonders but rinse very thoroughly.
 
Sunday afternoon I cranked out another couple of .50 cal ammo cans of M855 clone ammo as well as swaged the primer crimp on 15 pounds of WCC 5.56 brass. If the number per pound charts are correct that 1850 cases. After all that I'm done pulling press handles in a cold garage for at least a few days!

Well, probably not. I have just under 2,000 62gr. bullets still sitting in their box, so I really should finish prepping the swaged cases and load them up right? :(

After all, it's a pain storing a bullet carton that is only 2/5 full right? Right?

Someone please talk me out of this! ;)

View attachment 641686
I know...I know...I had to stop reloading because all of my ammo boxes were full. I almost put the lead pot away, then I built a couple of muzzle loaders and had to fire it up again.....Oh the horrors of it all...now I've got a jar full of round balls and Maxi-Balls.
My name is Jack...and I'm an addict. Face bigsmyl.gif
 
Sunday afternoon I cranked out another couple of .50 cal ammo cans of M855 clone ammo as well as swaged the primer crimp on 15 pounds of WCC 5.56 brass. If the number per pound charts are correct that 1850 cases. After all that I'm done pulling press handles in a cold garage for at least a few days!

Well, probably not. I have just under 2,000 62gr. bullets still sitting in their box, so I really should finish prepping the swaged cases and load them up right? :(

After all, it's a pain storing a bullet carton that is only 2/5 full right? Right?

Someone please talk me out of this! ;)

View attachment 641686

What kind of setup and how long did it take you to crank that all out?
 
i got a 'free' box of Hornady 185g XTP with a die purchase. I figure I'll get these loaded today as dinner is cooking and the family is occupied with the new Christmas bling.

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What kind of setup and how long did it take you to crank that all out?
I finally got a progressive early this year ... a used Dillon 550C. I resize and decap rifle brass on a single stage press so that I don't have to deal with removing lube from fully loaded rounds. I can just chuck the cases in the wet tumbler and be done with that. I also prime off the press with an old style Lee primer tool. I have not been "lucky" in getting the Dillon priming system to work very well … and it takes forever to load the primer pickup tubes, so it's actually faster to prime by hand. I do this sitting on the floor in front of the TV watching movies with my family. I go slow so that I don't make too much noise but I don't really consider the time in my overall loading. So, now finally to get to the answer of your question: :rolleyes:

Using a Dillon swager it took just under three hours to swage those 1800 or so cases.

Loading the probably 2000 rounds represented by the two ammo cans:
  • About three hours to drop powder and seat bullets on the Dillon
  • About two hours to size / deprime and tumble the cases
  • I can prime about 100 cases in 5 minutes using the Lee tool, so if I was doing this quickly about an hour and a half of time here.

Overall total time to load 2000 cases and swage another 1800 would be around 9 or 10 hours if I were to count the priming time in the mix.

I do hope to figure out the primer system on the Dillon since that could almost double my out put, but so far no deal. The priming system runs "okay" with pistol brass giving me hope, but even here with all the problems and stoppages it causes, off press priming is still faster.

I hope this helps,

Merry Christmas
 
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