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Ran the annealing machine with 223 brass for an hour or so today.

I have had several people ask me "Why anneal?"

A couple of pictures will be worth 1000 words.

Both targets were shot with the EXACT SAME LOAD and specifications.
The only difference is one set of cases were annealed and the others were not.

Both of these targets are 12 rounds fired at 100 yards.

View attachment 673995 View attachment 673996

Now that's proof in the puddin'. I have always read that it's good to do but this is the first actual results I have seen. Thanks and good on ya.
 
Now that's proof in the puddin'. I have always read that it's good to do but this is the first actual results I have seen. Thanks and good on ya.
I had some once fired lake city 308 brass. Harder than hell to resize. I'm guessing the ammo was fired out of a machine gun with an exceptionally large chamber.

Bullet seating depth was not consistent and varied by at much as .010" from case to case.

Groups were really bad out of a well known good shooting gun. Couldn't get less than about 2" groups at 100yds. After annealing, they resized with MUCH less effort and groups shrank to under an inch. That's what sealed it for me.

Up to that point I'd never felt the need to anneal any of my brass. Now depending on how anal I want to be, I'll anneal every single time.
 
Had a day of trimming fun, taking 300 nickle 9mm Luger cartridges cutting them down in length to make 9x18 Makarov's. 95 gr. FMJ's. I use the nickle so I can differenciate at a glace that they are not Lugers. I also take some Birtchwood cold bluing and a cotton swab and but a black oxidizer streak on the headstamp. Not much to it. Always fun. Just love my Classic Forester Trimmer from the 80's. Glad I made the investment then for all the pilots and colletts as well as the accessories.

Makarov_and_Luger_cartridges.jpg
 
I need to process a bunch of .30-30 brass. I see some brass now and then in the classified, just need to step up and get it one of these days. Once I get the dies for it and prep it, I'll finally have that excuse to pick a model 94 Winchester to shoot it in. :s0140: Oh, I'll need projectiles too!
 
I need to process a bunch of .30-30 brass. I see some brass now and then in the classified, just need to step up and get it one of these days. Once I get the dies for it and prep it, I'll finally have that excuse to pick a model 94 Winchester to shoot it in. :s0140: Oh, I'll need projectiles too!

Let me see if I understand. You need to process some brass you don't have, for a gun you don't own? :)

Actually that makes perfect sense, to me. I have dies and brass in calibers I don't own. I accumulate stuff over the years, and often it's not worth enough to bother trying to sell, plus I just might need it someday! :)

I bought a Winchester 94 30-30 last year and figured I needed some brass to load for it, since I only had a box or two worth. I held off on ordering any and spending much for it, figuring I'd run across some cheap somewhere. I was right- since then I've accumulated it by the gallon. Now I have more than I'll ever need, a bunch of bullets cast up, powder coated and gas checked, and a load worked up. One of these days I'll get around to actually loading a bunch.
 
Had so much 9mm brass to prep I decided to get out the progressive press so could run them through the sizer and deprimer faster.
 
Let me see if I understand. You need to process some brass you don't have, for a gun you don't own? :)

Actually that makes perfect sense, to me. I have dies and brass in calibers I don't own. I accumulate stuff over the years, and often it's not worth enough to bother trying to sell, plus I just might need it someday! :)

I bought a Winchester 94 30-30 last year and figured I needed some brass to load for it, since I only had a box or two worth. I held off on ordering any and spending much for it, figuring I'd run across some cheap somewhere. I was right- since then I've accumulated it by the gallon. Now I have more than I'll ever need, a bunch of bullets cast up, powder coated and gas checked, and a load worked up. One of these days I'll get around to actually loading a bunch.

Yeah, I go through stages where I feel the need to buy a gun but don't know what. I have a '94 in .357. But the classic/common round is .30-30. At the ARPC show there was a guy with a 1909 built M'94 15" in .30-30. Pristine! Way outa' my range at $3400.00+, but something "moved" when he let me hold/shoulder it. It doesn't cost much to get into brass, bullets primers and powder. If a person gets those, seems like a no brainer to me! :D
 
Love .30-30 loading!

I went the other way however and pulled a bunch of bullets from some .30 Luger ammo I had and loaded them up.

These are 93 grain JSP and I am trying 10 grains of Unique.

NOW - I will be PO'd if these turn out to be tackdrivers because I don't know if I will be able to get similar bullets anywhere. I see .30 Luger ammo available (with 93 grain JSP bullets) but I am having a problem locating any as components!
IMG_1803.JPG
 
Had a day of trimming fun, taking 300 nickle 9mm Luger cartridges cutting them down in length to make 9x18 Makarov's. 95 gr. FMJ's. I use the nickle so I can differenciate at a glace that they are not Lugers. I also take some Birtchwood cold bluing and a cotton swab and but a black oxidizer streak on the headstamp. Not much to it. Always fun. Just love my Classic Forester Trimmer from the 80's. Glad I made the investment then for all the pilots and colletts as well as the accessories.

I've trimmed a lot of 9x19 down to 9x18, thought I'd share a little trick I learned for trimming them on the cheap. I use the little Lee hand trimmers that you just chuck in a drill, but it's a pain when the brass would spin and slip out of the lock stud. The stubby little cases were just not fun to trim.

I also noticed that it cut them a little bit short. They worked fine but it bugged me because they weren't quite right. I chucked the lock stud in my "poor man's turning lather" (drill press) and faced it down with a sharp file, leaving a bump in the middle that would fit into the primer pocket and prevent the case from spinning out of the shell holder/lock stud. It was amazing the difference it made! No more slipped cases at all. Now I can cut through hundreds of cases in no time at all.



I also found a use for those silly cases with the "step" inside. It seems they are almost universally hated, and most people scrap them. I just trim them down to 9x18. The walls are thin down to the thick step inside, which works great because they don't bulge when you load them as 9mm Mak, and I haven't had any trouble at all with them for the lower pressure 9x18.

IMG_9035[1].jpg
 
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I've trimmed a lot of 9x19 down to 9x18, thought I'd share a little trick I learned for trimming them on the cheap. I use the little Lee hand trimmers that you just chuck in a drill, but it's a pain when the brass would spin and slip out of the lock stud. The stubby little cases were just not fun to trim.

I also noticed that it cut them a little bit short. They worked fine but it bugged me because they weren't quite right. I chucked the lock stud in my "poor man's turning lather" (drill press) and faced it down with a sharp file, leaving a bump in the middle that would fit into the primer pocket and prevent the case from spinning out of the shell holder/lock stud. It was amazing the difference it made! No more slipped cases at all. Now I can cut through hundreds of cases in no time at all.

View attachment 676015
I have converted both my Forester and RCBS trimmers to work using a power drill. I place the drill ina slower speed gear. Seems to work real well. But thanks for your tip.
 
I don't know if it would help in your situation but you might want to consider making a handle for your Lee case holder.

This is the one I made for holding cases as I discovered it's MUCH better to chuck up the cutter in the power head and slide the case on it as opposed to spinning the case and sliding the cutter into it.

WIth the cutter chucked up it can stay spinning while you remove the case from your holder.
IMG_1752[1].JPG
 
I have converted both my Forester and RCBS trimmers to work using a power drill. I place the drill ina slower speed gear. Seems to work real well. But thanks for your tip.

That sounds great. Before I modified the Lee trimmer, I was about ready to scrap it and get a real trimmer like yours.
 
I don't know if it would help in your situation but you might want to consider making a handle for your Lee case holder.

This is the one I made for holding cases as I discovered it's MUCH better to chuck up the cutter in the power head and slide the case on it as opposed to spinning the case and sliding the cutter into it.

WIth the cutter chucked up it can stay spinning while you remove the case from your holder.

I'm always impressed by the ingenuity of reloaders who like to tinker and come up with a better way of doing it! :)
 
Mine is a 1929 South Bend 9 X 48 I restored many years ago.

It was originally set up to run on a line shaft but was modified to hold a motor at some point.

The mod is not the factory adapter but 'home made' by someone. I was always going to rebuild it but some 'tweaking' got it to work satisfactorily.
 
I trimmed a few 357sig & 223 cases today.
Constantly impressed with the quality of the LE Wilson case trimmer.
Eventually filled & topped 100 new Starline 357sig brass cases & called it a day.
 

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