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Xtream plated 165s are what I am loading. They are the only source for 165s that I know of, they work well for what we use them for.

Your 5.45 loads sound fun working up.

The 5.45 is fun. The hardest part is catching the brass for inspection. The loads are being developed in a full size Bulgarian AK74. It threw the really really soft loaded brass about 10 feet. The hot stuff is going into orbit. Gotta have a buddy with a hat over the ejection port!

At about 20gr of IMR4198 I was just starting to flatten primers and about 2900FPS. I'm hoping the CFE will get me about 2700FPS with the 60gr projectile. Then I will start figuring out a swage. Plan to use 223 projectiles since they are very close to the same size. .224 vs .2215. I'll probably have to machine a swaging die.
 
668 rounds of .380, with bullets I cast and coated with " candy apple red" Hi-Tek. This was last night's run, it was pretty late when I got done. Taking tonight off reloading, time to read a book. :)

bunch of 380 ACP.jpg
 
Got two of the big yellow HF tubs full of "Ready to load" 9mm brass. Full, as in, I made a cardboard barrier for the low end, so I could get it full up. Hoping to find some Accurate #2 locally tomorrow, but I can always fall back on Tite Group.
 
Mad reloading session today. All 9mm, various loads. Set up ladder tests with HS-6 and Nitro 100 NF. No idea how many rounds, but a lot. Cast the bullets in the box at the top, probably somewhere around a thousand.

24May.jpg
 
You can use dead soft, pure lead for poly coated rounds, and it works just fine, at standard 9mm velocities. I use a mix of range lead and wheel weights. Getting harder to find the weights, though; out of a 5 gallon bucket, about half of them are either steel or a zinc alloy, which I've heard tends to damage your melting pot. They are only kind of marked, so you have to figure out which are which. ( The shape is a clue) Reclaimed shotgun shot is quite hard, if you need that.
 
Shot my ladder tests for HS-6 and Nitro 100 nf, today. The Nitro 100 shows promise, but the hottest load still had one stovepipe, may have to look at that and go up a bit, and try again. The HS-6 was pretty hot. Using the Lee data, and interpolating for a 135 grain cast poly-coated slug, I had 5.7 through 6.0 set up. ( Lee has up to 6.5 for 130 grain, so I thought I was being cautious... ) The 5.7 chronoed around 1116 in a 9mm. Just felt... a lot hotter than usual, so I will try that one again going lighter, aiming for around 1000 fps.
Chronoed a different 9mm load that I really like, which is a 125 grain Powerbond .38 plated slug over 3.9 grains of Accurate #2. This averaged about 1000 fps, and was super accurate, with light recoil. Have to load these short, or they don't plunk, .998 coal. SD of 11 in mixed range brass.
 
I'm finishing up on a client's 300 rum ammo, after testing with H1000 my load is 86.5 gns with a 220gn hornady bullet and a federal 215 primer. I have 60 rds of brass sized, trimmed, and primed, ready to load. The rifle has a Sako A-7 action with a carbon fiber wrapped barrel with a brake. My groups were 1/2" - 3/4".
 
Used Aztec mode on one case to create the custom code to anneal the rest of the brass.
"Sacrifice one so the rest may live" means annealing will extend brass through many reloadings and most important keep the neck tension consistent.

Always hurts to pull a perfectly good case and ruin the neck while the annealing machine measures inductive settings and resulting temperature of the brass, however the results are worth it.

Aztec Mode.jpg Aztec Mode (2).jpg
 
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Used Aztec mode on one case to create the custom code to anneal the rest of the brass.
"Sacrifice one so the rest may live" means annealing will extend brass through many reloadings and most important keep the neck tension consistent.

Always hurts to pull a perfectly good case and ruin the neck while the annealing machine measures inductive settings and resulting temperature of the brass, however the results are worth it.

View attachment 705009 View attachment 705011
What brass you using?
 
What brass you using?
I use Lapua and Peterson. This sacrifice was a Peterson .243 with large rifle primer pocket. I use the setting for 2 boxes of 50 that have the same lot number. I spot checked the neck thickness after turning which is ~ .013

These cases are sized into 6SLR then turned to remove the donut from the thicker shoulder brass.

Generally any change to neck thickness warrants a new setting for annealing.
AMP's Aztec mode generates that custom setting.

For what its worth the Peterson Brass is amazingly consistent. Majority of cases are within +-.5grain and all of them are within +-.75 grain. Every chamber is different though so I always try to test with Lapua as well.

These cases were 86cents each and appear to be aging well like their older siblings.
 

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