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Primed 1000 .380 cases last night, looks like there's still maybe 500 to go. Should be set on .380 for a little while. :) Workin up new loads for the .45 acp revolver, for various gun games. There are a couple of competitions I shoot that either don't care about the power factor, or it's so low it really doesn't matter... try loading a .45 to 120 pf, I'm not sure I want to even shoot 230 grain at 525 fps. Looks like Trailboss can give me a minimal load that runs the 230's and the 200 grain slugs at around 650 fps, for pfs of 150 and 130, respectively. Open to ideas, if anyone knows of good powders for clean (ish) burning at low pressures... if there's too much grit/unburned powder, it can hang up a speedy reload.
 
I opened a case of Precision Delta 115g FMJ 9mm bullets & paired a few with some CFE Pistol.
I was ready to load more but decided to relax in the sun & listen to music after I finished making the first 100.
Pretty much a win-win ;)

1603061269342.png
 
Broke in a new bullet mold yesterday, Lee's 228 grain round nose .452. Was casting in tandem with another .45 mold for truncated cones, til I took a break, and the mold got a little cold... lessons learned. Should have re-oiled and heated the mold til it smoked, but instead, I broke the sprue cutter handle on cold cast hard sprues. No biggie, I'll borrow a handle off another til I can replace this one. Cast ~ 1200 bullets at a guess. Today will be working on coating the already cast bullets, and sorting out more lead from zinc, and doing another casting run. It's gotten hard to find deals on bullets now, or I'd probably just buy them, but I need to have ammo to practice!
 
Loaded 12 rounds of .270 for a Sako AV. Was amazed at chamber length and seated at 3.40" as opposed to more common 3.34, or in some cases 3.27". Measurement showed 3.44" OAL Was loading 130 gr Nosler Ballistic tips and 140 gr Accubonds. Accubonds ogive hit lans at 2.87. Ballistic tips hit at 2.917.

Will blast these tomorrow.
 
Productive day! sorted more lead from zinc, cast more bullets and ingots, got yesterday's batch in their first coat of hi-tek. Coating is working well again, just have to let the acetone gas off for at least 1/2 an hour before baking, and on my toaster oven, it likes to be set on 350 rather than 400. Loaded up 120 ish rounds of jhp .380 for testing, and played with my idea of seating the bullets so that the case can be crimped into the top lube groove. Here's a pic of the bullet style: 1603164991628.png

These are strictly for a revolver using moonclips, so the idea is to have less of the case mouth exposed, like a roll crimp, so the moons can be reloaded super fast. After trying it out, seating enough bullets in unprimed cases to make a moonclip, it works really slick. These headspace off the moonclip, so there's no worries with headspacing. It's sort of a ".45 Short Colt". Working up a load with Trail Boss, and man, that is a weird powder. 9 ounces fills the usual 1 lb sized powder jug all the way to the lid. It looks like little cheerios, small flakes with a hole in the middle, and light colored. Hodgdon shows 3.5 to 4.5 grains, with a 230 slug, and a range from 658 fps to 761, so these should strongly resemble lapine flatulence. Hoping to have this together for Sunday's Speed Steel match...
 
Productive day! sorted more lead from zinc, cast more bullets and ingots, got yesterday's batch in their first coat of hi-tek. Coating is working well again, just have to let the acetone gas off for at least 1/2 an hour before baking, and on my toaster oven, it likes to be set on 350 rather than 400. Loaded up 120 ish rounds of jhp .380 for testing, and played with my idea of seating the bullets so that the case can be crimped into the top lube groove. Here's a pic of the bullet style: View attachment 765046

These are strictly for a revolver using moonclips, so the idea is to have less of the case mouth exposed, like a roll crimp, so the moons can be reloaded super fast. After trying it out, seating enough bullets in unprimed cases to make a moonclip, it works really slick. These headspace off the moonclip, so there's no worries with headspacing. It's sort of a ".45 Short Colt". Working up a load with Trail Boss, and man, that is a weird powder. 9 ounces fills the usual 1 lb sized powder jug all the way to the lid. It looks like little cheerios, small flakes with a hole in the middle, and light colored. Hodgdon shows 3.5 to 4.5 grains, with a 230 slug, and a range from 658 fps to 761, so these should strongly resemble lapine flatulence. Hoping to have this together for Sunday's Speed Steel match...

trail boss is a strange power for sure, but I enjoy using it for powder puff loads in my 38. That said if your not aware there is one HARD rule to using it.

never, ever compress the load! Not even a little. It has a severe pressure spike if you do that, and will show erratic and unpredictable behavior.
 
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I just finished resizing a pile of 1k .223 PMC cases, it took me 3 days off and on... half the pile are in the Thumlers for 4 hours and then I'll start trimming them, they were ones that were too long in the case gauge.
 
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Not reloading anything yet but I was out at the range and another guy was blasting away with 45, 9, and 223. He started to clean up and i asked if he was collecting his brass, nope. So I made quite a haul including the 8 and 4 inch AR 500 steel someone left there before us. 20201019_180604.jpg 20201020_160524.jpg 20201020_135929.jpg
 
Today, I received a box of 147gn 9mm Hornady XTP bullets and 1lb of Vihtavuori N320. These were to be the last component of my new adventure in reloading. I've never reloaded before. Basically, about a month ago I got myself a new 9mm pistol and decided that with the ammo shortage and all, I would reload. Got a press and everything else together. Read advice online. Several places said: "Get all your equipment online; but get your powder and primers locally."
Anyway... Guess what I'm missing.

I'm relegated to refreshing certain store websites; trolling here; and patiently waiting for a gun show to not be cancelled to hopefully meet someone who isn't gouging. I never would have thought. I'm so excited to get into this hobby--but now on hold.
 
Today, I received a box of 147gn 9mm Hornady XTP bullets and 1lb of Vihtavuori N320. These were to be the last component of my new adventure in reloading. I've never reloaded before. Basically, about a month ago I got myself a new 9mm pistol and decided that with the ammo shortage and all, I would reload. Got a press and everything else together. Read advice online. Several places said: "Get all your equipment online; but get your powder and primers locally."
Anyway... Guess what I'm missing.

I'm relegated to refreshing certain store websites; trolling here; and patiently waiting for a gun show to not be cancelled to hopefully meet someone who isn't gouging. I never would have thought. I'm so excited to get into this hobby--but now on hold.


Got a be quick but primers do keep popping up in the classifieds. $70 for 1k was the last SPP I saw over there. Not cheep but not the $150 they are going for on Gun$roker.
 
I reloaded 1200, 9mm 124gr tonight. Case prep running at same time, roll formed 2k+ worth of washed 9. New modified case feeder motor has the roll former feed almost matching the formers max 6k per hr capacity.
 
Guess what I'm missing.

A strategy that's been working for me has been to find out what days my local (ish ) stores restock, and then make a visit on those days. I get disappointed more often than not, but the occasional score keeps me going. On line stores haven't paid off in months, for me, even with notifications set.
 
I reloaded 1200, 9mm 124gr tonight. Case prep running at same time, roll formed 2k+ worth of washed 9. New modified case feeder motor has the roll former feed almost matching the formers max 6k per hr capacity.

I may just be having a brain fart, but, what is "Roll forming 9mm cases"? I've sized and decapped several 1000 9mm brass. And loaded about half of that. So I am familiar with the process. But "Roll Forming"? o_O
 
Had to go look this up myself, it's good for removing "Glock bulge"


COUGH!...
I've loaded a bunch of 9mm from scrounged range brass. And, as we all know, pretty much everyone, except four people and me, shoot Glock 9s. I've never seen anything bulged to a point it's had any affect on my chambering/cycling/shooting? My plain old Lee 9mm die sizes just down to where the webbing looks to start in the case.

But-hey, if you need/want it. :s0155:
 
Noticed something weird last night when loading up a couple hundred .223. I did 40 rounds of Tulammo brass cases and the primer pockets were difficult to swedge to say the least. I measured the ID and they were within the same ID as the Remington Peters brass I had just done, but they just felt weird when setting the primers.

Anyone else run into this?
 
Speaking of roll-sizing and bulged brass, I picked up a Lee "Bulge-buster" die recently, because it was on sale and I was ordering something else. It came with inserts for .380, .40 S&W, and .45 acp.

I have yet to find any brass in those calibers that fails to simply drop right through the respective insert. To read the ad for the product you'd think bulged brass was very common, but I've never had a problem myself. On rare occasion I've run into hard to size brass that was unnaturally bulged out, but any time I've seen that I've just scrapped the brass.

I can see where a high-volume loader would want a high volume machine, as they wouldn't have time to inspect each case otherwise.
 
zeroing in, so to speak, on a 125gr speer tnt 300blk load for plinking. 17.7-18.0gr of H110 and Lil' Gun have both done well, but I want to see how low I can go and still retain good groups and velocity spreads, with no primer flattening while using a softer CCi or federal. Both powders tend to get unpredictable at lower-mid loads, but I don't want to stress my brass more than I have to with near max loads, just for plinking. Got some loaded up at 17.0 and 17.3 for my next test. Good factory made 300blk brass is pretty scarce, so I want to do what I can to make mine last.

I looked a little deeper into increasing my precision in rifle calibers, and picked up some Hornady New Dimension seaters and a Forster bench rest seater. The hornadys have a floating sleeve that aligns the bullet to the neck, and the forster has a sleeve that aligns the bullet to the whole case. I dont have a runout gauge, but the seating process feels MUCH smoother than my solid body RCBS seaters. Hoping to see that reflected in my groups.

I also picked up a bump gauge set in preparation for loading for my first bolt guns, (a pair of T/C Compass II's in .223 and .308) and in measuring some resized brass of mine, found I was a little sloppy in my sizing process. Cleaned my dies out, (which I do, but will probably do more often) reset them, and was more conscious about how hard/consistent I pulled the lever, and everything came out +/- .001" of each other. Good enough for me.
 
Noticed something weird last night when loading up a couple hundred .223. I did 40 rounds of Tulammo brass cases and the primer pockets were difficult to swedge to say the least. I measured the ID and they were within the same ID as the Remington Peters brass I had just done, but they just felt weird when setting the primers.

Anyone else run into this?

With my Dillon swager, I have noticed different headstamps will give me different results. LC takes only a little bit, Frontier takes a bunch. I just sort by headstamp after sizing, and before any trimming or swaging so I can tune the setup.

My initial thoughts are variances in thickness at the base of the case, which would alter the distance of the crimp relative to the swaging rod.
 

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