What did you do in the reloading room recently?

Picked up some Shooters World "Heavy Pistol" and loaded an array of .357 Magnum cartridges with different charges with 158gr Zero JSPs. I wanted something more flexible than H110, something that could safely be down-loaded a bit (unlike H110). Shot them in a GP100 tonight. The lower charges in the Shooters World manual were crap: dirty burning, smokey, not very accurate. Things got good as I got closer to the max. Got some especially good groups with 11.6 grains and the Shooters World max of 12.2 grains. No signs of over-pressure. I could hardly tell the primers apart. It was just slightly harder to decap the highest loads when I got home...only slightly. I think I'll probably just go with 12.2 grains and be done with it, since it seems to me like a very conservative "maximum load", but I'll have to try them in some other guns.
 
Kind of crappy afternoon here weather wise, so I took to the press and loaded up 200 pcs of .357 brass, 158gr Hornady XTP Hollow Points, over 6.2gr Winchester 231 w/ OAL @ 1.58

Its a starting load, not hot but its accurate out of a S&W Model 28 Highway Patrolman 4inch.
 
I also loaded the .357 XTP Hollow Point but I loaded the 180 grain over 13.5 grains of 296. It's for a pin shoot and gives me just over 900 fps from a 2 1/2" S&W 66. I'm curious to see what I'll get from a 24" rifle barrel.
 
Finally went through and sorted everything brass-wise in the new workshop. Ran three batches of brass through the tumbler now that I actually have some spent brass since I have a place to shoot again.

Sized up some 303 Brit as well. Is there a good way to determine when a full size is needed? I've neck sized this batch 2-3 times now...should I just chamber a case and see if the bolt will close? Not sure if it's worth obtaining full sizing 303 dies since I hear the brass gets trash pretty quickly this way...
 
daekken said:
Finally went through and sorted everything brass-wise in the new workshop. Ran three batches of brass through the tumbler now that I actually have some spent brass since I have a place to shoot again.

Sized up some 303 Brit as well. Is there a good way to determine when a full size is needed? I've neck sized this batch 2-3 times now...should I just chamber a case and see if the bolt will close? Not sure if it's worth obtaining full sizing 303 dies since I hear the brass gets trash pretty quickly this way...
Click to expand...

Buy a case gauge, its a lot less effort and when using it you can inspect for improperly seated primers too.
 
I sized, primed and belled three hundred 38spl last evening. They'll get loaded this week as time permits.

I don't even shoot much 38 but its more useful when its loaded ammo, not components sitting on a shelf.
 
I think I'm trying to prove the saying: "Go big or go home." I decided to get a bigger cabinet for storing my primers and completed ammo. I went from your standard Stack-On 4 shelf cabinet:

TJ5dbj.jpg


To "OMG, what the hell was I thinking..."

9Rgogz.jpg


Did I mention is has a roll up security shutter?

Do3yiL.jpg


Oh, and it doesn't fit in the room unless I do some more...'remodeling'.
 
CatSnoutSoup said:
I bought a new supply of "Tiger Grip" gloves that I wear when sorting, cleaning, and depriming brass.

They are a little pricey but they have a textured grip and robust thickness. I have never had one tear.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FSLV7GM/

:emoji_tiger:
Click to expand...

Pretty nice. Downright extravagant price wise compared to the Harbor Freight cheep-o's that I stock up on. I'll give them a go.
 
Got a pretty good shipment of reloading supplies in the mail today:
3k 9mm 150 gr bullets
12 pounds of N320 powder (6 of which is for a friend). Couldn’t pass up the sale and rebates.
5k Small Pistol primers.
 
I've been on a 38spl reloading roll the past few days and ran out of Winchester 231. Need to go and get another couple of pounds tomorrow.
Next caliber to start on is .45acp......with 10k to reload. After that, 9mm with about 8k to reload. Setting up the Dillon for these two....the single stage has reached its point of intollerable.
 
Uzi2 said:
I've been on a 38spl reloading roll the past few days and ran out of Winchester 231. Need to go and get another couple of pounds tomorrow.
Next caliber to start on is .45acp......with 10k to reload. After that, 9mm with about 8k to reload. Setting up the Dillon for these two....the single stage has reached its point of intollerable.
Click to expand...
Nice. Not sure where you live but if buying powder at Cabelas grab a discounted gift card first and save a few dollars.
$100 Cabela's Physical Gift Card For Only $85!!! - FREE 1st Class Mail Delivery | eBay
 
Went to my local gun shop and picked up 2 lbs of Win231 and a pound of Titegroup.
Loaded 200 44magnum. One hundred 180gr XTP with 10gr of Win 231 and one hundred 200gr XTP with some Titegroup.
Both performed great out of a Ruger Super Blackhawk.
 
Uzi2 said:
Went to my local gun shop and picked up 2 lbs of Win231 and a pound of Titegroup.
Loaded 200 44magnum. One hundred 180gr XTP with 10gr of Win 231 and one hundred 200gr XTP with some Titegroup.
Both performed great out of a Ruger Super Blackhawk.
Click to expand...
You need to get some H110 or Win 296 for those XTPs!
 
Got around to getting the sizing/decapping dies set on my three extra turrets for my press on Saturday. Last night and this morning I went through and removed the primers from a bunch of cases, after sorting them. Since there were several stuck inside other cases (I didn't separate them before tumbling them) I plan to run them through the tumbler again to get them uniform.

This afternoon I'm thinking of running the those cases through the sizing die (after getting the rifle cases lubricated). I have a bunch of .223 to do, plus 300 Blackout, and 308 Winchester. Not to mention the 45 ACP cases I processed last night.

The plan is that once they're all sized, I'll remove the primer crimp on the cases with that, then set up in the living room (again) to prime them all by hand. Mostly because I didn't want to get the priming arm for all of the turrets.

I expect that by the end of the year I'll also have a turret setup for .357 Magnum since I'm starting to collect brass from those (running through my GP100). Especially if I end up getting a lever action in that caliber. ;)
 
Playing around with Fusion 360 and a Creality Ender 3 printer
Modeled up a Lee Auto-Disk Microdisk just using a regular disk and guestimating from web images - Printed up one in low quality for a quick fit test that shows it should work.

All of the sketches were done so that I can print normal disks with custom volumes with very little effort.
Lee Precision Auto Disk Blank v6.png
 
I finally decided to get rid of the Herter's brass I have accumulated. The .357 Magnum Herter's brass actually isn't too bad, but the .44 magnum primer pockets are hopeless. I spent forever and a day trying to ream and uniform them, but the real problem isn't, I think, that they are too tight. They are tight, but the real problem is that the primer pockets aren't very well centered. Get a centered one, and the primer goes in with a little effort. Get one of the others, and it's not good, sometimes, as Jordan Peterson would say, it's seriously not good. Still, I thought I might be able to prime them with the Frankford Arsenal hand primer and then shoot them once and leave them at the range. I managed to prime 144 of them, less than half, before I gave up. Buggered up 6 primers in hopeless cases and decided not to abuse any more primers. Anyway, loaded the 144 up with a starting load of Titegroup. Not my first choice of powder, but the canister has been open for awhile, and I'm not really using Titegroup anymore, so I'm trying to use it up. Not my finest work, but I expect they'll be fun to plink with in the Henry.
 

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