What did you do in the reloading room recently?

Getting ready for my 1st go around with 45 Colt. Grabbed the dies on Friday and today I decapped, resized and tumbled the brass. Still researching my options for a paper punching load. I want to keep down the price but also keep down the leading and burn rings to the Ruger Blackhawk. Probably going with Trail boss behind a 200gr RNFP or SWC. I reload 9mm with W231 and was going to try that but read it is dirty in the revolver. Am I right that a softer lead projectile with a lighter load will lessen the leading? I am finding coated bullets but without crimp groove/cannelure. The struggle!
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Artie said:
Getting ready for my 1st go around with 45 Colt. Grabbed the dies on Friday and today I decapped, resized and tumbled the brass. Still researching my options for a paper punching load. I want to keep down the price but also keep down the leading and burn rings to the Ruger Blackhawk. Probably going with Trail boss behind a 200gr RNFP or SWC. I reload 9mm with W231 and was going to try that but read it is dirty in the revolver. Am I right that a softer lead projectile with a lighter load will lessen the leading? I am finding coated bullets but without crimp groove/cannelure. The struggle!
View attachment 282097
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What gun will you be shooting them in? You cont' really need a roll crimp unless you're going in a tube fed rifle or a revolver with hotter loads that could cause the bullets to pull from the recoil. Or a finicky rifle that doesn't like to feed taper crimp bullets that could get caught up while feeding.
Bullet fit is the most important. Make sure you're lead bullet is about .001" or .002" over the groove diameter of your barrel. That's how you keep from getting leading
Laos important is to match your load to you alloy. Light loads soft bullets, Heavy loads harder bullets. LASC has some great articles on "is my bullet too soft?"
For light loads I would look at something like clays. Super bulky so you can see the powder in that big ol case and burns nice and clean. Less expensive than trail boss too.
 
Artie said:
Am I right that a softer lead projectile with a lighter load will lessen the leading? I am finding coated bullets but without crimp groove/cannelure. The struggle!
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This is my understanding and it’s why I grabbed some of those Missouri cowboy bullets to try. They’re 0.430" so hopefully that will be sufficient for my DW.
Have you looked at some of the Missouri coated bullets?
Missouri Bullet Company
 
Michael J. Spangler said:
What gun will you be shooting them in? You cont' really need a roll crimp unless you're going in a tube fed rifle or a revolver with hotter loads that could cause the bullets to pull from the recoil. Or a finicky rifle that doesn't like to feed taper crimp bullets that could get caught up while feeding.
Bullet fit is the most important. Make sure you're lead bullet is about .001" or .002" over the groove diameter of your barrel. That's how you keep from getting leading
Laos important is to match your load to you alloy. Light loads soft bullets, Heavy loads harder bullets. LASC has some great articles on "is my bullet too soft?"
For light loads I would look at something like clays. Super bulky so you can see the powder in that big ol case and burns nice and clean. Less expensive than trail boss too.
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Thanks for the quick response. Shooting a Ruger Blackhawk. Want light loads so it sounds like the taper crimp should be adequate if I go without cannelure. Will look at the Clays, really appreciate the advice.
 
andrew1220 said:
This is my understanding and it’s why I grabbed some of those Missouri cowboy bullets to try. They’re 0.430" so hopefully that will be sufficient for my DW.
Have you looked at some of the Missouri coated bullets?
Missouri Bullet Company
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Will look into the Missouri coated bullets. NES is just awesome. Thanks again
 
Artie said:
Thanks for the quick response. Shooting a Ruger Blackhawk. Want light loads so it sounds like the taper crimp should be adequate if I go without cannelure. Will look at the Clays, really appreciate the advice.
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Just wanted to let you know that I've been loading Hitek coated 250gr RNFP over ~5.0 grains of Trailboss to shoot out of a Ruger Vacquero. I know this is a heavier bullet than you were looking at, but the velocities are around 700 fps or so and there has been no leading after ~1500 rds. I've been using the bullet brand Andrew recommended. The bullets do have a crimp groove and I do a very light roll crimp.
Agree that Trailboss is more costly than most powders and I may switch at some point, but I do like the way it meters through my Lee Autodrum. Good luck.
 
andrew1220 said:
I did order a sample pack of coated cowboy Missouri Bullet 44 cal 210 grainers...
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Coincidentally, I scoped my S&W model 27-9 (Leupold FXII 4x28) and decided to explore some coated bullets for it, also for the Henry. Got sample packs of the 140gr TCFP "zingers", 180gr RNFP, 180gr WFN, all Hi-Tek coated, Brinell 18 on Friday. Mostly I was interested in the 140gr TCFP's. Turns out that the insertion depth of the 140gr TCFP's matches 140gr Hornady XTPs, and the insertion depth of the 180gr RNFP's matches 180gr Hornady XTPs. The 180gr WFNs don't insert quite that far, but point is that XTP data gave a useful point of reference for surmising reasonable load progressions for testing. Loaded up 24 different loads, 26 groups of 5 shots, 17 for the handgun and 9 for the rifle. Planning to chrono them when I test them. That's a lot of slow-fire groups for one session, assuming I don't run into any pressure signs along the way. I don't expect to. Probably should make it two sessions, but I'm a fool about such things.
 
I shot some .45 Colt out of a very old Colt SAA today and they were mild accurate and hit at the point of aim. The load was 7.5 grains of BE-86 and a 250 grain rnfp lead bullet.I also shot some 200 grain lrn with 5.5 grains of Trailboss. It was milder but not quite as accurate.
 
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Artie said:
Am I right that a softer lead projectile with a lighter load will lessen the leading?
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You need the bullet to obturate to minimize leading. I have a formula in a spreadsheet of mine, not sure where I got it, that claims that the optimal hardness for a given psi load is given by

Brinell = psi / 1279.8 .

So for a 11,000 psi load of a 200gr RNFP over 6.5 grains of Trailboss, the formula claims you want about Brinell 9. Probably best not to put too much faith in it, but it seems to clearly indicate that if you're choosing between 12 and 18 for a load like that, you definitely go 12. Pure lead, though, at 5, might be too soft to minimize leading.
 
Just for kicks ordered 4 lbs of Shooters World powders since a vendor was doing free hazmat if you did so.
"Tactical Rifle," "Match Rifle," "Precision Rifle," and "Clean Shot." I found it interesting they gave analogues compared to other powders, probably since they don't have much notoriety as a brand in their own right. I have heard they can be a bit dirty.

They're pretty cheap per lb, maybe for a reason. If all else fails I can use most of them with second bullets as "plinkers."
 
No idea about their rifle powders. I like Ultimate Pistol, but even though it appears to be useful for a wide range of calibers and bullets, for a lot of them you are just on your own for load data. So far I’ve tried it and Heavy Pistol. Needed primers, so this time I got Auto Pistol. In hindsight I should have ordered 4 different powders the first time, and the second, but I am a little put off by the dearth of sources, and I was more worried about liking the powder, and after going through the trouble of working up loads not being able to replenish my supply without forking over full up hazmat money than I was about not liking it. Ultimate Pistol was a win, Heavy Pistol not so much, but even it works OK.
 
daekken said:
Just for kicks ordered 4 lbs of Shooters World powders since a vendor was doing free hazmat if you did so.
"Tactical Rifle," "Match Rifle," "Precision Rifle," and "Clean Shot." I found it interesting they gave analogues compared to other powders, probably since they don't have much notoriety as a brand in their own right. I have heard they can be a bit dirty.

They're pretty cheap per lb, maybe for a reason. If all else fails I can use most of them with second bullets as "plinkers."
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I know a few concerts , when you get it look on the bottle and see where its made. It will give a good indication on who made the powder.
Last year there was some very good introductory prices. I snoozed andcmissed out on the match rifle deal.
Let us lnow
 
mac1911 said:
I know a few concerts , when you get it look on the bottle and see where its made. It will give a good indication on who made the powder.
Last year there was some very good introductory prices. I snoozed andcmissed out on the match rifle deal.
Let us lnow
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It says it's made by "Lovex." The plastic jug itself says made in the Czech Republic on all four containers. $22 a pound and no hazmat, worth a shot.
 
daekken said:
It says it's made by "Lovex." The plastic jug itself says made in the Czech Republic on all four containers. $22 a pound and no hazmat, worth a shot.
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Some how accurate/western powders is tied into lovex. I dont know who bought who.
Theres not many smokless powder manufactures and there far to few here in the US.
 
Added 20 of the Bunker Hill plastic ammo boxes @$2.99 from Harbor Freight. They're on sale with the May catalog coupon until 5/31.
Now I need to sit down at the press again and reload the 7k 9mm and 9k .45acp brass thats sitting on the shelves. Probably be a while with garden planting coming up very shortly.

It never ends
 
Uzi2 said:
Added 20 of the Bunker Hill plastic ammo boxes @$2.99 from Harbor Freight. They're on sale with the May catalog coupon until 5/31.
Now I need to sit down at the press again and reload the 7k 9mm and 9k .45acp brass thats sitting on the shelves. Probably be a while with garden planting coming up very shortly.

It never ends
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Glad to know I’m not the only one on that boat. Too many things going on at the house, and so many casings waiting patiently!
 
mac1911 said:
Some how accurate/western powders is tied into lovex. I dont know who bought who.
Theres not many smokless powder manufactures and there far to few here in the US.
Click to expand...
You might be disappointed. Looking over the load data, they appear to have only published one M1 load, 46.5 gr with Match Rifle and 150gr FMJBT. I have some of those on hand, although my best performance has been with 168gr (Nosler Custom Comps, specifically). They say Match Rifle is similar to Accurate 2520 (46.5 would exceed max load) and IMR 4064 (my manual doesn't have a load for the powder with 150gr projectile).

I guess I'll load 20 or so and plan to try them out next week.
 
daekken said:
You might be disappointed. Looking over the load data, they appear to have only published one M1 load, 46.5 gr with Match Rifle and 150gr FMJBT. I have some of those on hand, although my best performance has been with 168gr (Nosler Custom Comps, specifically). They say Match Rifle is similar to Accurate 2520 (46.5 would exceed max load) and IMR 4064 (my manual doesn't have a load for the powder with 150gr projectile).

I guess I'll load 20 or so and plan to try them out next week.
Click to expand...
I was actually looking to get some of the buffalo bore powder (like trail boss) and maybe precision rifle( close to varget)
Try looking up Data for the Lovex labeled stuff.

MATCH RIFLE AKA lovex D073-06 should not hurt 30-06 M1 garand.
 
andrew1220 said:
I quickly tested the 210 gr Missouri bullets over 5.5 gr of Sport Pistol last night. Very pleasant to shoot and didn’t cause any leading that I could see - only shot 12 rounds though....
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Wow, Sport Pistol is real...i thought that stuff was only an internet rumor...kinda like bigfoot....nice ;-)
 
EddieZoom said:
Wow, Sport Pistol is real...i thought that stuff was only an internet rumor...kinda like bigfoot....nice ;-)
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Haha. I snagged a pound from Glenn’s in N. Reading a couple months ago. Seems like it’s readily available from the go-to online vendors. I’m liking it so far.
 
I’ll add to this one again. My new reloading room is coming along nicely. Windows go in this week then paint and fit out. It will be a while longer before I’m cranking out rounds....but it’s moving in the right direction.
 

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