What did you do in the reloading room recently?

Last night and this morning sized and reprimed another 750 rds of 45acp. Going to have to put in another fmj bullet order soon. I've been putting off starting on the .223/5.56, I have all the components but think I'll wait for the oppressive heat days of mid summer to do that when it's nice and cool indoors.
 
I was poking around on Hodgdon IG site trying to figure out if they still make Varget and I saw this recall. It’s from 10 days ago so you all may know, IMR 4007 SSC. It’s a specialty powder for high FPS rounds like 204 Ruger. I load 204 Ruger with Varget, which returns me to my original problem.

F9A7A2E6-C08C-4799-AA1C-5F24264B6CF7.jpeg
 
JRT said:
I was poking around on Hodgdon IG site trying to figure out if they still make Varget and I saw this recall. It’s from 10 days ago so you all may know, IMR 4007 SSC. It’s a specialty powder for high FPS rounds like 204 Ruger. I load 204 Ruger with Varget, which returns me to my original problem.

View attachment 347105
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Basically powder manufactures run in batches. ADI iirc makes varget and somewhere I read they run varget early in the year and sells out about now.?
 
mac1911 said:
Basically powder manufactures run in batches. ADI iirc makes varget and somewhere I read they run varget early in the year and sells out about now.?
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They had a generic message about supply and demand and being specified in military contracts, otherwise there wasn’t an explanation. I’ve been out of Varget for months and haven’t been able to find it. I’m kicking myself for buying a 1 pound bottle. I won’t make that mistake again!
 
JRT said:
They had a generic message about supply and demand and being specified in military contracts, otherwise there wasn’t an explanation. I’ve been out of Varget for months and haven’t been able to find it. I’m kicking myself for buying a 1 pound bottle. I won’t make that mistake again!
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I don't know anything about their military sales but if they have a rated contract with the DOD, there is absolutely nothing they can do. They are legally obligated to dedicate all necessary resources to fulfilling that contract.
 
Mxracer239y said:
I don't know anything about their military sales but if they have a rated contract with the DOD, there is absolutely nothing they can do. They are legally obligated to dedicate all necessary resources to fulfilling that contract.
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also brands switch manufsctures , as believe ramshot did ?

Other than being bored and continuing to clear out un needed stuff


View: https://youtu.be/otlqK9ib4Jc
 
mac1911 said:
also brands switch manufsctures , as believe ramshot did ?

Other than being bored and continuing to clear out un needed stuff


View: https://youtu.be/otlqK9ib4Jc
Click to expand...


I’m not an expert in New England accents but I’m getting Maine. I imagine you saying stuff like, you can’t get there from here. Thanks for the powder lesson, I guess I’m bored too since I watched that lol!
 
JRT said:
I’m not an expert in New England accents but I’m getting Maine. I imagine you saying stuff like, you can’t get there from here. Thanks for the powder lesson, I guess I’m bored too since I watched that lol!
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spent 99% of my time in New England
left JP in 78, to whitman until 2001 when moved to kingston .
spent many summers in NH ME VT , NW mass.
Missing 2 lower teeth also. Growing up my elders where dead ringers the "cant get there from here" poland spring commercial cast.
 
headednorth said:
Not exactly in the reloading room, but melted down some range scrap today. Ended up with around 80 lbs of ingots. Had another little over a half bucket of scrap left but my back was screaming so its gonna have to wait for another time.
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About how much propane do you think you used up doing that? Or is that one of those, "don't care, don't want to know" things?
 
p.. said:
About how much propane do you think you used up doing that? Or is that one of those, "don't care, don't want to know" things?
Click to expand...

I bought a couple of tanks a while ago. Did the first batch with one and used the rest of that tank to do most of this one. Had to connect the second tank but just for the last load, maybe 15-20 minutes? So figure two smeltings used up one tank and like 10-15% of another. (Im guessing, I dont really know how much was left in the first when I started and how much of the second I used to finish up)

This round got me 80lbs of lead which is 560,000 grains or about 3700 rounds at 150 grains. Also have just about 1 full 5 gal bucket of copper jackets which will more than pay for the propane I would think. So in the end I got almost 4k "free" bullets and the copper will pay for the propane so thats free too.

The last time I did this I posted the results somewhere here. Ill try and find it.

eta- from the last go around...
So finally got around to smelting today. Hooked up with Squished and got a good sized dutch oven and skillet plus some nice cast iron pieces for ingots. Look like little half round muffins along with a couple of the molds that look like ears of corn. (Thanks again Squished) Got a turkey burner from Walmart along with a strainer and a ladle. From work got some sawdust for flux and some old spoons and spatulas.

Anyway, weighed a full 5 gal bucket before I started and it was just about 170 lbs. Started around 930 and finished up around 430.

Total weight of the ingots was 136 lbs.
Total weight of the jackets was 24 lbs.
The other 10 lbs was a lot of sand, pebbles and some lead mixed in with the dross.

Funny thing, in searching for an average number I found nothing online. Watching Youtube videos they would say "I started out with X, and ended up with Y lbs of lead." I would do the math and it seemed like they were getting around 80% lead. 80% of 170 is exactly 136. Pretty freaky I thought, but who knows what the numbers will be from batch to batch.

Anyway, those were my results. 1 bucket takes 7 hours to give me 136 lbs of lead and around 24 lbs of copper jackets. (havent check with a magnet for steel and also havent checked for bullets that have a lead core but are sealed all the way around with copper.)

Side note, I paid $20 for a propane tank at Lowes friday afternoon. If a scrap yard calls the jackets #2 CU, Ill get around $48 dollars for the copper which will pay for 2 tanks of propane. Nice little bonus.
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So 136 lbs last time and 80 lbs this time is a total of 216 lbs of lead from 1 tank plus a bit of another. 24 lbs of copper last time so figure 14 lbs this time. 38 lbs of copper. If the yard calls it #3 copper at $1.20/lb thats ~$45 for the jackets. (copper has gone down since my first batch but it still pays for both tanks)

Combining the numbers from both runs..
216 lbs of lead= 1,512,000 grains @150 grains per round = 10,080 rounds.
 
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I’m getting closer, I dialed in the powder charge on my dillon and very pleased. It seems to be metering my titegroup very well and hopefully I’ll run my first batch tonight once kids go down. Gonna run some 124gr acme at 3.6 as well as 3.8 and hopefully be testing them out tomorrow.
 
headednorth said:
I bought a couple of tanks a while ago. Did the first batch with one and used the rest of that tank to do most of this one. Had to connect the second tank but just for the last load, maybe 15-20 minutes? So figure two smeltings used up one tank and like 10-15% of another. (Im guessing, I dont really know how much was left in the first when I started and how much of the second I used to finish up)

This round got me 80lbs of lead which is 560,000 grains or about 3700 rounds at 150 grains. Also have just about 1 full 5 gal bucket of copper jackets which will more than pay for the propane I would think. So in the end I got almost 4k "free" bullets and the copper will pay for the propane so thats free too.

The last time I did this I posted the results somewhere here. Ill try and find it.

eta- from the last go around...


So 136 lbs last time and 80 lbs this time is a total of 216 lbs of lead from 1 tank plus a bit of another. 24 lbs of copper last time so figure 14 lbs this time. 38 lbs of copper. If the yard calls it #3 copper at $1.20/lb thats ~$45 for the jackets. (copper has gone down since my first batch but it still pays for both tanks)

Combining the numbers from both runs..
216 lbs of lead= 1,512,000 grains @150 grains per round = 10,080 rounds.
Click to expand...
If you set up a wind block to retain some heat and smelt on warmer days you can do 500lbs on one tank. Getting to know your regulator helps also. Theres many things to do to help reduce fuel consumption.
When I did large batch smelting I had some cheap small metal water buckets that i filled with wheel weights and stacked them around the burner. They warmed up nice. I found smelting at night or early morning before the winds pick up to be the best mid 60s to 70’F
I lost my wind block, I might have tossed it a few years ago ? Or scrappers stole it?
 
So I just got done reloading my first batch. I ran 50 through so I could try a handful in different blasters. I had four rounds that didn’t pass the gauge and they seemed to have seated kinda crooked. Another thing I noticed is that my coal was fluctuating from 1.23 to 1.28 when I had it set for 1.25. Titegroup was metering pretty well I was dropping 3.6-3.7. Here is a picture of culled rounds. B2B3C89A-15BC-47FA-85CB-A07182DF21A4.jpeg
 
Mudflap621 said:
So I just got done reloading my first batch. I ran 50 through so I could try a handful in different blasters. I had four rounds that didn’t pass the gauge and they seemed to have seated kinda crooked. Another thing I noticed is that my coal was fluctuating from 1.23 to 1.28 when I had it set for 1.25. Titegroup was metering pretty well I was dropping 3.6-3.7. Here is a picture of culled rounds. View attachment 347239
Click to expand...
I’m going to assume the COAL is a typo as they don’t look that long in the photo [laugh]
1.125 was your target COAL I assume.

Are you expanding the casemouths enough to allow the bullets to remain relatively straight in the case as you seat them? If you don’t expand enough, sometimes the bullets don’t sit in the car far enough to keep them straight. Or it can at least make it more difficult to keep them straight.

You may have to hold onto the bullets as the ram is raised just to ensure they remain fairly straight.

You will get some variation in COAL because of mixed brass, the varying resistance with the press when sizing brass etc, how consistent you are raising the ram etc. Though I don’t get that much variation with 9mm.
 
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If that were a typo, and your cases are within 1.123- 1.128, I wouldn't be concerned.

That could simply be the limit of your measuring tool. Like Andrew said the differing lengths of mixed brass and consistent pulling of the handle can be factors. Won't make any difference in how 9mm blasting ammo works
 
Thanks guys yes that was a typo I’m between 1.123-1.128 and it is mixed brass. I went slow trying to be smooth as possible. Andrew my first thought was I wasn’t belling enough as well. I’ve set it so that projo just barely sits on top of case In my next batch I might try to adjust down a bit and see how that goes.
 
Mudflap621 said:
So I just got done reloading my first batch. I ran 50 through so I could try a handful in different blasters. I had four rounds that didn’t pass the gauge and they seemed to have seated kinda crooked. Another thing I noticed is that my coal was fluctuating from 1.23 to 1.28 when I had it set for 1.25. Titegroup was metering pretty well I was dropping 3.6-3.7. Here is a picture of culled rounds. View attachment 347239
Click to expand...

Is that just a weird camera angle or does the first and far-right cart. look like it has a crinkle in it?
And if it is, is it an AA-USA casing?
 
TrashcanDan said:
Is that just a weird camera angle or does the first and far-right cart. look like it has a crinkle in it?
And if it is, is it an AA-USA casing?
Click to expand...

I don’t really see a crinkle but the bullets definately seated crooked. All cases are once fired by me federal blazer or Speer. Like Andrew suggested I’m going to try to open up my bell a touch more and try that. Everything I read and watched was just barely bell so bullet will start so that’s what I did.
 

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