What did you do in the reloading room recently?

[Reeg]

Feelin' blue. 9mm are new loads so only made a few and will test them before making more. Snake shot loads are .38sp, we have a lot of sneks at my club in PA.

 

[DW357]

I’m starting to load up the rest of my clean 357 mag brass.
At some point I should probably load up some 9mm for this years USPSA/IDPA season. I think I only have a couple thousand loaded.

 

[NavelOfficer]

Nice. Those AP bullets or something?

I believe they are Egyptian bullets; tracers.

Yes, the green tip tracers are Egyptian. The red ones, I also ordered, are Russian apparently.

Whether they will light off or not, who knows. I'll have to get a friend to shoot them off at 150 meters at dusk someday.

 

[mac1911]

Interesting lesson yesterday. Came across a box of 38 in the safe. It was from the first ammo I loaded 10 years ago. It was done on a lee press. I also took a box of 38 that I had just loaded on my Dillon. The old stuff was lead that I had cast with alox lube. The new was xtreem plated. I benched the revolver and fired off the lead rounds. Smokey, stinky and grouped 2” left of center. I then did the same with the new rounds. Grouped dead center, clean and smokeless. Amazing how a little experience and better equipment makes in bullet production.

i get bullet impact shift with just powder changes.
Although alox can be Smokey theres noth wrong with your loads.
How did they group, did you notice any gross deviation of bullet seating depth or anything else the lee press and your less experience might have shown from then to now?

i still love loading up cast 45s with deep lube grooves , pack those grooves with 2500 lube loadup with clays powder and see and smell all that smoke.

 

[38ExtraSpecial]

i get bullet impact shift with just powder changes.
Although alox can be Smokey theres noth wrong with your loads.
How did they group, did you notice any gross deviation of bullet seating depth or anything else the lee press and your less experience might have shown from then to now?

i still love loading up cast 45s with deep lube grooves , pack those grooves with 2500 lube loadup with clays powder and see and smell all that smoke.

You and I are cut from the same cloth. Nothing like the smell of a good Bullet lube with a touch of alox in it. Takes me right back to the first time I ever lube sized a bullet.

 

[DW357]

You and I are cut from the same cloth. Nothing like the smell of a good Bullet lube with a touch of alox in it. Takes me right back to the first time I ever lube sized a bullet.

I was with my old timer (mid 70s) friend at the range yesterday who’s been reloading longer than I’ve been alive. Anyway I was shooting off some 357 mag and said “I love the smell of 2400 powder”. He’s like there’s something wrong with us as I like the smell of 2400 powder too”

 

[NavelOfficer]

i get bullet impact shift with just powder changes.
Although alox can be Smokey theres noth wrong with your loads.
How did they group, did you notice any gross deviation of bullet seating depth or anything else the lee press and your less experience might have shown from then to now?

i still love loading up cast 45s with deep lube grooves , pack those grooves with 2500 lube loadup with clays powder and see and smell all that smoke.

What powder makes you hit the X-ring every shot?

 

[DW357]

Finished off this old can of Hercules 2400.
The bottom of the can had some corrosion and powder bonded to the metal. Bummer I won’t be able to use that powder. Probably enough for 1 or 2 rounds


Just cracked open the last one pound container of 2400. Not looking forward to pouring powder from the 8# jug of 2400 I have

 

[Uzi2]

Feelin' blue. 9mm are new loads so only made a few and will test them before making more. Snake shot loads are .38sp, we have a lot of sneks at my club in PA.

View attachment 437609

That's what I'm talking about !!!! ^^^^^^^^

What size shot did you use?

 

[Klal]

Should I be wearing gloves when working with powder?

 

[xtry51]

Should I be wearing gloves when working with powder?

I never wear gloves when reloading. I always wash my hands after though.

 

[PL-52]

Yup no fingerprints on the brass.

 

[PL-52]

It was a joke , but I do wear blue nitriles to keep any moisture from my fat sweaty hands from contaminating anything.

 

[DW357]

Should I be wearing gloves when working with powder?

I wear a glove on my left hand....since I’m picking up the bullets with my left hand. Right hand no glove. I just do it to limit the lead contamination but I still wash my hands with d lead soap afterwards anyway.

 

[Klal]

I wear a glove on my left hand....since I’m picking up the bullets with my left hand. Right hand no glove. I just do it to limit the lead contamination but I still wash my hands with d lead soap afterwards anyway.

Good call. I always forget about the lead concerns.

 

[Uzi2]

Sized and deprimed 2K of .223/5.56, primed 300 pieces of .223, 150 pieces of .308 and sized and deprimed 1000+- .30 Carbine.

Found ANOTHER 30 gallon bucket of cleaned vacuum bagged once fired brass.....9mm, .40SW and 5.56. That's three so far.

 

[PL-52]

LOL after 60 + years of handling lead .22's and couple zillion copper coated lead, I wonder how much lead I have in my body. That might damn well explain why I can't seem to lose any weight.

 

[xtry51]

LOL after 60 + years of handling lead .22's and couple zillion copper coated lead, I wonder how much lead I have in my body. That might damn well explain why I can't seem to lose any weight.

I dont have that many years, but I have had heavy metal blood testing and I've never had high amounts of lead. I've picked up a lot of lead and I never use any special soaps to wash my hands. Typically I use the bottle of dish soap in the kitchen.

I think our society has really made a bunch of overreacting sissies about lead. Lead paint was literally everywhere and people weren't dropping like flies.

 

[daekken]

I wear gloves and a mask when dumping tumbling media (I prefer to do it outside when possible) and sifting the brass out of it.

Otherwise, just a good handwashing after I am done. I try to keep my face distanced from the deprimed gunk, as well, since I heard the primer grime is nasty stuff.

 

[DW357]

I wear gloves and a mask when dumping tumbling media (I prefer to do it outside when possible) and sifting the brass out of it.

Otherwise, just a good handwashing after I am done. I try to keep my face distanced from the deprimed gunk, as well, since I heard the primer grime is nasty stuff.

Yeah I tumble outside as well. That media is nasty shit when it’s been used for a long time.
But yeah as for as reloading and handling bullets/brass, making sure to wash your hands afterwards is probably sufficient. My preference is just to wear a glove to add another layer of protection. When I’m at the range handling the ammo (especially 22lr) I ain’t wearing nitrile gloves . I just use D Lead wipes when I’m done.

 

[PL-52]

<€—— Well I’m pretty sure I chewed on lead painted window sills as a child too. That could explain a boatload about my charming personality.

 

[Tallahassee]

I usually smoke a cigar while I am tumbling brass, and when I am reloading. The nicotine provides a barrier against lead dust.

 

[PL-52]

Looks like it's time to start loading all that much hated .45 small primer RRRRRRRRRRRRR. I never thought I'd say that EVER. But by at least loading this too gives me more options when my only choice of purchase is small p primers . I haven't seen many CCI LPP pop up anywhere .

 

[kerryman71]

I wear a glove on my left hand....since I’m picking up the bullets with my left hand. Right hand no glove. I just do it to limit the lead contamination but I still wash my hands with d lead soap afterwards anyway.

The Michael Jackson of reloading!!

 

[allen-1]

I just replaced all of the 4' fluorescent shop lights in my garage with 4' LEDs. The difference is dusk and day. Amazing how bright it is in there now.

 

[Reeg]

What size shot did you use?

#9, hits surprisingly hard. Haven't yet found a good way to carry the revolver inside my hips waders though.

 

[p..]

I would like to celebrate this momentous occasion, my first rifle round. Here we have the humble 223, with a 50 grain Hornady Z Max loaded to 2.260" OAL with 24.5 grains of IMR 3031 and a CCI #41 primer from a box of 1000 I bought three presidential elections ago when I thought buying that many primers all at once was crazy and just opened tonight, and Federal 223 brass fired once in the rifle they will be going back into. Putting 10 of them together, will chrono and see how they group, and go from there.

Had a chance to run them through a 1970s era 1 in 12 twist Colt 20" pencil barrel today.

Ran some Lake City M193 through it first for comparison and to get the barrel dirty. Average 3123fps, standard deviation 39fps, extreme spread 94fps.

Next ran my handloads through it. Average 3088fps, standard deviation 30fps, extreme spread 93fps. I'm calling it a 1.6" group per the ruler on my multi tool. Iron sights, 100 yards, prone off a rest. Fun.

 

[xtry51]

Holy shit it must be loud shooting a rifle in that canyon

 

[drgrant]

Looks like it's time to start loading all that much hated .45 small primer RRRRRRRRRRRRR. I never thought I'd say that EVER. But by at least loading this too gives me more options when my only choice of purchase is small p primers . I haven't seen many CCI LPP pop up anywhere .

If you can only purchase SPP thats not the worst problem in the world. A month or so ago those were far harder to get than anything else.

 

[DW357]

The Michael Jackson of reloading!!

That’s right!!